The most distinctive medical facility in the Tampa Bay region is about to extend its outreach, and this can only be good for children. Just imagine: A child, any child, can walk through the door of a community hospital on either side of the bay and be assured that, whether the need is a Tylenol or a kidney transplant, he or she will receive some of the finest pediatric medical treatment in the nation.

This is to be the All Children's Health System, and, for it, we may all come some day to celebrate the shared medical vision of All Children's Hospital president Dennis Sexton and BayCare Health System president Frank Murphy. These two men were able to cut through decades of pointless territorial skirmish over children's medical care in this region and sign a letter of intent that holds enormous promise. It joins All Children's in St. Petersburg with Tampa Children's Hospital and with all the pediatric operations of the rest of the BayCare hospitals.

Says Sexton: "It will enable us to integrate our children's health care efforts into a regional approach that will make high-quality pediatric care more accessible to kids and parents throughout west central Florida." Says Michael Aubin, chief operating officer of Tampa Children's: "Community leaders have wanted a more coordinated, regional approach to pediatric care for years. This is it."

All Children's is a 216-bed teaching hospital that was founded in 1926 and has received national acclaim for many of its programs, including heart, bone marrow and kidney transplants, and pediatric cancer, immunology and cardiovascular surgery. It has more than 140 pediatric specialists and is linked with the University of South Florida College of Medicine and engages in advanced research in the field.

What makes All Children's difficult to sustain is that its cost of care, especially in acute cases, can be extraordinarily high. Children, for example, require closer monitoring, more nursing care, and highly specialized equipment. As such, the highest level of care can be maintained only through a broad regional base of patients. That doesn't mean that all the children can or should be sent to All Children's. It means only that a comprehensive regional child care system would be in a better position to eliminate unnecessary duplication and to send each child to the appropriate facility depending on the medical need.

The details are yet to be determined, but the approach is long overdue. The only disconcerting part about it for St. Petersburg residents is that Bayfront Medical Center, which is joined by a tunnel to All Children's, is being dropped from the BayCare alliance because of questions raised by the St. Petersburg City Council about religious entanglement and may not be able to take full advantage. Sexton assures that he will continue to work cooperatively with Bayfront, and Bayfront executives would be wise to follow through.

Like other health care alliances formed in the region and the nation over the past decade, the All Children's system should allow the member hospitals to save some money through consolidation of services. But, to their credit, Sexton and Murphy say this not just about money. The BayCare facilities are, after all, community hospitals that don't derive a corporate profit, and they are run by community boards that should be putting public health first.

"The measurement of success for this is going to be how we improve the health status of kids," says Sexton. "When you look around at why we all are in this, it comes down to one thing: What's best for kids? . . . This is the right thing to do for kids."

Indeed. Children don't get sick as often as adults, but when they do the dangers can be great. What parent wouldn't want the best? What parent wouldn't want what a regional All Children's can provide?

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