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Leadership Spotlight | 2025 Fellow Pediatric Referral Initiative

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Related Topics:
Finance and OperationsCare Delivery
Relevant Roles:
Chief Operation OfficersChief Physician ExecutivesChief Strategy Officers

At the most recent COO Spring Forum, we celebrated our exceptional inaugural cohort of the 2025 Academy Fellows Program supported by an educational grant from GE HealthCare.

Within their transformative two-year journey, Fellows complete a strategic action project. This month we are thrilled to feature a strategic action project from a recent graduate from Advocate Health who led a collaborative initiative to improve referral acceptance rates for pediatric patients.

2025 Academy Fellow: Rolla Sweis, Pharm.D., M.A, President and CEO La Rabida Children's Hospital, Advocate Health

Action Project Title:

Opportunity & Problem Statement:

Key challenges and opportunities for PICUs include high bed demand, staffing shortages, and limited access in certain areas, leading to increased transfer needs. Long stays in PICUs strain bed availability and complicate care plans. Chicago is unique in having a specialty independent children’s hospital, La Rabida Children's Hospital, that manages step down level care for patients who no longer require the intensive care unit and are not ready for the floor/home.

Advocate Health and various hospital PICUs face challenges in transferring complex step-down level patients to La Rabida Children's Hospital. The goal is to enhance La Rabida's referral acceptance rate for Advocate while maintaining referral rates for other children's hospitals.

Methods:

  • Evaluating resource challenges

  • Staffing challenges in nursing and respiratory therapy addressed

  • Utilization of contract labor

  • Implementation of retention strategies

  • Leadership changes

  • Analyzing required expertise

  • Enhancing the care management and social work model

  • Enhancements made to the discharge process

  • Meetings focused on long stays with Care management leader to ensure focus and accountability

  • Joint practice meetings between La Rabida and referring sites

Results & Conclusions:

Patients from Advocate Health experienced a 68% increase in the acceptance of referrals. The two main referring sites have either remained unchanged or improved, and there has been an 18% improvement in the total census at La Rabida Children's Hospital.

Applications for THMA’s Fellowship Programming are now open. If you are interested in learning more or nominating a healthcare leader, please reach out to LDPrograms@hmacademy.com.