By Community Impact Newspaper Staff Tuesday, 01 June 2010

WILLIAMSON COUNTY — The Seton Family of Hospitals will provide more than $3 million in grants to sponsor a regional pediatric primary care network in partnership with Lone Star Circle of Care, allowing two new pediatric clinics to open this summer in Cedar Park and Hutto. Three existing LSCC pediatric clinics in Round Rock and Georgetown will have their names changed to Dell Children’s – Circle of Care Pediatrics.

The network will establish clinics that are linked to pediatric specialists, subspecialists and Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. The goal of the partnership is to provide greater access to health care for underserved children in Williamson County.

In total, the five Williamson County clinics will be able to serve up to 40,000 children each year, Lone Star Circle of Care CEO Pete Perialas Jr. said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

“Starting with the two new clinics located in Cedar Park and Hutto, these most recent grants are part of a broader plan to establish additional pediatric clinics throughout Central Texas over the next several years,” said Mark Hazelwood, president and CEO of Seton’s north market, in a written statement.

Earlier this year, LSCC opened a clinical hub in the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Round Rock, located near Seton Medical Center Williamson. The facility includes six health clinics operated by LSCC and sponsored by Seton. The clinics provide primary health care and preventative services with special regard for uninsured and underinsured patients.

In the past two years, Seton has awarded grants totaling more than $5 million to Lone Star Circle of Care for the development of clinics in Central Texas. To reflect the collaboration between Seton and LSCC, the non-pediatric clinics at the Texas A&M Health Science Center and A.W. Grimes Medical Offices—an LSCC family practice clinic in Round Rock—will also have the Seton – Circle of Care brand.