Speare Memorial Hospital and Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) have jointly agreed to transition Plymouth Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine from D-H to Speare in April 2017.

“Speare has been working with Dartmouth-Hitchcock for several months to ensure the greater Plymouth community continues to have access to high-quality, comprehensive care for our newborns, children, and adolescents,” says Michelle McEwen, President & CEO of Speare.

The discussions were spurred by recent retirements and changes in the medical providers at the practice, which potentially impacted D-H’s ability to continue to provide inpatient newborn care at Speare.

“Speare has a highly regarded obstetrics program that would have been put in jeopardy without the support of local pediatricians,” says McEwen. “We are committed to serving the many young families who want to deliver their babies at Speare and have local care thereafter. We have already assembled a great team of pediatric providers to continue serving our communities’ children, from infancy to adulthood.”

The transition to Speare offers a number of opportunities, such as enhanced communications, care coordination, and collaboration.  One of the early benefits will be the transition to the same electronic health record as Speare, providing the medical practitioners at Plymouth Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine with the entire clinical view of their patients.  D-H will continue to provide specialty pediatric services offered by Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (CHaD) as needed.

 “Our community has been well served by the Plymouth Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine practice for the past 35 years under Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s leadership,” says McEwen. “The leadership at Speare is committed to continuing their legacy of delivering high quality and accessible patient-centered care.”

Medical providers at Plymouth Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine will include Drs. Eric Shamansky, Nancy Crocker, David Cunis, Kermit Brunelle and Wilma Hyde, APRN, Gabrielle Gray, APRN. Dr. Oliver Salmon and Ashley Francis, APRN will join the practice in the upcoming months.