Celebrating 45 Years of Pediatrics Northwest!

It is impossible to understand Pediatrics Northwest, founded in 1980, without understanding the story of our founders, Drs. George Tanbara and Lawrence Larson. Dr. Larson continues to serve families as a Pediatric Allergist/Immunologist at Pediatrics Northwest, a service he began.

Dr. Larson said in 2017, “We all know how to take care of patients, we were trained to do so, but George taught us how to take care of a community”.  Dr. Tanbara’s incredible personal story and his vision are linked below.

https://nwasianweekly.com/2010/09/japanese-pediatrician-advocates-for-poor-in-his-community/

https://www.historylink.org/file/20721

Pediatrics Northwest has a rich history of being an Innovation Hub from the founding of the practice:

• Most subspecialty pediatric care in Pierce County originated at Pediatrics Northwest (hematology oncology, neurology, endocrinology, developmental pediatrics, gastroenterology, allergy, immunology, pulmonology, physiatry, and lactation- the latter in 1989!)
• Pediatrics Northwest adopted the Electronic Health Record (Epic) in 2001, the first in our community
• Reach Out and Read (ROR) was implemented in 2001, and 250K books have been distributed since; we have been a pilot practice for ROR Beginning at Birth
• Pediatrics Northwest and HopeSparks Family Services partnered to create pediatric behavioral health integration in 2018. Pediatric Collaborative Care has been going strong since March 2020
• Pediatrics Northwest was an early leader in the state for developmental screening and referral (created referral feedback form, now used by many others), perinatal mood disorder screening, and appropriate referrals since 2018
• Community Health Worker team started summer of 2022 and continues to accompany families served at Pediatrics Northwest. This relational team is focused on needs expressed by families with newborns to age five and mental health concerns, whether for parents post-birth or for their children from newborn to young adult.
• Steadfast Administrative leadership and support for continued innovation, grounded in a firm understanding of the merits of the ‘right resources at the right time, in real time’

Pediatrics Northwest prioritizes and maintains strong community partnerships:

• Dr. Tanbara and two venerable community leaders co-founded Community Health Care in recognition that while all kids could have a medical home in our region, there was no such place for their parents and other underinsured or low-income adults. CHC now has 7 clinics and is insurance agnostic, a thriving Federally Qualified Health Clinic system.
• HopeSparks Family Services, founded in Pierce County in 1895. Pediatrics Northwest and HopeSparks have been interconnected for over 40 years, never more so than in the past 7 years. Our two organizations came together to create the pioneering Bridge of Hope: Behavioral Health Integration at the pediatric medical home (Pediatric Collaborative Care Model) serving families and kids/youth ages 3-young adult with mild to moderate anxiety, low mood and behavior concerns, having served over 3000 families since 2020. A paper has been published showing the effectiveness of this model.
• First 5 Fundamentals Pierce County: Pediatrics Northwest works routinely with and supports the Pierce County Early Childhood Network; staff and clinicians are charter members of the Health Provider Outreach Committee and the Steering/Leadership Subcommittee of the Health Provider Outreach Committee
• Clinicians and leadership serve on the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics Learning Collaboratives and Steering Committees: Perinatal Mood Disorder Screening, Pediatric Behavioral Health Integration, Community Health Workers in Pediatric Primary Care, Relational Health Implementation in Pediatric Primary Care, the Early Childhood Committee, the Health Care Transformation Committee and others.
• Pediatricians and Pediatrics Northwest Administration and staff have served and continue to serve on several nonprofit boards in our communities and volunteer in many ways.

Pediatrics Northwest stands behind the importance of the Primary Care Pediatric Medical Home:

• Continuity of care
• Accompaniment
• You are known
• Family-based model
• Community as the centering place

We make every effort to reimagine what pediatric primary care can look like:

• Strength-based focus
• Onus is on us to connect families
• Co-design with the families we serve
• Team-based care
• Universal screening of developmental and mental health concerns leading to early identification and addressing concerns early

We are now the inheritors of this powerful story of our founding and way of being in community- following Dr. Tanbara’s example of humility and servant leadership.

Cheers to 45 years! Thank you for allowing us to serve this incredible community!  

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete” R. Buckminster Fuller

“Each interaction is an opportunity for you to make parents and children feel heard, appreciated and understood.” Jeree Paul, Amy L. Donbro