Expanding Care, Elevating Health
At Children’ s Hospital Colorado, our mission is to improve the health of every child, so we are always looking for ways to extend our expertise and services to reach as many families as possible. In 2024, we opened doors to a new mental health emergency unit and a new inpatient medical unit, expanded our urgent care offerings in Aurora, Colorado with a new facility, grew patient visits at the recently opened outpatient care facility in Grand Junction, Colorado, and extended our neonatal care across state borders. Read about the exciting improvements and expansions over the past year that are making specialized pediatric healthcare more accessible to kids and families.
Responding to growing pediatric mental health needs
On Sept. 19, 2024, Children’ s Colorado proudly opened the doors to a new eight-bed mental health emergency unit, located within the Anschutz Medical Campus emergency department( ED). This unit was created to address the growing number of patients coming to the ED with mental health needs. Designed with patient and team member safety in mind, the unit features secure, state-of-the-art facilities. Of the eight rooms, five are equipped with sleep-in accommodations, providing families a comfortable space to stay with their child while awaiting psychiatric assessment or placement in an inpatient or residential facility.
Around the same time, the ED team introduced a new integrated care model called“ Split-Flow” for patients experiencing a behavioral health crisis. In addition to the Emergency Severity Index( ESI) used to triage all patients who arrive at the ED, patients now receive a behavioral health acuity severity score. Based on these additional assessments, patients are sorted into a high or low acuity track to best meet their needs as well as to optimize team member resources. The two pathways promote evidence-based care practices, reduction in length of stay, lower admission rates and enhanced patient outcomes.
In 2024, Children’ s Colorado also opened the Crisis Clinic pilot program, which provides rapid access to individualized therapeutic interventions for kids and teens ages 10 to 17 experiencing suicidal thoughts and behavior. Patients are referred through the emergency department or inpatient medical unit psychiatric consult service. The clinic offers weekly sessions for six to eight weeks, emphasizing caregiver engagement, and helps to connect patients to care when they do not have a mental health provider. The multidisciplinary clinic offers an alternative to outpatient waitlists, hospital boarding and higher levels of care, prioritizing timely and effective intervention for youth mental health crises.
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2024 PCS Annual Report