Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2021 - 3

CHA VOICES / CHECKING IN
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Chair
Finding our way through crisis
We will get through this together, as we always have.
Marcy Doderer
Arkansas Children's
Vice Chair/Chair-Elect
Paul A. King
Stanford Children's Health
Secretary
Katy A. Welkie, RN
Intermountain Primary
Children's Hospital
Treasurer
Jeff Sperring, M.D.
Seattle Children's
Board Members
Matthew Cook
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals
Mike Farrell
Advocate Children's Hospital
Deborah Feldman
Dayton Children's Hospital
Jena Hausmann
Children's Hospital Colorado
Kimberly Chavalas Cripe
CHOC Children's
John D. Nash
Franciscan Children's
Kurt Newman, M.D.
Children's National Hospital
Timothy Robinson
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Mark Wietecha
Childrenʼs Hospital Association
L
ast fall, few of us imagined we'd be entering
October 2021 with the COVID-19
pandemic continuing to rage around us.
The resulting toll on our children and children's
hospitals continues to grow and has
reached a breaking point in many areas
around the country.
In 2020, the spring and summer were
characterized by low hospital volumes,
high financial losses and challenges leveraging
hospital staff in new ways to meet
changing care needs. We rallied as a community
to secure federal pandemic financial
support and share best practices on
staffing and care delivery. This helped us
collectively get through what we believed
was the worst of the pandemic.
Fast forward to fall 2021. Children's hospitals
are struggling with a different phase of
the pandemic. At press time, the vaccine is
not available to children under the age of 12,
and substantial numbers of adults continue
to decline vaccination. As children have reengaged
at school and in social activities,
we're experiencing higher pediatric volumes
driven by COVID-19 variants. Further compounding
the increase in COVID-19 volumes,
the RSV season that never materialized
in 2020-21 has arrived with record-setting
admissions. These higher volumes are challenging
capacity levels in children's hospitals
across the country.
Finally, and importantly, the behavioral
LEADERSHIP
CEO
Mark Wietecha
President
Amy Wimpey Knight
health crisis has been worsened by the pandemic's
disruption to children's lives, relationships
and activities. We're again seeing
a spike in behavioral health visits driven by
suicidal ideation and self-injury, overwhelming
the national mental health system available
to care for children and families.
We are rallying as a community of children's
hospitals to find our way through
crisis. We're working with the Biden
administration to make greater financial
support available to children's hospitals, like
the recently announced additional Provider
Relief Funding. We're also working together
on major bills in Congress to strengthen national
pediatric delivery system infrastructure
capacity and improve mental health
care capabilities for children.
The pediatric workforce is also on our
minds. The nurses, pediatricians, technical
professionals, skilled support staff and the
many roles making the operations of a children's
hospital and health system possible
need support to continue providing access
to high-quality care for every child.
To everyone on the front lines for kids,
thank you for your efforts and your commitment
to children in the face of adversity. We
will get through this together.
MARK WIETECHA
CEO
Children's Hospital Association
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Fall 2021
3
Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Children's Hospitals Today - Fall 2021
