Organizational Assessment:

Children’s of Alabama
Chieuda Nguyen, Hailey Gilmore, Joyce Kim, Molly McLemore
Community and Population
• Average median household income of
$42,882
• Approximately 18.6% of persons living
below the poverty level
• More than one half of mothers with young
children are employed
• 1/4 of the population is under age 19
• Racial Diversity
• 58.7% White
• 30% African American
• 6.7% Hispanic
• 4.7% other races
• Jefferson County, the largest county in the
MSA, is more evenly divided racially
• 42.7% White
• 47.5% African American

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018c; United States Census Bureau, 2010)

Community and Population

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018c; Children’s of Alabama, 2018e)

Major Competitors
• St. Vincent’s hospital (Nonprofit):
• NICU care
• Routine pediatric care
• Pediatric cancer care
• Pediatric ear nose and throat care
• Pediatric orthopedics
• Pediatric rehabilitation
• Pediatric surgery
• Pediatric therapy
• General allergy care
• Speech pathology and audiology
• Medical program specifically for adolescents
• Adolescent substance abuse program.
• Brookwood Baptist Hospital (Nonprofit):
• NICU care

(Ascension, 2018)
History
• Holy Innocents Hospital for Children under the
Episcopal Church of Alabama
• Founded in 1911 by Rev Carl Henckell with Rev
Raimundo de Ovies and Dr. James E. Dedman
• Opened in 1912 in the All Saints’ small parish house
on Birmingham’s Southside
• Provided free medical care for all children
• Soon moved to a nearby 10-room frame house that
could accommodate up to 12 beds

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018d)

History

“It is a private, not-for-profit medical center that serves

as the primary site of the University of Alabama at
Birmingham (UAB) pediatric medicine, surgery,
psychiatry, research and residency programs.”

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018d)

History

(The Joint Commission, 2018)

Mission

“The mission of Children’s of Alabama is to provide the

finest pediatric health services to all children in an
environment that fosters excellence in research and
medical education. Children’s will be an advocate for all
children and work to educate the public about issues
affecting children's health and well-being.”

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018g)

Vision

“The vision of Children’s of Alabama is to be nationally

recognized as a comprehensive regional and national
pediatric healthcare center providing one class of
excellent patient care through innovative and proven
clinical care, education and research.”

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018g)

Values

Children's of Alabama shall have as its values:

• Trust
• Teamwork
• Compassion (for patients, families and employees)
• Innovation
• Commitment

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018g)

Organizational Structure and Leadership
• Nursing organization and leadership
• Bureaucracy organization - involves management & leaders, as
well as the medical staff
• Matrix organization - involves a specific goal (family centered
care for safe pediatric care) and everyone is involved to work
towards that goal
• Communication lines
• Formal line of communication
• Roles, responsibility, and authority clearly defined and systematically
arranged
• Informal line of communication
• Amongst a network of employees to get the job done

(Marquis & Huston, 2017, p. 293-303; Children’s of Alabama, 2018a)

Strategic Plan
• Based on the findings of the
assessment, in 2017 Children’s of
Alabama will develop business plans to:
• Focus its current community programming in child
safety and asthma.
• Continue and strengthen its community
partnerships around mental health, obesity, and
children with special health care needs—areas of
need that are well supported through community-
based collaborations.
• Monitor community efforts to address infant
mortality, pre-term births, low and very low birth
weight babies, and teen pregnancy as these are
beyond Children’s scope of service and may not
be included in direct actions. The Board of
Trustees adopted the implementation plan on
December 15, 2016.

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018c)

Major Product Lines and Services

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018f)

Major Product Lines and Services
About 100 services
• Alabama LifeStart – equip schools with AEDs
• Amelia Center (Grief Counseling)
• Burn Center
• CBIT (Tourette’s Syndrome Program)
• Children’s Behavioral Health
• CHIPS Center (Child Abuse Screening/Counseling)
• Children’s Harbor (Counseling-Education-Play)
• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)
• Lactation Center
• Medical Autism Center
• Transplant Center

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018h)

Major Product Lines and Services

• Pediatric Teaching Hospital

• Community Outreach
• School Nurse Workshops
• Poison Perils App
• Safe Teen Driving  (UR KEYS 2 DRV)
• Kohl’s ThinkFirst
• This will help the organization from spending extra
expenses and provide safe patient care to the critical or
vulnerable populations

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018e)

Annual Volumes

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018b)

Financial Results

• Children’s is private, not-

for profit hospital
• In 2017, the Department
of Pediatrics had
research funding from
the National Institutes of
Health totaling $15
million and total research
funding of $29 million.

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018b; Children’s of Alabama 2018i)

Quality Measures and Outcomes
• Conducted every three years, the Health Needs
Assessment:
• Invited school nurses, physicians and community
leaders to participate in an online survey
addressing children’s health needs;
• Included interviews with community leaders,
public health officials and other key stakeholders
to determine their biggest concerns for the
health of children in their communities;
• Reviewed existing public health data on key
children’s issues; and
• Identified existing programs and resources in the
community that are working to address issues in
child health

(Marquis & Huston, 2017, p. 615; Children’s of Alabama, 2018c)

Quality Measures and Outcomes

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018c)

Quality Measures and Outcomes

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018c)

Quality Measures and Outcomes

• Children’s will address, continue its work with, and support community efforts toward:
• Asthma
• Child safety
• Mental health
• Obesity
• Children with special health care needs
• Monitor community efforts to address:
• infant mortality
• pre-term births
• low and very low birth weight babies
• teen pregnancy
• Will re-evaluate in 2020

(Children’s of Alabama, 2018c)

SWOT Analysis
• Strengths
• Nationally ranked in 8 children’s specialties
• High nurse staffing
• State’s only designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center
• Weaknesses
• Declined participation in Leapfrog hospital surveys
• No longer Magnet recognized
• Opportunities
• Surplus funds used toward more innovative services and methods of delivery
• Partnership with UAB
• Lack of regional competition
• Threats
• Increased expenses with decreased revenue.
• Alabama’s hospitals get paid almost half as much as hospitals in other states
• About 13 percent of Alabama’s adults don’t have insurance

(U.S. News & World Report, 2018; The Leap Frog Group, 2018; UAB, 2018; Alabama Hospital Association, 2018)
References
Alabama Hospital Association (2018). About Alabama’s hospitals. Retrieved from https://www.alaha.org/public-relations/

American Nurses Credentialing Center (2018). Find a magnet facility. Retrieved from https://www.nursingworld.org/organizational-programs/magnet/find-a-magnet-facility

Ascension (2018). Specialty Care. Retrieved from https://healthcare.ascension.org/Specialty-Care

Children’s of Alabama (2018a). Advocate for Children’s of Alabama. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/advocate-for-childrens-of-alabama

Children’s of Alabama (2018b). Annual report for 2017: Year in numbers. Retrieved from http://canvasforchildrens.org/annual_report/yearinnumbers.html#patient

Children’s of Alabama (2018c). Community health needs assessment. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/workfiles/CHNA/CHNA-REPORT-12-31-16.pdf

Children’s of Alabama (2018d). History. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/history

Children’s of Alabama (2018e). In the community. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/in-the-community

Children’s of Alabama (2018f). Just the facts. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/workfiles/corp_comm/just_the_facts.pdf

Children’s of Alabama (2018g). Mission & vision. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/missionvision

Children’s of Alabama (2018h). Programs and services. Retrieved from https://www.childrensal.org/programs-services

Children’s of Alabama (2018i). Research and academics: Annual report 2017. Retrieved from http://canvasforchildrens.org/annual_report/research.html#research1
References
The Joint Commission (2018). Quality Report. Retrieved from

https://www.qualitycheck.org/qualityreport/?keyword=birmingham%2C%20al&pg=2&ajax=1&json=1&callback=jQuery110208069631459

751538_1542500760159&_=1542500760160&bsnid=7937

The Leap Frog Group (2018). Children’s of Alabama. Retrieved from http://www.leapfroggroup.org/hospital/profile/Children%27s+of+Alabama

Marquis, B. & Huston, C. (2017). Leadership roles and management function in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.

St. Vincent’s Foundation (2018). Securing the future of St. Vincent’s healing ministry. Retrieved from http://www.stvhs.com/philanthropy/plannedgiving.asp?orgId=5963

United States Census Bureau (2010). Community facts. Retrieved from https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/community_facts.xhtml

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) (2018). Division of pediatric emergency medicine. Retrieved from

https://www.uab.edu/medicine/peds/divisions/emergency-medicine

U.S. News & World Report (2018). Children’s hospital of Alabama at UAB. Retrieved from

https://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/al/childrens-hospital-of-alabama-at-uab-6530170