Children's Hospitals Today - Winter 2023 - 3

CHA VOICES / CHECKING IN
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Chair
Jeff Sperring, M.D.
Seattle Children's
Immediate Past Chair
Paul A. King
Stanford Medicine Children's Health
Vice Chair
Mike Farrell
Advocate Children's Hospital
Secretary
Jena Hausmann
Children's Hospital Colorado
Treasurer
R. Lawrence Moss, M.D.
Nemours Children's Health
Board Members
Matthew Cook
UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals
Marcy Doderer
Arkansas Children's
Deborah Feldman
Dayton Children's
Paul Kempinski
Children's Mercy Kansas City
Timothy Robinson
Nationwide Children's Hospital
Margaret G. Rush
Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital
at Vanderbilt
Katy A. Welkie, RN
Intermountain Primary
Children's Hospital
Mark Wietecha
Childrenʼs Hospital Association
LEADERSHIP
CEO
Mark Wietecha
President
Amy Wimpey Knight
Chief Public Affairs Officer
Leah Evangelista
Vice President, Member Relations,
Marketing and Communications
Michelle Lunbeck
I
t's not lost on me that we gathered in
November for CHA's Annual Leadership
Conference in Orlando, Florida, in the path
of Hurricane Nicole. Over the past several
years, we've come together as children's
hospitals to weather some significant challenges,
including a global pandemic and a
worsening mental health crisis. While we
don't know what storms lie ahead for us
in 2023, the current environment in pediatric
health care has given us some strong
headwinds, to say the least. And yet, I am
going into this year with confidence knowing
that we will navigate what's ahead by
working together.
In conversations with many of you, I'm
struck by the remarkable consistency
of challenges we're facing in the current
environment: increasing volumes of patients
who need our care; overstretched
staffing models and inadequate workforce
pipelines; and fundamental changes in our
expense structures with increased labor
investments, disrupted supply chains and
generalized inflation. Add these to the
state of pediatric mental health and the
disparities in health equity, and our mandate
to chart the course ahead is clear.
This month marks the start of my twoyear
term as chair of the CHA Board of
Trustees. I'm looking forward to this opportunity
to bring us together to pilot
new models, learn and share outcomes,
and advocate for the greatest needs of our
children's hospitals.
As a former Navy officer, I've learned
that the key to navigating a storm is fixing
your compass on your ultimate destination.
The path won't be straight. We will
need to adapt to the winds and waves in
front of us. But ultimately, we must stay
true to where we need to go. Despite the
current challenges, I am optimistic because
I've seen children's hospitals at our
best when we've come together around our
clear priority: improving children's health.
It's what our kids deserve and it's why
we're called to lead.
I look forward to working with each
of you on this journey and am incredibly
grateful for your commitment to the
future health of our children.
Charting the course ahead
Our commitment to working together will carry us
through the storms.
JEFF SPERRING, M.D.
CEO
Seattle Children's Hospital
CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS TODAY Winter 2023
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Children's Hospitals Today - Winter 2023

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