Shriners Hospitals for Children Pediatric Specialty Hospitals Douglas E. Maxwell President & CEO Subjects for April: Groundbreaking for new St. Louis Hospital A wonderful Charitable girl in Virginia Shriners Hospitals and Mayo Clinics Follow-up Clinics around America Shriners Hospitals progress towards helping our Wounded Warriors My Dear Fellow Representatives, I hope you have completed your taxes by now and are beginning to enjoy Springtime Perhaps you re like me and take a Sigh of Relief when you drop your return in the Mailbox? Groundbreaking for new St Louis Hospital: On March 20 th, we did the groundbreaking for the first of the next generation of Shriners Hospitals for Children. We are moving from the much larger 175,000 sq. ft. hospital with 80 In-Patient beds located in the suburbs, back down into the City of St. Louis and onto the Medical Campus of Barnes and St. Louis Children s Hospitals and the Washington University Medical School.
Our Doctors have felt that as we have moved into doing so many complex surgeries that it would improve care and efficiency to have our newer facilities be located nearer to the Medical School and Children s Hospital. That is exactly our newest model of Care in St. Louis. Our new building is a smaller and leaner and more efficient 75,000 sq. ft. Full Service In-Patient Hospital. This new building will have 6 Private Rooms that can be expanded to Semi private rooms, by having the rooms be Double Head Boarded allowing for 12 In-patient beds for those times when we gets busier. This new Hospital is scheduled for completion at the latter part of next year 2014. A Wonderful Young Lady: I was privileged recently to present a Certificate of Appreciation to a wonderful young lady from Virginia. Her name is Corrine Noel. She is the 10 year old daughter of Noble Todd Freeman and his wife Tammy of the Kena Shriners in Fairfax Virginia.
Corrine was so inspired by her friend Wyatt s Cleft Lip and Palate Care in our Boston Hospital that she made it her personal goal to raise money for our Shriner s Hospitals. She has now earned and given to our philanthropy enough money for 8 of our hospitals Gold Book Certificates She tells us her goal is to continue on this until she has earned enough money for Gold Certificates at all 22 of our hospitals. Corrine Freeman is such an outstanding young lady and very much the pride of her Proud Parents. Mayo Clinics and Shriner s Hospitals: On March 27 th, we held a Joint Press Conference with the Mayo Clinic of Rochester Minnesota. This was to announce to the world that Shriners Hospitals for Children is now the 15 th member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. The great expertise of our Shriner s Hospital System and Doctors combined with the World Class medicine and research accomplished at the Mayo Clinic group will make our Shriner s Care Presence, the premium Pediatric Care in the upper Midwest. This is something we can all take great pride in. We already have 8 Mayo physicians seeing Shriner Children at our hospital. During our meetings with Mayo, we were informed that the children of the inland Southwest are being underserved in orthopedic care. We have begun exploring Shriners Hospitals initiating our pediatric orthopedic care at Mayo s new Hospital in Phoenix Arizona. The Mayo group is also considering taking their Care Presence to Mexico. We have suggested that perhaps they could become a participant in our beautiful new hospital in the southwest suburbs of Mexico City. Very soon they will be doing an exploratory visit to our facility there. Perhaps. Follow-up Clinics: As I have traveled this Spring to the various regional Shrine association meetings, part of my message is to ask if the Shrine Hospital the Temple is affiliated with is quite some distance. This makes those 30 minute follow-up visits an all day event for the mother and child and driver. I m suggesting that the Shrine Center might want to begin exploring accomplishing this Clinical event at a medical facility within their own town. The general criteria for this clinic would be: A medical entity that would have X-ray capability, Preferably an orthopedic surgeon, but a general physician would be fine
A capability to allow Shriners Hospital to use the space frequently enough to take of these visits. Maybe one afternoon a week, or on an as scheduled and needed basis. When a location is found, contact myself and I will begin the process with our Executive Vice President, John McCabe, and our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth Guidera to pursue the possibilities. This new concept is hoped to be able to help with our Shriner s transportation budgets and cost and the hardships imposed on our patients families, for those necessary check-ups. In addition our drivers, who always get up so early to pick up the family and drive them to the hospital for those early morning visits God Bess them all and keep them safe and now the Wounded Warriors Update: The interest shown by our membership this Spring to the news that we are going to be helping America s Wounded Soldiers has been overwhelming and very Heart Warming. At the Spring association meetings, I have been up-dating our membership on the progress I would like to take a personal moment at this point For these past 4 years, I have tried to keep you and our membership informed on the changing processes taking place in our Philanthropy. I do write these messages myself It usually takes me about two weeks of thinking what is new and important and what I think you would like to know about. I have sincerely tried over that time, to make an effort to seldomly use the word I, for the reason that these years of change have been a complete Joint Boards everyone of them... Team event But in this next section about the Wounded Warriors, I could see in your eyes and the passion you expressed about accomplishing this. I felt a different approach was necessary. I did not want to Overwhelm these top Government Officials with a large group. So I put on my 3-piece suit, and went for it alone as your CEO of a Great Organization and a Viet Nam veteran. Here are the results. Thank you for allowing me this personal moment Here is what is happening.
On a cold snowy January 7th morning this year I had my first meeting at the Pentagon with the Under Secretary of Defense for all Military Medical Affairs. General Myers knew exactly whom Shriners should speak with. The Under Secretary, Dr. Jonathan Woodson first received the quick version of the history of the Shrine Masons and why this group of men have been historically so charitable and giving. Fortunately, Dr. Woodson, having done part of his residency at our Boston Burns Hospital, knew of Shriners skills and expertise and the fraternity s history of talking care of those who need care without regard to the patient or family's ability to pay. He then said to me Shriners are Good People I then explained to him why we were offering our help. Shriners are Patriots. Many have personally served in our various conflicts and wars from World War ll to Korea, to Viet Nam, Desert Storm, and now Iraq and Afghanistan. Shriners Hospitals have very skilled physicians in our 20 US Hospitals placed from Hawaii to Boston, who are experts at helping individuals with missing limbs and the trauma associated with a sudden event. Our Doctors are at the top of their field handling the constant adjustments required of the artificial limbs. Our multi located hospitals could save the injured soldier a lot of time and energy by coming to one of our Nearer facilities instead of having to take the much longer path back to a military hospital with similar capabilities. Dr. Woodson did ask that if in addition to helping those soldiers who have lost limbs with the Prosthesis adjustments, could we also help with the scars they get from the Blast Flame that happens with the IED s explosion? I reminded him that this is certainly another aspect of our mission our reconstructive burns surgery Of course we could, sir, if that is what is needed His next comment caught me a little off guard Mr. Maxwell I know the Shriners and their humanitarian mission very well, and I know that what I am about to say is not at all why you are here But each of these soldiers have very fine insurance called Tricare and Shriners will be offered this to help defer your cost of providing these services. Again I re-affirmed his comment that this is not why we are doing this but it will certainly help with all of the care we provide to many children from all over the world.
In further conversation that morning, Dr. Woodson being well aware of our Physicians being among the Worlds Best at what they do. asked if we could do exchanges of physicians with fellowships, between the United States Military Doctors and the Shriners Hospitals Doctors And then we moved to the area of Research. Dr. Woodson could foresee the interaction of our two great Research Programs to come up with new cures for all of humanity. It was a very good first meeting In late February, our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth Guidera and our Director of Research, Dr. Raymond Novak, accompanied me back to the Under Secretary s office for the initial meeting of the senior counterparts of both organizations. One of the more interesting comments coming from this executive group came from the retired Admiral, who had just returned from Afghanistan as the Chief of Surgery Why haven t we been doing this for years this will be so good for both entities. At least we re on our way now On April 10 th, Dr. Guidera and Dr. Novak had their second meeting in Washington in Bethesda at the United States Military s Medical University called the Uniformed Services University You might find their University Coffee Mugs interesting. They have an image of a large American Tank with the words Our Medical School can beat up your Medical School I would think so with a Tank for a Mascot
I ve asked both Ken and Ray for their impressions of this new interaction between our Shriners Hospitals Physicians and the Military and our Shrine Research and the Military s Research I don t know if you have ever listened to researchers talk but it can get to be Quite Deep. Many words of 28 letters, all strung together, I ve asked Ray to express these thoughts in as simple of words as he can so that we can all try to understand.. Here are Dr. Guidera s and Dr. Novak s reflections This is our summary of the meeting we both attended on April 10, 2013 at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences Medical School,. This Medical School trains the United States Military physicians and the other health care professionals for each of the branches of the military. Our meeting was with the Directors of the Graduate Medical Education, the Directors of Research, and the JAG (legal) Officers. We had very amiable and lively discussions regarding the sharing of each organizations resources, and about the two groups collaborating on research and educational endeavors. Specifically we discussed and established some goals: To have some of their University s 2700 trainees become involved with Shriner s Research projects. This would include medical students, residents, fellows, advanced nursing practice students, and anesthetists.
It was felt that the sharing of resources can only enhance these projects. Dr. Novak invited one of these military researchers to become a reviewer on our Shrine Research Advisory Board for the Shriners Research grants. To arrange for some of the University s students or residents to do clinical rotations at both our burn and orthopedic Shrine Hospitals to learn the techniques and approaches used in the treatment and care of our patients. They requested that we consider initially using some of our facilities near to Bethesda, such as our Philadelphia or Boston hospitals. To explore research activities between the DOD and the University s leadership and to participate in clinical trials to examine the effectiveness of a novel therapy in the treatment of burn patients. For example, using a therapeutic approach involving an FDA-approved biological to be administered to burn patients to treat fungal infections which are life-threatening and difficult to manage. This potential application of research to other dermatological diseases, which display comparable characteristics to burns, was also explored. More detailed discussions involving this research are scheduled with the investigators from the DOD. To explore through clinical research, the diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic injury and disease, and the use of drugs to promote bone strength, growth and development. This area focused on the diagnosis and treatment of rare heritable bone diseases, including those involving bone and mineral metabolism. Such a study would include the diagnosis and treatment of a potentially fatal disease, such as hypophosphatasia, using an experimental therapy which has been approved by the FDA for use in these clinical trials. Other diseases to be included in such research include Osteogenesis Imperfecta, i.e. brittle bone disease, as well other diseases which affect bone strength, growth and development. To explore research using novel approaches in the diagnosis and treatment of traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury was also discussed, in conjunction with our extensive experience in the rehabilitation of orthopedic and spinal cord injuries. To encourage our physicians and scientists to participate in medical educational activities. The most current information is communicated by those who are leaders in the field. Consequently, the ability of physicians and scientists from both organizations to participate in medical educational activities was entertained with the goal of bringing knowledge and research
experience to medical students and residents thereby advancing specialty medical care which will help our patients, veterans, and their families. To have the University s faculty members join our Research Advisory Group to participate in the review of grants within their area of specialization while providing an overview of the incredible scope of the research activities currently carried out by Shrine investigators. It was suggested that we have a follow-up meeting in the near future between the University s Department leaders and the regional SHC Chiefs of Staff to discuss these issues. The meeting concluded with a group photo and a commitment to keep this positive energy moving forward. I truly believe this will be very beneficial to Shriners Hospitals for Children and only enhance our already great reputation for Excellence I believe this will reaffirm our Philanthropy s reputation as the desired organization for America s Top Notch Physicians to want to be associated with. Thank you Dr. s Novak and Guidera And now the final component of this new affiliation the actual treatment of our Military heroes by Shriners Hospitals. The next meeting and the one where this new process really starts in the Care of our Heroes
is planned with the Deputy Under Secretary, Allan Middleton and our Executive Vice-President John McCabe. This meeting is when we bring all of these many components together and start to lay out the logistics. This will include The names of those who have been injured and in need of our attention and where they live in relationship to our hospitals. John McCabe has a plan to be able to accomplish this and still keep the pure sanctity of Shriners facilities as a Children s Hospital. Shriners Hospitals will accomplish this by having our Shrine Physicians, who are also on staff across the street at our affiliated hospitals, treat the soldiers in that adult facility under the care of Shrine Doctors. We are now on Day 4 of a 7 Day path As soon as these last steps of co-ordination are accomplished, probably within the next 40 days, we intend to make Shriners Hospitals offer and acceptance of helping America s Wounded, very public. I ask each of you to continue to be eager but restrained in telling the World of Shriners Path. We don t want any miss-steps in our desire to help at this point. As Paul Harvey used to say as he closed his show And Now you know the Rest of the Story. Good Day I hope you are as pleased with these new directions of helping Our Heros as those nobles who have been at our Spring Association Meetings. Yours in the Faith, Douglas Maxwell Chairman of the Board of Trustees COBT@shrinenet.org Shriners Hospitals for Children