Following the COVID-19 Needs Survey completed by nearly every member hospital, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals developed talking points describing the impact of the pandemic on children’s hospitals. These talkings points have helped inform corporate partners, develop the COVID-19 Impact Fund at kidscantwait.org, and educate new partners including Staples.

With your help, we are now further developing these talking points with an additional member hospital survey. Following the results of this survey, we will develop additional insights and messaging points that will showcase how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting kids, children’s hospitals, and the communities you serve. If you have questions about the survey currently being deployed in the field, please contact your area vice president. For questions about the talking points listed below please contact Jason Myers, senior director, brand marketing at jmyers@cmnhospitals.org.

Please feel free to use these talking points in conversations with donors, partners, and advocates to illustrate the impact of COVID-19 on children’s hospitals.

Any questions regarding these statements can be directed to Jason Myers, Senior Director, Content Development, at jmyers@cmnhospitals.org. Click HERE to download document.

Overarching COVID-19 Narrative & Impact on CMN Hospitals

The United States is facing a monumental crisis when it comes to protecting the health of future generations. Children’s hospitals are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, open 24/7/365 to provide high-quality, compassionate care that sick children – and adults need. But they can’t do it alone.

The ripple effects of COVID-19 will affect every aspect of treatment and services offered by children’s hospitals. Without philanthropy, many may face significant impacts in the short and long-term.

We know we can address the most challenging health issues of today while preventing and preparing for those to come. When we fund children’s hospitals, we transform how we meet the most urgent needs, saving more lives and protecting our collective future.

When we change kids’ health, we change the future – for all of us.

Supporting Statements:

Kids Can’t Wait

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.[1] With the additional need for personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline caseworkers, costs have increased by 10 percent.[2] Without philanthropy, many hospitals may face significant impacts in the short and long-term. Although it varies by market size, children’s hospitals are losing millions by month. This revenue loss has the potential to impact the care on kids who need treatment now and in the future.

Kids are Impacted by COVID-19 too

The week of May 11, the US Centers for Disease Control issued an alert warning doctors to look for signs for a dangerous inflammatory syndrome in children that could be linked to COVID-19.[3] Boston Children’s Hospital has coined the illness “Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19.”

Research and funding are critical to understanding this illness. Children’s hospitals led the way in identifying this condition and they will conduct the research necessary to identify life-saving treatments and cures. Investing in children’s hospitals will help transform how we care for children and everyone affected by COVID-19.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many children and adolescents have experienced mild or no symptoms. However, recently hot spots of this new, rare condition (Pediatric Multi-System Inflammatory Syndrome Potentially Associated with COVID-19) have been reported in New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois and in other countries including the UK, Spain and Italy.[4]

This illness is, so far, rare but it progresses rapidly in some children, and they require care in specialized facilities with pediatric/cardiac intensive care units.[5]

Changing kid’s health through children’s hospitals isn’t just about helping those in critical situations – it’s also about the research, preventative care, health and safety education and other support services that build healthier communities today and tomorrow.

• 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 expenses[6]. 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 year[7]. 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.
• Research: Children’s hospitals and their systems are actively working on developing COVID-19 treatments and vaccines including Boston Children’s Hospital[8], Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia[9], Duke Children’s Hospital,[10] Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital,[11] Texas Children’s Hospital[12], Seattle Children’s[13], Children’s Hospital Colorado[14], and Driscoll Children’s Hospital[15] among many others.

• Equipment & Education: 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 million[16]. (These totals are approximate and will fluctuate given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
  • Telehealth investments could cost approximately $40 million for all 170 CMN Hospitals[17]. Telehealth and technology services will allow hospitals to provide care virtually and add technology upgrades to provide care under social distance recommendations.
  • PPE needs continue to skyrocket to protect both staff and patients. At this rate, member hospital systems could spend approx. $85 million on PPE just next month alone on these supplies.
  • Because of new testing and equipment needs, hospitals could spend more than $44 million on of COVID-19 testing supplies and infrastructure and purchase $17 million worth of new equipment to care for patients.

• Patient Services: Each year, tens of millions of children require specialized, expensive health care. Within the current crisis, many larger children’s hospitals are treating adult patients, and increasing the age range of patients served.
• Advancement Services: Children’s hospitals are on the frontlines of testing in their communities. Many larger children’s hospitals and/or their health systems have constructed and are opening drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites.

[1] Children’s Hospital Association, 2020.

[2] Children’s Hospital Association, 2020.

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/13/health/coronavirus-cdc-alert-children-symptoms/index.html

[4] https://www.connecticutchildrens.org/coronavirus/a-mysterious-inflammatory-illness-in-kids-may-be-linked-to-covid-19-our-physician-in-chief-shares-what-we-know/, https://www.vox.com/2020/5/13/21257568/kids-covid-19-kawasaki-pediatric-multisymptom-inflammatory-disease

[5] https://discoveries.childrenshospital.org/covid-19-inflammatory-syndrome-children/

[6] U.S. Census Bureau. Uninsured rate for children in 2018. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/uninsured-rate-for-children-in-2018.html

[7] Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. 2019 Impact Report

[8] https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/bch-bch042820.php

[9] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3575161

[10] https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2020/04/17/peds.2020-0973.full.pdf

[11] nature.com/articles/s41390-020-0881-y

[12] https://www.bcm.edu/news/infectious-diseases/covid-19-vaccine-baylor-texas-childrens

[13] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-universities-are-developing-covid-19-solutions-in-real-time

[14] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/colorado-hospital-calling-donors-experimental-promising-coronavirus-treatment/story?id=69951910

[15] https://www.cureus.com/articles/29784-coronavirus-disease-covid-19-and-pediatric-patients-a-review-of-epidemiology-symptomatology-laboratory-and-imaging-results-to-guide-the-development-of-a-management-algorithm#article-disclosures-acknowledgements

[16] Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. 2020 COVID-19 Impact Need Survey

[17] Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. 2020 COVID-19 Impact Need Survey

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• COVID-19