WVU Medicine Children's adds medical director for Pediatric Emergency Department

Please join us in welcoming Julie Phillips, MD, as the inaugural medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at WVU Medicine Children’s. Dr. Phillips will also serve as division director for Pediatric Emergency Medicine within the Department of Emergency Medicine and will lead the educational and operational missions of the division. She is expected to begin her new duties in October.

Phillips is a native West Virginian and 2007 graduate of the WVU School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of Connecticut and fellowship in pediatric emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University. She was born in Kopperston, W.Va. (Wyoming County), and grew up in Cool Ridge, W.Va. (Raleigh County).

She currently serves as an attending physician in the Pediatric Emergency Department at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington. Prior to her move to Washington, she served as attending physician and associate medical director of the Children’s Hospital Emergency Room at Lehigh Valley Medical Center in Allentown, Pa.

"The opportunity to build a Pediatric Emergency Department is an exciting challenge," Phillips said. “Coming home to serve the children of the state that raised me makes this the ideal job for me. I am honored to be a part of such an exciting chapter at West Virginia University Department of Emergency Medicine.”

Phillips comes from a line of Mountaineers, with both parents and her older sister graduating from WVU.

“We are excited that Julie and her family have chosen to come home to West Virginia,” Christopher S. Goode, MD, FACEP, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine and assistant vice president, WVU Medicine Emergency Medicine said.

“Her training and operational experience will be invaluable as we build our new Children’s Emergency Department. Her passion for education will benefit all the learners across health sciences and pave a path for the future of pediatric acute care. She is the cornerstone to our new Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and will work with the Department of Emergency Medicine, Children’s Hospital, and Health System Leadership to build a network of quality care reaching far outside of Morgantown.”

“This is really fantastic,” added Charles J. Mullett , MD, PhD, chair of the WVU Department of Pediatrics. “Dr. Phillips is bringing home tons of experience with sick and injured kids and will get our pediatric emergency department off to a great start.”

The addition of Phillips adds another key component to care at WVU Medicine Children’s. The hospital recently named Sabah Servaes, MD to lead its pediatric radiology efforts and Federico G. Seifarth, MD, FAAP, FACS, as its new surgeon-in-chief. Also, WVU Medicine Children’s has added a second team to its Critical Care Transport Teams to meet the demand of the state and surrounding areas. The teams provide a state-of-the-art mobile intensive care unit for transport of critically ill patients to WVU Medicine Children’s in Morgantown. The service is available 24/7 and is the only one of its kind in northern West Virginia dedicated exclusively to the transfer of children ranging in age from newborn to 18 years, as well as expectant mothers.

A new, 10-story Children’s Hospital will open in 2021 as an addition to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital.

“We’re very excited about Dr. Phillips coming home to be the first-ever medical director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at WVU Medicine Children’s and equally excited about the team we are assembling to care for women and children of the region,” Amy Bush-Marone, COO of WVU Medicine Children’s, said.

“Like the building of our new facility, we continue to add to the foundation of our quality care with outstanding providers, leaders and services.”

Sincerely,

Christopher S. Goode, MD, FACEP
Chairman, Department of Emergency Medicine

Charles Mullett, MD, PhD
Chairman, Department of Pediatrics

Amy Bush-Marone
COO, WVU Medicine Children’s