Healthy Kids, Healthy Future

A Few Minutes with Dr. David Bailey, CEO of Nemours

From left to right - Dr. David Bailey, CEO of Nemours, with Dr. Bill Deitz of the CDC

From left to right - Dr. David Bailey, CEO of Nemours, with Dr. Bill Dietz of the CDC. Debbie Chang, VP of Policy and Prevention, Nemours, in background.

Nemours CEO David Bailey, MD, MBA, talks about why Nemours is making the investment in early childhood health promotion.

With so many other issues at stake in health care and health reform, why convene this meeting of experts on early childhood and obesity prevention?

First of all, Nemours is invested in prevention services for children. Six years ago, we changed our mission statement to reflect the pursuit of optimal health for all children, in addition to excellence in health care and treatment. Since launching the division that focuses on population health, Nemours Health and Prevention Services, we’ve always had child care as one of four pillars of our prevention strategy.

If we can reach kids at home and in their communities, in school, in their doctor’s office, and in child care, we can provide a surround sound approach that significantly improves the chance that kids will grow up healthy.

We’ve found that when it comes to health promotion and obesity prevention, not as much attention is being paid to child care as it is to other areas, such as schools, transportation and mobility, land use, food labeling and marketing, etc. So along with our colleagues at CDC, RWJ Foundation, and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, we decided to create a forum where leading edge people in child care quality and obesity prevention at the state and national levels could get together and learn from each other and identify promising practices to move the field of child health promotion forward.

What was the most important outcome of this meeting?

I think the attendance and recognition by Secretary Vilsack about the importance of early nutrition and health promotion; the face-to-face dialogue among the experts; the examples of successful programs from the states that were presented; and the emphasis on health as a part of high quality child care that can be tied to states’ quality rating systems and incentives. This means setting limits and rules for foods and beverages and balancing active time and sedentary time. In other words, when child care does a good job of not only teaching, nurturing and ensuring kids’ safety, but also of addressing nutrition and fitness for young children, they should be recognized and rewarded for it.

It’s interesting that Nemours, a children’s health system based in Delaware and Florida, has this national agenda. It seems unusual – is it?

Completely. In fact, Nemours is the only children’s health network, to our knowledge, that is working to effect change at the population level and is lobbying in the interests of kids everywhere, not just their constituents. As Congress works to reform our health system, there is an opportunity to focus on wellness and establish a funding stream for disease prevention and health promotion, especially when those services are linked to traditional health care services. This ensures that the systems of care and all the practitioners who care for children are coordinated in supporting the health of kids and their families. Nemours is a pioneering example of an integrated health care organization that links community-based prevention with clinical care.