Rick Barr, M.D.
New leadership set for Pediatric Critical Care
Neal Patel, M.D.
Mary Taylor, M.D.
New leadership has been named in the Pediatric Critical Care Unit after the former medical director of the unit, Kevin Churchwell, M.D., was appointed chief of staff/associate medical director for the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt last month.
Rick Barr, M.D., associate professor of Pediatrics and Anesthesiology, and Neal Patel, M.D., assistant professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology and Biomedical Informatics, have been named medical co-directors of the Pediatric Critical Care Unit. They join Mary Taylor, M.D., who serves as the director of Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Services.
“There has been a growing need to ensure the patient population is taken care of appropriately, thus requiring a shared responsibility,” said Jayant K. Deshpande, M.D., director of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care and medical director of VCH Performance Management & Improvement. “The medical co-directors will oversee the operations of the unit, and they are both excellent clinicians who work extremely well together as a team.”
Barr, who joined Vanderbilt in 1995, is also medical director of Pediatric Respiratory Care. He received his medical degree from the University of Virginia. He completed his residency at Vanderbilt and his Pediatric Critical Care Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco and Oakland Children's Hospital.
Patel joined the faculty in 1997. He received his medical degree from the University of Southern California in 1991. He did his internship, general pediatric residency and fellowship training at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
“Rick, Neal and Mary have been part of the Pediatric Critical Care Unit leadership group with Kevin Churchwell and me for several years,” Deshpande said. “They were working behind the scenes but have been key to running the program.”
Taylor earned her medical degree from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1991. She completed her pediatric residency at Vanderbilt, as well as a fellowship in Pediatric Cardiology and Pediatric Critical Care. She completed additional training in pediatric cardiac critical care at Children's Hospital Boston. She joined the faculty in 1999.
“We are a multi-specialty unit, and have focused our efforts in providing excellent critical care, including for patients before and after surgery. We have a strong and growing cardiac surgery program. Mary is the point person for the Pediatric Cardiac Critical Care Services,” Deshpande said. “In this role she works closely with pediatric cardiology and the pediatric cardiac surgeons, as well with the cardiac anesthesia group. Also absolutely essential to providing the highest quality of care are the PCCU nurses led by Vickie Thompson and three assistant nurse managers; Kristen Denmon, Lori Rogers and Jennifer Miller. We have a rock solid team.”