If the bill passes the Senate, Columbus Children’s Hospital stands to gain close to $9 million for physician training to ensure that the community’s pediatricians and pediatric specialists can meet the unique health care needs of children.

“By supporting training, the federal investment in graduate medical education has allowed Children’s to move forward with several breakthrough initiatives that are establishing it as one of the nation’s leading pediatric care and research centers,” said Thomas N. Hansen, MD, CEO, of Columbus Children’s Hospital .

“We are fortunate to have the leadership of Franklin County’s Congresswoman Deborah Pryce in helping to bring together the support of Congress and the President on behalf of children’s hospitals and their young patients. Obtaining level funding in the House for graduate medical education for children’s hospitals in the midst of an extremely tight budget speaks to the importance of specially trained pediatricians and pediatric specialists who receive their training at children’s hospitals,” said Morna Smith, Ph.D., Director of Government Relations of Columbus Children’s Hospital.

U.S. Representatives Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) and Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) were instrumental in garnering the bipartisan support of their colleagues nationwide. As chairman of the House Labor, Health & Human Services Appropriations Sub-Committee, Congressman Ralph Regula’s (R-Canton) leadership has been critical in fully funding the program for the fourth consecutive year at a level equitable to what adult hospitals receive.

Additional Franklin County area U.S. Representatives Pat Tiberi (R-Westerville) and Dave Hobson (R-Springfield) made graduate medical education funding a priority again this year. All members of Ohio’s congressional delegation supported full funding for children’s hospitals graduate medical education, including Representatives Bob Ney (R-St. Clairsville), Mike Oxley (R- Findlay), and Ted Strickland (D-Lisbon).

In November 1999, the U.S. Congress authorized the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education program to eliminate the historical inequity that denied independent children’s hospitals the federal graduate medical education funding that other teaching hospitals received for years. Since then, the program has helped children’s hospitals across the country continue to train pediatric medical professionals and provide high quality care to all children.