Provider News

Seattle Children’s Heart Center Welcomes Six New Cardiologists in the South Sound

August 7, 2024

We are excited to share that on September 1, 2024, Seattle Children’s Heart Center will welcome six new pediatric cardiologists – Drs. Jennie Allen-Rich, Christopher Bellotti, Roshan D’Souza, Kimberly Krabill, Joan Lee and Matthew Park. These providers bring decades of combined experience in pediatric and fetal cardiology to Seattle Children’s. Like our existing Heart Center team, these new physicians will work closely with their patients and community providers to provide the best and safest care. 

With these new team members, Seattle Children’s Heart Center increases its expertise and enhances its capabilities and capacity to deliver the highest-quality cardiac care to patients and families in the Pacific Northwest. 

We recognize that many of our community providers may have patients impacted by this transfer. If your patients choose to maintain care with their current cardiologist by transferring their care to Seattle Children’s, we wanted to share information about how we will ensure care continuity and support their transfer for your own peace of mind, and in case they ask for your support.

Transfer of Care

To help support the transfer of care, we have set up a dedicated website for patients, families, and community providers to access, which will house the latest information and instructions on transferring care. We have also established a dedicated transfer line at 206-884-3030 that will go live on August 12. 

Families that would like to transfer their cardiology care to Seattle Children’s should call our dedicated transfer line at 206-884-3030 (starting August 12), Monday – Friday between 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. to initiate the process, including scheduling needed appointments and transferring medical records. In most cases, we will not require a referral from their PCP. If the patient’s insurance requires a referral, we will reach out to their PCP’s office directly. Seattle Children’s will work with the family to request records from their previous office for continuity of care.

Urgent Cardiac Needs During Transfer

As always, if the patient is having a medical emergency, they should go directly to their local emergency department.

As of September 1, if a patient has an urgent question for their cardiologist, they can call us at 206-884-3030 Monday – Friday between 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. for guidance based on where they are in the process of transferring care. We are holding “Just in Time” visit slots for urgent needs as patients work to transfer care to Seattle Children’s. After hours, they should call the hospital operator and request to speak to the on-call cardiologist for guidance. It’s important to note that if a patient has not transferred care, they will need to follow their current office’s process or may be directed to come to the emergency room for evaluation.  

For community providers, the Seattle Children's Provider-to-Provider line remains an option for the Heart Center. During business hours, call 206-987-7777 for urgent or non-urgent clinical questions. For urgent clinical questions after hours, please call the operator at 206-987-2000 and ask to have the on-call cardiologist paged. Please be advised we cannot provide guidance until patients have transferred care and we have received their medical records.

Why Seattle Children’s?

Seattle Children’s currently has the only pediatric Heart Surgery and Heart Failure Programs in Western Washington. The team at Seattle Children’s Heart Center has more advanced training and experience caring for children with heart problems than any other children’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest. The Heart Center team partners with patient families to create personalized care plans focused on delivering the best possible outcomes so that our patients can live a full and active life.

Seattle Children’s Heart Center has consistently been recognized as one of the best heart surgery and pediatric cardiology programs by U.S. News & World Report since it began ranking medical centers more than 30 years ago. Our outcomes are amongst the best in the nation, including:

  • A 99.5% accuracy rate of prenatal diagnosis of heart conditions, some identified as early as 14 weeks
  • 500+ pediatric heart surgeries performed each year (more than any other group of providers in the Pacific Northwest)
  • 850+ procedures completed each year in our cardiac catheterization lab
  • 4% three-year patient survival rate for heart transplants (8% higher than the national average)

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