"Every day, they come up with, `It might be this, maybe,'" Adrian Osborne said. "You don't know what to think. I'm not a doctor. But I definitely would rather know."
So doctors and nurses may spend a little more time on the front end, explaining difficult concepts and bringing parents' voices into the conversation, but many say it saves time later on.
Under the traditional system, doctors made decisions about care during morning rounds, but parents often had questions later in the day. That required paging a doctor to clarify what he and colleagues had discussed hours before.
"Now everyone's on the same page before the day gets started," Roman said. "There's that whole piece of playing telephone [tag] that's eliminated, and now everyone's at the same table, so to speak."
If the pilot program goes well, the entire children's center will begin family-centered rounds in July, when a new crop of medical interns arrives. For them, it will be part of the culture from their first day.
On the same morning that doctors saw Ali Barbieri, they gathered outside 21-month-old Drake Matheiny's room. At rounds the day before, doctors said they wanted to draw blood from Drake, who had been admitted for surgery to ease swelling in his brain that was caused by a malformation. His mother, Ashley, requested they hold off a day. "He's been through so much," she told them.
On this morning, they decide that their concerns about the boy's sodium levels have been alleviated, so there's no need to draw blood. "He's a much more well-looking child," medical student Kelly Burke reports to the rest of the group.
They discuss his coming release, asking Ashley Matheiny a few questions about her son's medications. And the meeting is soon over.
Matheiny said she appreciates having the chance to ask questions - and having a role in deciding how her son is treated. Mother and child have spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital since Drake's birth, and she has often felt powerless. Now, she says, it's nice to be consulted.
"You're the best doctor for your child," she said.
She was reminded of the angst of going home to York, Pa., after an earlier hospital stay, soon after a shunt was implanted in Drake's skull to drain excess fluid from his brain. She didn't know exactly what was wrong - but she knew "something's just up."
She rushed her 10-month-old back to Hopkins, where it was found that the shunt was draining too much fluid, a problem that's difficult to spot with standard tests.
"You just have gut feelings when something's not right," she said.
stephanie.desmon@baltsun.com
