Shriner Magazine - Summer 2023

"Our unique and generous healthcare system has come a long way since its founding in 1922; with your help, commitment and support, we will continue to make a difference for the children of the world – in new, innovative ways."

We continue to increase our pres ence in Mexico. This past summer we opened a clinic in Monterrey, where nearly 600 surgeries have already been performed, and are close to finalizing agreements for three additional loca tions, which will give us five active locations in Mexico by the end of the year. These facilities will be similar in structure to our highly successful loca tion in Tijuana with full-time Shriners medical staff and leased space inside or adjacent to a quality hospital. In addition to providing care, these loca tions allow us to see more children in their home countries, eliminating the need to cope with unfamiliar cultures or border issues.

In November, the Joint Boards approved a measure to review the Mexico City facility to find ways to add more space in order to care for more children from Latin America there, rather than having to bring them to the U.S. Again, this allows care closer to home and eases the worry of language and cultural barriers. In addition, we hope to establish a comprehensive, complete burn care center at our Mexico City hospital, which will be considerably less costly than our U.S. programs, as well as provide care closer to patients’ homes. All of these efforts will enhance the care we provide, as well as make our patients more comfortable. Reaching the World’s Children Our overall international strategy can be summarized as an effort to both provide care now – bringing kids to our U.S. loca tions as needed – and determine ways to provide future care locally. For example, Michael Wattenbarger, M.D., an ortho pedic surgeon and chief of staff at our Greenville hospital, has been providing education on spine surgeries in El Salvador, an effort that is expected to take two to three years to complete. “If we did that in five places, in three years we would have changed pediatric orthopedic care in five parts of the world,” said Jerry G. Gantt, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Shriners Chil dren’s. “This approach can change the world.” New Systems and Initiatives Improve Care We are also updating procedures. In addition to transferring our outpatient electronic health records (EHR) from Cerner to the Epic system, we will be asking for approval to transfer all EHR to Epic. This will bring us in line with the majority of healthcare providers, including our many affiliates. We also continue to make progress in establishing a physicians group, which will

allow our physicians to work as part of a single system, and offer the flexibility for them to move about throughout the healthcare system, treating children at the location where they are most needed, in any given situation. In November, the Joint Boards approved the development of a new, enhanced program to help ensure that our patients are prepared when they age out of Shriners Children’s. Specifically, we want to try to ensure that they will have access to appropri ate healthcare. This can be difficult to find, let alone obtain, especially for those with particularly complex conditions, such as osteogenesis imperfecta (OI, also known as brittle bone dis ease), arthrogryposis or even cerebral palsy. Shriners Children’s Northern California will lead the general pilot program, and our Chicago location will oversee the pilot for patients with OI. We expect that the program will begin working with patients when they are about 14 and will include individualized plans, similar to our signature personalized treatment plans. We want to send our patients into the adult world as prepared and ready as possible for a happy and healthy life. Our unique and generous healthcare system has come a long way since its founding in 1922; with your help, commitment and support, we will continue to make a difference for the children of the world – in new, innovative ways.

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