NATE
VULNERABLE PATIENT
Children’s hospitals are committed to serving their local communities through the COVID-19 pandemic.
To meet these urgent demands, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals is committed to ensuring 170 children’s hospitals across North America have the resources they need to care for the most vulnerable kids. The reality is: Kids Can’t Wait for a cure, for the curve to flatten or for an economic boost. They need children’s hospitals now more than ever.
Here are some ways Children’s Hospitals are helping during the COVID-19 crisis:
More equipment
Due to changes in patient care, hospitals need financial donations to invest in telehealth services, personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing supplies. Needed investments to provide these services total more than $186 million1.
Operations
The suspension of elective surgeries and routine procedures impacts the needs of kids right now. And, the loss of funding to children’s hospitals is significant, up to 50 percent of total revenue in some locations.2 With the additional need for personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline caseworkers, costs have increased 10 percent.3 Without philanthropy, many hospitals may face significant impacts in the short and long-term.
Charitable care
In 2018, 4.3 million children didn’t have health insurance and 37 million children relied on Medicaid to cover their health-related expenses4. Due to the economic impacts of COVID-19, children’s hospitals are bracing for and seeing an increased need for charitable care, well beyond the $80 million that Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals funds covered last year5. As more families lose insurance coverage due to job loss, children’s hospitals will see increased costs as government programs don’t fully cover the cost of caring for kids.
Patient services
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals report patient services as the area in greatest need of funding1 due to the pandemic’s strain on the U.S. health care system. Hospitals also cite an increased need for mental health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential lack of some preventative care (vaccines, well child checkups, etc.) could have long-term detrimental effects on the communities at large. Children’s hospitals are the best equipped resource in communities to deal with these potential long-term impacts of COVID-19.2
Virtual care
Telethealth investments could cost approximately $40 million for all 170 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals6. Telehealth and technology services will allow hospitals to provide care virtually and add technology upgrades to provide care under social distance recommendations.
Research
Children’s hospitals and their systems are actively working on developing COVID-19 treatments and vaccines including Boston Children’s Hospital7, Texas Children’s Hospital8, Seattle Children’s9, and Children’s Hospital Colorado10 among many others.
1Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. 2020 COVID-19 Impact Need Survey
2Children’s Hospital Association, 2020
3Children’s Hospital Association, 2020
4U.S. Census Bureau. Uninsured rate for children in 2018. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/uninsured-rate-for-children-in-2018.html
5Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. 2019 Impact Report
6Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. 2020 COVID-19 Impact Need Survey
7https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/bch-bch042820.php
8https://www.bcm.edu/news/infectious-diseases/covid-19-vaccine-baylor-texas-childrens
9https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-universities-are-developing-covid-19-solutions-in-real-time
