Community Benefit
As a non-for-profit pediatric healthcare provider, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota provides a broad spectrum of benefits to communities we serve. The funds allocated for these benefits account for a measurable portion of the hospital’s cost and help to promote healthy lifestyles, community developments, health education and affordable access to care. In 2010, Children’s invested more than $88 million toward the health and well-being of children in its service area.
Community Benefit Report 2011
Community Benefit Report 2010
Community Benefit Report 2009
Children’s Community Benefit Programs:
Children's outreach
Children's outreach
Children’s engages with a number of community and stakeholder groups. Among them are:
Family Resource Center
Family Resource Center
The Family Resource Center at Children’s serves patients, families and the community with a continuum of programs to help them navigate their healthcare experiences and promote health literacy. Staff provides reference/research assistance and education on how to search for and evaluate health information. Information about community based agencies and organizations are also available. In partnership with Best Buy’s Geek Squad, the Family Resource Center provides computers, wireless internet access and business services that allow families to stay connected during their child’s hospitalization, and assists them in creating CaringBridge™ sites. In conjunction with Social Work, the Family Resource Center staff provide meal vouchers, nursing mom meal cards, parking vouchers, bus passes and phone cards to families in need.
MCRC
MCRC
Established in 1986, the Midwest Children's Resource Center is a regional center providing medical evaluation and case management in possible child abuse cases. In addition to providing individual patient evaluation and clinical care, MCRC is a key resource for professionals who work with abused children, including child protection workers, police, county attorneys, psychologists, physicians and mental health personnel. The Center regularly conducts education as well as community programs including the Runaway Intervention Program, the Shaken Baby Prevention Program and the First Steps Program which provides support to teen parents in the community.
Minnesota SID Center
Minnesota SID Center
The Minnesota Sudden Infant Death Center at Children's is a statewide program that provides information, counseling, and support to anyone experiencing a sudden and unexpected infant death from any cause. The center, in keeping with its original mission, continues to be Minnesota's resource for information on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and SIDS risk reduction. The Minnesota SID Center conducts training and educational programs for health care providers, child care workers, and other professional and community groups. The Center tracks infant mortality trends in Minnesota and participates in local, state and national initiatives to reduce the risk of sudden, unexpected infant death. The Minnesota SID Center is a partnership between Children's and the Minnesota Department of Health.
Ronald McDonald House
Ronald McDonald House
Ronald McDonald House Charities, Upper Midwest has expanded its programming to include a House inside the Children's - Minneapolis hospital, located adjacent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on the third floor. The Ronald McDonald House inside the Hospital is designed to serve families with a child in Intensive Care as well as the other most critical cases throughout the hospital. This new program is innovative and only the fifth Ronald McDonald House inside a Hospital program in the world. With no geographic requirement, this resource is available to all of Children's families including those living in the surrounding neighborhood and community.
SIM Bus
SIM Bus
Housed within a 40-foot bus, Children’s Mobile Simulation Center uses high-tech, computerized mannequins operated by specialists to create simulated pediatric or neonatal emergencies that provides training to health professionals. These realistic situations reproduce a clinical environment that provide some of the same physical challenges and mental stressors one would have in the real environment. It is important for health care teams to learn to function in these stressful, chaotic environments, to understand each other’s roles, and to learn how to communicate in crisis situations without risk to a real patient. With effectively trained rural health care providers, Children’s expects to lower readmissions and provide better overall outcomes for patients.
WIC Clinic
WIC Clinic
Children’s - Minneapolis hospital houses a Women, Infants and Children (WIC) clinic that provides supplemental food and nutrition programs for patients. The WIC nutrition program helps eligible pregnant women, new mothers, babies and young children eat well, learn about nutrition and stay healthy. Children’s is one of the only hospitals in the Twin Cities Metro that provides on-site dieticians, health screenings, and healthy sustenance information in conjunction with WIC enrollment services. Because of its unique setting within the walls of the Minneapolis hospital, WIC staff is able to work with Children’s physicians, nurses, and dieticians whenever a nutritional question arises.
