A Year in Review: Carilion Children’s Tanglewood Center

Carilion Children’s Tanglewood Center officially opened its doors in early October 2021, serving as a one-stop specialty clinic. After one year in operation, it has proven to be a success in a variety of ways and has made a positive impact on our patients and our community.

In the first year, there have been over 107,000 patient visits (an average of 640 a month), which exceeded expectations by 15% and returned practices to 98% of pre-pandemic volumes!

“It takes a team to keep the trains running at Tanglewood, and every single person here plays an important part," said Christopher Pierce, M.D., interim chair for Pediatrics. "We are thrilled with the success of Tanglewood after one year and the many benefits it brings our patients, families and the community.”

Convenience Is Key 

The design of the Tanglewood Center is meant to make scheduling and collaboration among providers easy. There has been plenty of behind-the-scenes work to make visits an enjoyable experience for patients and families, including: 

• Creation of a passport process for patients who have multiple visits with pediatric specialists in one day. Patients and families receive an appointment itinerary, and dedicated staff escort them to and from each appointment. At the end of their appointments, the patient picks a prize from a treasure box. A link to an example of the passport can be found at the bottom of this article.
   
• Offering Saturday and Sunday as well as weekday evening hours for general pediatrics for sick visits. Patients are instructed to call their primary pediatric office during normal business hours and the Tanglewood phone number during after-hours and on the weekend to schedule an appointment. 

Smooth Operations 

Many new services have been implemented on-site to make sure that operations are safe and effective for patients, including:

• A Guest Services team that greets patients and families, gives directions, helps with wheelchairs, unloads medical equipment and more. This team makes patients and families feel welcome and is instrumental in the overall success of the center. 
   
• A centralized process that allows patients to check in at the main entrance (exceptions are therapies, pediatric dental and adolescent medicine); after check in, Guest Services directs patients and families to the appropriate waiting area for their appointment. This new workflow has been effective at decreasing wait times. 

• On-site security to make sure employees, patients and families are safe. This team is part of the Carilion Police Department and they are available during all business hours to monitor to the facility, grounds and surrounding areas and help patients and staff with escorts, wayfinding and more.
   
• An on-site Materials Management team to handle all deliveries and make sure that supplies are stocked. Previously, clinics stocked supplies themselves; having this team on-site saves time as they navigate deliveries and warehouse needs. A great example is how they make sure temperature-sensitive vaccines are delivered on time. 
   
• An on-site TSG Field Services specialist to assist with technology issues and to make sure equipment is working properly. This specialist handles all Edison tickets for Tanglewood and helps with things like computer, printer, phone and other IT issues, and resolves them in a timely manner. 
   
• On-site Maintenance support to make sure the facility is fully operational. This team knows the ins and outs of the facility and completes repairs, makes sure alarms and safety measures are functioning properly, and completes many other important tasks. 

Centralized Care 

A lot of planning went in to determining what services would be most helpful to have at the all-in-one Tanglewood space. That lead to some additional patient care changes to improve the patient experience, including:

• An on-site lab and on-site X-rays means patients no longer need to travel off-site to have this work done. We also have pediatric phlebotomists who are experts in obtaining labs from children specifically.
   
• An outpatient child life specialist to complement the inpatient child life services that have been in place for several years. These expanded services make a big impact in improving the overall patient experience. Our certified child life specialists are trained to help children, adolescents and families understand illnesses, necessary treatment plans and hospitalization (if needed). They promote the necessary strategies of coping though play, self-expressive activities, age-appropriate medical preparation and education.

"All of these services and operational improvements are not unique to Tanglewood, as many are available to the Carilion system; what makes a difference is having them on-site to make sure the facility is operating efficiently and needs are addressed," said Patrick Randolph, special projects director for Carilion Children's. "It has been great to see everyone working together at Tanglewood toward the same goal." 

Thank you to all for your contributions in making Carilion Children’s Tanglewood Center a success! If you have questions, contact Patrick Randolph, Pediatrics, at pmrandolph@carilionclinic.org.