At A Glance
- Nick Holekamp, MD, became Ranken Jordan’s Chief Health Transformation Officer in October 2025, a role created to bring systemic change to the care of medically complex children.
- The Chief Health Transformation Officer role, as well as Ranken Jordan’s research department, was created to share innovations and learnings inspired by Care Beyond the BedsideⓇ, Ranken Jordan’s unique care model based on the power of play.
- Through conference presentations, media coverage, and new initiatives, the Ranken Jordan team is encouraging other healthcare providers to adopt similar practices.
When I stepped into my current role as Chief Health Transformation Officer (CHTO) in October 2025, I was tasked with bringing systemic change to the care of medically complex children.
It is a strategic priority at Ranken Jordan to share our unique care model, Care Beyond the Bedside, which focuses on getting kids out of their hospital rooms and using play for healing.
We know this model leads to better health outcomes, and we believe in it so strongly that we want to share our innovations and learnings with as many healthcare professionals as possible–it’s my job to share the message and work with healthcare leaders to adopt similar innovative practices.
Now six months into the role, I wanted to share an update on what our team has achieved and how we’re working to bring transformative change to the care of medically complex children.
Publishing New Research
I am honored to lead our new research department, which we officially launched at the end of 2024. While small hospitals like ours are not expected to have a research arm like academic health systems, we created our research department and hired a full-time research director, Patrick Hogan, MPH, to focus on conducting and publishing scientific research to objectively illustrate the benefits of Care Beyond the Bedside.
Since the announcement of our department, we have already published two papers in peer-reviewed journals: one a position paper in the journal Children and a second paper identifying ethical issues in pediatric postacute care settings for the Journal of Pediatrics: Clinical Practice. (Before we launched our official research department, we published our first research paper in the journal Child: Care, Health & Development in 2023.)
Sharing Innovation on the Road
We have also been sharing our mission and innovations through conferences and talks. Since July of last year, we have made 12 presentations to our colleagues. Added to our publications, we’ve completed 14 academically significant events, exceeding our goal of 10.
For instance, our team shared results from an initiative to address tube dislodgements, a common but serious issue in pediatric hospitals that can lead to life-threatening consequences. Claire Wallace, PhD, a member of our research team, and members of the Tube Dislodgment Work Group presented the results at two national conferences last year.
After the presentations, team members were inundated with questions from health care professionals who work with patients like ours. It was amazing to see representatives from other hospitals wanting to learn more about how they could implement the play-based interventions we launched at Ranken Jordan. (Learn more about the initiative in this podcast featuring Dr. Wallace.)
Members of our speech therapy and respiratory therapy teams also presented exciting work on their implementation of a standardized one-way valve protocol for our tracheostomized patients at the Pediatric Complex Care Conference last October. These evidence-based improvements promote improved swallowing, secretion management, and overall outcomes in our complex respiratory patients.
Even More Opportunities to Share Care Beyond the Bedside
Representatives from the wider Ranken Jordan team also have plans to present to national audiences on multiple topics in 2026. We are excited to share details in talks regarding:
- Our unique approach to measuring development in hospitalized children with medical complexity,
- How we balance infection prevention and play in our setting,
- Our multidisciplinary approach to gastrointestinal disorders including encopresis and functional constipation, and
- Moving beyond family-centered care and reuniting hospitalized children with their families.
Beyond attending conferences, we are also dedicated to getting our message out via our Care Beyond the Bedside Blog and interviews with local and national media. The national publication Healthcare Brew and local outlets including St. Louis Magazine and KMOX highlighted one of our hospital’s recent innovations, Sim Home, our state’s first in-hospital simulated home for families with medically complex children, helping families prepare for life after the hospital.
We are passionate about the power of play and how Care Beyond the Bedside leads to better health outcomes, so we are enthusiastic to share this message with even more audiences in the coming months and years.
How You Can Advance Care Beyond the Bedside
I couldn’t be prouder of what our team is doing and how we’re working to drive transformative change for children with complex medical needs. Please help our model reach more people by sharing this article with your audience.
Please also consider donating to our efforts. When you give to Ranken Jordan, you are supporting more than the families we serve at our hospital. You are also supporting our efforts to give EVERY CHILD with complex medical needs their best life.
Our research is supported by The Quatrano Family Fund for Research and Publications, created from a generous gift by the late Dr. Ralph Quatrano, dean emeritus of Washington University and accomplished biology researcher, and his wife Lee Anne, a retired learning disability specialist.
If you want to be part of this mission, please visit RankenJordanFoundation.org or you can donate directly to The Quatrano Family Fund for Research and Publications.
