A meeting of representatives from some of the nation’s top children’s hospitals assembled at MUSC in late March to discuss practice opportunities for pediatric oncology and bone marrow transplant populations.

About 30 national health care professionals gathered on the MUSC campus and the Marriott’s Downtown Riverview Courtyard Hotel to participate in an activity of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI). The Children’s Hospital at MUSC hosted this meeting which included nurses, physicians, administrative and financial personnel.

NACHRI represents a collective body of 152 children’s hospitals, large pediatric units of medical centers and related organizations who specialize in acute rehabilitative and long-term care of children with serious chronic or congenital illnesses.

“This is the second year our focus group has had the opportunity to gather and discuss issues in pediatric hematology and oncology work,” said Carolyn Viall, MUSC pediatric nursing manager.

“The goal of this focus group is to develop benchmarks for standards and practice guidelines for bone marrow transplant procedures,” said Joseph Laver, M.D., MUSC director of pediatric hematology and oncology. “It’s a very good collaboration between nursing professionals and physicians whose focus is to improve quality care standards using the right resources in today’s market.”

The Charleston meeting was the second in a series of three meetings in 1998. The group covered an active agenda tackling specific health care issues regarding children with cancer.

NACHRI has continually been involved in seeking improvements to patient care by promoting a forum for hospitals to share practice patterns in a number of areas including neonatal, pediatric intensive care units (PICU) and ambulatory services said Gregory Frongello, NACHRI director for consulting services.

Since 1994, MUSC has actively participated in other NACHRI patient care focus groups including the medical surgical PICU, neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and infection control groups.