2022 Year-in-Review | Children's Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs

2022: A Year in Review

A look at the impact of philanthropy on our southern Colorado programs

As a baby, Colt was diagnosed with a rare, life-threatening heart defect. Successful surgeries have helped him live life to the fullest.

GREG RAYMOND President, Southern Region

Nearly 10 years ago, I moved to this community, charged with leading the development and construction of a new pediatric hospital in Colorado Springs. I could not know then just how life-changing the hospital and our programming in southern Colorado would become.

At the time, we knew that kids in our community needed and deserved a dedicated pediatric hospital. They needed specialists and care teams with pediatric expertise. They needed mental health services specifically geared toward children and teens. And they needed these services close to home.

But we had no idea just how badly they would need these things just a few short months after our hospital opened in 2019.

Just six months after our first patients came through the doors of the new hospital, we were plunged into a worldwide public health emergency that not only threatened our children’s physical health, but also took a terrible toll on their mental health. The situation became so troubling that the very next year, Children’s Hospital Colorado declared a pediatric mental health state of emergency as we witnessed a dramatic increase in youth depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation.

The challenges our children would face did not end there. Over the past fall and winter, we experienced the worst season for respiratory sickness on record, and our state’s youth mental health crisis continues. But watching the care teams at the hospital, at our Briargate outpatient location and at our new location on Telstar Drive has been a great reminder of how important these facilities and services are to the kids and families of our region.

I am deeply humbled by the expertise and service of all the Children’s Colorado team members in southern Colorado who make our mission possible. But I am equally as humbled by the support from our community and generous donors who fuel our mission. It is only by working together that we can care for the kids of our community.

World-class Care for Southern Colorado Kids

and Families

45,500+ Total visits to the hospital

3,400+ Inpatient hospital admissions

40,500+ Emergency Department visits

4,700+ Surgeries performed

141,500+ Total visits across the hospital and all specialty and outpatient clinics in southern Colorado

800+

Unique patients from 46 states other than Colorado served

Pediatric Expertise Close to Home Seeing Double

770

Number of unique patients treated at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (CCBD)

Bexley was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia just days before she was set to start preschool. Her “Bexley Strong” community rallied around her and raised $10,000 to create a “Balloon Bell” outside Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs that children and families can ring to mark milestones along their healthcare journey. More than 860 days after her diagnosis, Bexley joyfully rang the bell, signaling the end of her cancer treatment.

25

Number of times the Warrior Bell was rung to celebrate the end of chemotherapy

During the summer of 2022, a record-setting 10 sets of twins were cared for at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs at the same time.

12.32 ounces Smallest NICU patient by weight

Kai received four rounds of chemotherapy at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Colorado Springs. Since completing his treatment, he’s participated in varsity track and went to the semi-finals as a member of his school’s football team. A stellar athlete, Kai is looking forward to more successful sports seasons ahead.

26 Number of multiples (twins, triplets, etc.) served by the NICU

23 days

Average patient stay in the NICU

Senior Vice President and Southern Region Chief Nursing and Operations

50 NICU beds, including 3 speci cally designed for multiples

23 weeks Age of youngest NICU patient

“In my 30-plus years of nursing, I have never seen anything like this. I’ve worked at hospitals with larger NICUs, and even there I’ve never seen so many twins at a single time. It’s really unheard of, but one of the sweetest things I’ve seen in my career.”

KATHIE SEERUP

O cer

New Location, New Services for Southern Colorado

In the fall of 2022, Children’s Colorado announced the opening of our newest site in Colorado Springs. Children’s Colorado Therapy Care on Telstar Drive, Colorado Springs houses our outpatient behavioral health services, including our pediatric-based partial hospitalization behavioral health program (PHP), as well as all developmental pediatrics and pediatric outpatient therapy care services in southern Colorado, such as physical, occupational and speech therapy. Developmental pediatrics provides comprehensive interdisciplinary care for children and youth with developmental delays and intellectual disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders, intellectual disability and neurogenetic conditions.

Originally announced in 2020, the opening of the 26,000-square-foot facility was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, which worsened the youth mental health crisis and made expanding mental health services even more urgent. It was thanks to donors that we were able to make this the first location we resumed after the height of the pandemic. The new location provides essential elements that are part of our continuum of care for childrens stuggling with mental and behavioral health needs. The facility has seven behavioral health consultation rooms and an additional two classrooms for PHP patients. Patients attend the PHP from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., as they would in a traditional “school” program, enabling them to learn skills during the day that they can practice with their families in the evening.

After tackling an eating disorder, Shelten is back to playing football and is thriving.

Since opening in the fall through the end of 2022, Telstar’s behavioral and mental health providers have cared for:

36 Partial Hospitalization Program patients

760

264 Visits to therapy providers

Patients for mental health therapy and behavioral health services

135 Visits with medical providers, such as psychiatrists

“I know that a lot of parents breathed a sigh of relief when the hospital opened in 2019 because of Children’s Colorado’s quality and reputation,” said Lauren Eckhart, PsyD, clinical director of the Children’s Colorado Pediatric Mental Health Institute’s Colorado Springs Division. “Now, those same families have access to high-quality mental health care here at home, including services that didn’t previously exist in this community, like the partial hospitalization program.

The needs of youth in El Paso County and the surrounding area are considerable,” Eckhart continued, “and it’s great that there is so much community support and such a dedicated team at Children’s Colorado to help kids get the right care when they need it.”

In addition to patients seeking mental and behavioral health services, there were more than 12,000 patient visits to Telstar for the other therapies and services located there, such as audiology, speech language pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, sports therapy and developmental pediatrics.

“We are immensely grateful to our donors, our community and our supporters who helped bring this location to life,” added Greg Raymond, Children’s Colorado Southern Region President. “Our children’s physical and mental health and their access to care matters. We’re thankful and appreciative of their support for this monumental additional resource for our kids.”

Here, It’s Di erent

Philanthropy supports key programs that make a di erence for kids — and a di erence in their health outcomes. Many of these initiatives are not covered by insurance, so we rely on donor support to harness the healing power of play through specialized child life programs that ease the stress and anxiety of medical experiences using imagination, creativity and even humankind’s best friends: dogs.

Child Life

Serving Those Who Serve

In 2017, Colorado Springs was designated by TRICARE (the provider of health coverage for military families) as an Exceptional Family Member Program area. This means that military families who have a child with documented complex medical needs can be preferentially stationed in Colorado. This designation came following Children’s Colorado’s proactive fiveyear expansion of our outpatient specialty care program and with our commitment to build a new children’s hospital serving the southern Colorado community. About 20% of patients at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs are military dependents.

The Child Life Program at Children’s Colorado helps children and their families cope with the stress and anxiety that can come with a medical procedure, diagnosis, injury or hospitalization. Trained in the use of therapeutic play and educational techniques to reduce fear and anxiety, our child life specialists guide children and teens throughout their treatment and provide support for families and siblings, as well.

Whether it’s using toy medical equipment to prepare a child for a procedure, teaching breathing exercises to help families relax or engaging siblings in creative play activities, child life specialists alleviate fears and support healing.

These services are available to patients at Children’s Colorado at no extra charge, thanks to philanthropic support.

Madelyn, a Children’s Colorado patient ambassador, has Rett Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that affects her speech, coordination and other abilities. As a military family enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program, Madelyn’s parents appreciate having expert care close at hand.

Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy

The Ponzio Creative Arts Therapy Program offers young people a broad creative palette for healing the body, mind and spirit. Through music, dance movement, yoga and art, our master’s-level Creative Arts therapists work in tandem with psychiatrists, social workers, caregivers and counselors to help kids get better, faster.

Through creative arts therapy, kids experiencing illness, trauma and grief can express themselves, process their experiences, deal with pain and begin to heal.

“We did art every day,” said Shelten, who lives in Colorado Springs, of his time being treated at the Children’s Colorado Pediatric Mental Health Institute. “It was a way to relax, and it took my mind off things. I could focus on the art I was doing instead of other things. It really helped me.”

Medical Dogs

Thanks to philanthropic support, Children’s Hospital Colorado, Colorado Springs will get our first medical dog this spring. Medical dogs and their handlers will provide patient care across the hospital, demonstrating procedures, providing a positive distraction and bringing a smile to everyone’s face. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that animal-assisted therapy can help patients cope with and heal from health problems. Interacting with these furry physicians provides proven benefits, such as stabilizing blood pressure, easing pain and reducing anxiety.

“We are very excited to launch the Medical Dog Program in southern Colorado,” said Shawna Grissom, MS, CCLS, CEIM, CPXP, director of Family Services at Children’s Colorado, Colorado Springs. “It will make such a difference for our patients, families and even team members. We are so grateful to the many donors who support our hallmark family-centered care through programs like this.”

Introducing Music Therapist Shealyn Schmidt

The Children’s Colorado Southern Region recently welcomed our first full-time music therapist, Shealyn Schmidt, MM, MT-BC. Schmidt joined Children’s Colorado in July 2022 and works primarily at the Telstar location, both with kids receiving outpatient therapy — like physical, occupational and speech therapy — and with children and teens participating in the Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP).

In the outpatient setting, music can provide motivation, like encouraging a physical therapy patient to move at a desired tempo or rhythm or a distraction for a child undergoing an uncomfortable procedure. Within the PHP, Schmidt uses songwriting as a means of processing emotions and encouraging coping skills. Having patients learn to play instruments together can also be helpful.

“Some of our teens struggle with social skills, self-confidence and sometimes self-harm,” she said. “Playing music together shows them that they can learn something new and do something fun with their peers. When you are playing an instrument, you are doing something positive, not harmful, with your hands.”

Music affects many parts of the brain, as well as the body — including the brainstem, amygdala and hippocampus — and can facilitate neuroplasticity.

“As an example, after a stroke, sometimes people may not speak very well, but singing can help them access different parts of the brain and reroute damaged neural pathways,” explained Schmidt. “And sometimes their speech comes back.”

When asked why music has such a powerful effect on body and mind, Schmidt responded: “Our respiration is rhythmic. Our heart beats are rhythmic. We are intrinsically rhythmic beings.”

Meet Havana, a Little Girl with a Big Heart

A few days after Havana was born, her parents were given the awful news that their baby girl had a severely deformed valve in her heart. The condition would likely be fatal.

With this extremely grim prognosis, Nicole and Jason, Havana’s parents, took their daughter home for hospice care.

But with each day that passed, their precious baby seemed to grow stronger and stronger, bucking all odds to stay alive. By the tenth day of Havana’s life, Nicole and Jason took her back to Children’s Colorado to see if the outlook for her condition had changed. She had gained a whole pound of weight, giving her a much higher probability of recovering from the surgery her tiny heart required.

Havana was ready to fight for her life.

And doctors were ready to perform the repair she needed to make that fight possible.

A week later, Havana was recuperating from her first surgery at the Children’s Colorado Heart Institute.

Cardiology experts at Children’s Colorado determined that a heart transplant would give her the best likelihood of reaching her first birthday and beyond, so they put her name on the transplant list.

At a little more than 2 months old, Havana got her new heart. After her transplant, the little girl was pink and red for the first time, not pale as she had been before. “Havana just had that spirit to fight,” said Nicole, “and the Children’s Colorado doctors were there to give her the experience and technology to help her fight.”

Today, Havana is a healthy elementary schooler in Colorado Springs who loves fish and wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up.

Community-supported Care

Close to

4,000 gifts, totaling almost $3.7 million, were received from southern Colorado donors or in support of southern Colorado initiatives in 2022.

Join Us Aug. 25

Children’s Colorado is pleased to host the third annual Philanthropy on the Farm at the Flying Horse Ranch. Dust off your boots and join us for this casual, intimate, outdoor farm-to-table experience in support of southern Colorado programs and services at Children’s Colorado. Enjoy a reception and a multicourse dinner with locally sourced ingredients and wine pairings. We are excited to have you at our table! For information about sponsorships and supporting the event, please email sponsorships@childrenscoloradofoundation.org.

“We are incredibly grateful for Children’s Colorado here in Colorado Springs. They were there for our family during a scary medical situation. They have been there for our friends and their children, and Children’s Colorado will continue to be there for kids and families. Children are the future and life of our community. We choose to generously support Children’s Colorado because we want to ensure they have the resources available to provide care, healing and hope for children, which is a wonderful investment in our community’s future.”

SARAH DOLE Donor

Colorado Springs

111 S. Tejon Street, Suite 309

Colorado Springs, CO 80903

SupportChildrensColorado.org