The pediatric bridge hospital is leading the charge for more research about pediatric medically complex patients in the transition from hospital to home
The only hospital of its kind in Missouri and one of only a select few in the country, Ranken Jordan specializes in caring for children and their families with the most complex conditions, illnesses and injuries, bridging the gap between hospital and home.
As the population of medically complex patients is expected to grow, Ranken Jordan has dedicated more resources to expanding research about this community.
In November 2024, Ranken Jordan appointed Patrick Hogan as the hospital’s first full-time Director of Research, formalizing years of work to study and share the hospital’s innovative care model, Care Beyond the Bedside, based on the philosophy that play and healing are inextricably linked and that children develop best when they are out of their hospital bed.
The goal of the new department is to share–through evidence-based research–that getting kids out of their hospital rooms and using the power of play leads to better health outcomes.
“Research is a given at academic health systems or research institutions that receive federal funding, but it is not expected of hospitals like ours,” said Nick Holekamp, MD, Chief Health Transformation Officer at Ranken Jordan. “But because we believe in our Care Beyond the Bedside model and we want to share its benefits with the wider pediatric medical community, we knew we needed to devote more time and resources to scientific research. Medicine is an evidence-based profession so to share what we know works, we have to prove it.”
The research department unofficially started in 2021, with the launch of the Ranken Jordan Research Group, an internal committee. Ranken Jordan team members Patrick Hogan, MPH, and Claire Wallace, PhD, led a multiyear time-motion study to measure how our youngest patients spend their time in the hospital, a critical factor in preventing developmental delays linked to prolonged hospital stays.
Published in Child: Care, Health and Development in 2023, the study demonstrated Ranken Jordan’s research capabilities and the impact it could have, inspiring leadership to prioritize the development of a dedicated research department.
The new paper in Children outlines how prolonged hospital stays often lead to negative impacts on a young patient but also his or her family. The Care Beyond the Bedside model works to mitigate these effects for both patients and their families. The topic will be a key focus for Ranken Jordan moving forward.
“Research about pediatric medically complex patients is a relatively new field,” Hogan said. “Through technological advancements, more and more children are surviving NICU and PICU stays, so the population of medically complex pediatric patients continues to grow. At Ranken Jordan, we are committed to more research in this area to help medically complex children–and their families–live their best lives while they’re in transition from hospital to home. As we say in the paper, childhood cannot wait for discharge.”
Ranken Jordan’s new research department is made possible in part through The Quatrano Family Fund for Research and Publications, created from a generous gift by Dr. Ralph Quatrano, dean emeritus of Washington University and accomplished biology researcher, and his wife Lee Anne, a retired learning disability specialist..
To support Ranken Jordan’s work with medically complex children and their families, visit rankenjordanfoundation.org/donate.
