San Jose, Calif-- Good Samaritan Hospital, with a 39-year history of outstanding pediatric services, announces an expansion of pediatric general surgery with the addition of Gary Hartman, MD, pediatric surgeon, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Hartman will complement the surgical reputation established by Dr. Abe Piramoon, pediatric surgeon, who has been with Good Samaritan for over 23 years and  has performed over 5,000 surgeries to date.
 
“We are most pleased to have Dr. Hartman join our medical staff,” said William Piché, CEO of Good Samaritan Hospital. “He is an exceptional pediatric surgeon with a national reputation for leading edge medicine. The addition of Dr. Hartman to our pediatric medical staff will enable us to provide additional medical care to children across the Bay Area.”
 
“I am very excited about joining the first-rate pediatric surgery program established at Good Samaritan Hospital by Dr. Piramoon,” said Dr. Hartman.  “My partners at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and I look forward to providing fulltime services on-site at Good Sam and in our new South Bay office as well.”
 
Good Samaritan’s dedication to pediatrics also includes a newly expanded and remodeled pediatric floor scheduled to open in the summer of 2005, as part of a larger $70 million dollar “Project 35” hospital expansion. 18 private patient rooms will accommodate sick children and provide their families room to visit.  With the addition of Dr. Hartman’s South Bay office, this region’s pediatric patients will now have access to additional pediatric surgical services.
 
“The children and families in the South Bay are very fortunate to have such a nationally recognized, highly skilled and experienced pediatric surgeon join the staff at Good Samaritan Hospital as a provider of full-time pediatric surgical services,” said Craig Albanese, MD, chief of pediatric surgery at Packard Children’s Hospital and professor of surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine.
 
Dr. Hartman returns to the Bay Area after 11 years.  He left Stanford in 1993 after serving as an associate professor in pediatric surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine.  He has been Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. since 1995 and simultaneously Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Georgetown University since 1999.  Dr. Hartman holds leadership positions in a number of national surgical associations and is currently President of the Association of Pediatric Surgery Training Program Directors.  His clinical interests include surgical oncology, neonatal, and laparoscopic surgery.  His most recent national recognition was as the lead surgeon in the successful separation of conjoined twins at Children’s National Medical Center in June of this year.  In addition to his new role at Good Samaritan, Dr. Hartman is also the director of regional pediatric services at Packard Children’s Hospital and a professor of surgery at the School of Medicine.  Dr. Hartman’s South Bay office and children’s specialty clinic will be located at 14651 Bascom Ave., room 150, in Los Gatos, phone 408-879-9153.   
 
About Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 264-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with the Stanford School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital offers patients locally, regionally and nationally the full range of health-care programs and services – from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. To learn more, please visit our Web site at http://www.lpch.org.
 
About Good Samaritan Hospital
Good Samaritan Hospital is one of the first five hospitals in the U.S. certified by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center. Voted by Bay Area Parent magazine as the “Bay Area’s Best Place to Have a Baby,” Good Samaritan Hospital has also been awarded “2003 Emergency Department of the Year” by the California Emergency Physicians Medical Group. Good Samaritan Hospital provides both acute care and tertiary services, including cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, oncology, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric care, behavioral health, a shock program, bariatric surgery and a Primary Stroke Center.  www.goodsamsanjose.com

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