Hospitalists
Pediatric hospitalists focus exclusively on taking care of children during their hospital stays, including babies born at the hospital. This specialization benefits kids and their families in several ways.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, emerging data show that pediatric hospitalist programs, like their counterparts for adults, provide high-quality medical outcomes, decreased lengths of stay and lower costs—all while maintaining patient and referring physician satisfaction.
At Stony Brook Children's, our hospitalists offer extensive clinical experience and expertise in the care and management of hospitalized children, a commitment to patient- and family-centered care, and all-day availability to patients and families. Our hospitalists are also up-to-date on the most recent patient care strategies.
Stony Brook Children's pediatric hospitalist program was established in 2005. Patients are referred to our hospitalists' care by Stony Brook primary care physicians, private pediatricians within the community and other pediatric subspecialists. The hospitalists maintain communication among physicians during the child's stay at Stony Brook Children's and give referring physicians the information they need to continue care after the child is discharged.
Services
Stony Brook's pediatric hospitalists provide care for children from infancy through adolescence with a wide range of conditions that require inpatient hospitalization.
Some children are hospitalized for common pediatric conditions, such as pneumonia or dehydration, and others have chronic or complex medical conditions, some of which require frequent or prolonged stays.
The pediatric hospitalist team also manages infants in the newborn nursery. While most of the newborns are healthy, many are born to mothers with complex medical conditions. The team has expertise in treating babies with neonatal abstinence syndrome and babies who are premature but do not require management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
For many parents, having a child admitted to the hospital is stressful and frightening. For this reason, the pediatric hospitalists at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital practice a patient and family-centered approach. Families are included in morning rounds, discussions and care plan meetings. Daily hospital rounds are conducted at the bedside with the patient and family, along with nurses, pharmacists, social workers and Child Life Specialists.
Pediatric hospitalists at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital provide expert oversight for medical students and resident physicians. As educators, our team must remain up to date on the latest evidence and medical treatments.
As inpatient specialists, pediatric hospitalists have expertise and experience treating children with rare conditions and provide multidisciplinary, coordinated care with other specialists, including pediatric subspecialists, surgeons, radiologists, social workers, physical therapists and speech therapists.
Our Team
All of our hospitalists function as attending pediatricians for general pediatrics and in the newborn nursery. Our hospitalists also provide medical care for pediatric patients at several community group homes and long-term care facilities.
Learn more about our team members by clicking on their names:
Dr. Maribeth Chitkara is a board-certified pediatric hospitalist and division chief of Pediatric Hospital Medicine. She also serves as the medical director of the pediatric acute care unit, participating in multiple initiatives to ensure the quality of care for pediatric inpatients at Stony Brook Children's. Additionally, Dr. Chitkara is the director of medical student education in pediatrics, overseeing all of the educational activities for the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University medical students as they rotate within the Department of Pediatrics. Her academic interests include the development and implementation of novel educational strategies for graduate medical education.
Dr. Josette Bianchi-Hayes is a board-certified pediatrician and a board-certified hospitalist. She worked as a community pediatrician before joining Stony Brook in 2012 as a pediatric hospitalist. Dr. Bianchi-Hayes provides care to newborns on our mother-baby unit and to children of all ages on our pediatric inpatient unit who are hospitalized with a wide variety of conditions, ranging from severe complications of common diseases to rare and chronic medical conditions. Dr. Bianchi-Hayes' research pursuits include the use of technology to support childhood health, the effect of increased weight status on childhood asthma, and healthcare unitization.
Dr. Rachel Boykan is a board-certified hospitalist. She provides care to children of all ages on our pediatric inpatient unit who are hospitalized with a wide variety of conditions, as well as to our newborns on our mother-baby unit. Dr. Boykan is also the Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Residency Program at Stony Brook Children's.
Dr. Boykan's research interests include addressing secondhand tobacco smoke in hospitalized children, e-cigarette/vaping product use in adolescents, and resident education. In 2012, she spearheaded a partnership between Stony Brook Children's and the New York State Smokers' Quitline Opt-to-QuitTM Program, the first implementation of this electronic referral program at a children's hospital. Dr. Boykan works closely with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to address smoking exposure in children and the use of electronic cigarettes in teenagers.
Dr. Candice Foy is dedicated to the care and treatment of hospitalized children, including children with complex medical conditions. Additionally, she focuses on patient safety and quality improvement, with the continued goal of developing innovative solutions to improve patient experiences.
Dr. Mariann C. Jacob is a board-certified pediatrician and a board-certified pediatric hospitalist. She has worked as a community hospitalist and at other academic institutions prior to joining Stony Brook in 2024. She provides care to children in the inpatient pediatric unit as well as infants during their birth hospitalization. She has an interest in innovating medical student and resident education and has graduated from the AAP’s APEX program. Dr. Jacob values family-centered rounds and strives to ensure that both the patient and family understand the disease process and the necessary treatment for each child.
Dr. Merissa Rzonca is a board-certified pediatrician who provides care to newborns and children of all ages who are hospitalized for various illnesses. Before joining Stony Brook in 2024 she worked in academic hospital medicine for 7 years, briefly in primary care, and in urgent care for 13 years providing acute care to pediatric patient in the outpatient setting, developing emergency preparedness curriculums and policies for outpatient settings, teaching BLS and PALS, and working as a Laboratory and Medical Director. Dr. Rzonca’s interests are in simulation medicine, hands-on, didactic and innovative teaching for medical students and residents.
Dr. Lisa Wilks-Gallo has been practicing as a pediatrician since 2006 and is board-certified in both General Pediatrics and Pediatric Hospital Medicine. She specializes in the care of hospitalized children from birth through young adulthood, care of newborns immediately after birth, care of technology-dependent and medically complex children, and coordination of care.
Dr. Wilks-Gallo has an interest in medical ethics and is a member of the Stony Brook Medicine Ethics Consult Service Team. Dr. Wilks-Gallo's research interests include all areas of inpatient pediatric and newborn medicine, with a particular focus on communication in medicine and medical ethics.
Locations
To reach the hospitalist program, call (631) 444-7692.
Patient Resources
Our goal is to ensure your child feels comfortable and cared for during hospitalization. Our Child Life Program can help reduce the stress that pediatric patients and their families may experience when faced with illness, medical procedures and unfamiliar surroundings.
The Child Life Program offers children an opportunity to engage in everyday childhood activities to help minimize anxiety. The program provides therapeutic, educational, and recreational activities to meet children's unique emotional and developmental needs during their hospital stays.
Among our resources are support with well-baby care and breastfeeding, including access to certified lactation consultants, the Ronald McDonald Family Room, access to Social Work Case Managers and more.
Additional information about Child Life.
Research and Education
In addition to overseeing patient care, our hospitalists teach medical residents, interns, and students in conjunction with the Stony Brook School of Medicine. The hospitalist team also leads patient-centered care and quality improvement initiatives on behalf of the medical center.
Advances and Recognitions
Stony Brook University Hospital has an exceptionally strong quality management program with excellent infrastructure and systems for monitoring and improving quality outcomes in patient care.
Stony Brook Children’s is a member of Solutions for Patients Safety, a national organization focused on ensuring that children receive safe care and zero harm while in a hospital’s care. This organization has helped reduce in-hospital infections, medication errors, injuries from falls and immobility, and 7-day readmission rates.
Each pediatric hospitalist in our division participates in initiatives to improve the overall quality of care delivered at Stony Brook Children's.
Definitions
The attending physician is the doctor who is responsible for a patient during a particular time (like hospitalization) or regarding a particular therapy or treatment.
An internship is a year of training in a hospital following graduation from medical school and is a precursor to residency.
A physician who has finished medical school and an internship goes on to receive training in a specialized area. Board certification in all medical and surgical specialties requires the successful completion of a residency program.
Rounding is the act of visiting patients in a hospital setting. In medical education, rounding provides an opportunity to sharpen clinical reasoning through the discussion of the patient's case with an experienced physician or faculty member.
