Katie Welke said she got a little emotional when she walked into the new Intermountain Health Children's Hospital.
Welke, CEO of Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital and vice president of Intermountain Children's Health, looked at the building under construction. But when she saw the finished product on the morning of the ribbon cutting, about a week before the hospital opened in February, she was moved.
“It was very, very emotional,” Welke tells Chief Healthcare Executive®.
“It actually brought me to tears,” she says. “This has been a long time coming. Then I went in and started meeting all the caregivers who are working so hard.”
And Welki says he felt a sense of gratitude for all the people who helped build the hospital.
“Thousands,” she says. “So there are literally thousands of people involved in the creation of something and we can know about it at any given time.” “At first I was so moved that I cried, but then I felt an incredible sense of gratitude.”
Intermountain last month opened Primary Children's Hospital's second campus, the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Campus. The campus includes a new five-story hospital, as well as outpatient facilities, behavioral health services, and clinic buildings.
Welke calls the new hospital “the pinnacle of a person's career when you can accomplish something that truly impacts the lives of so many people.”
The new children's hospital represents the culmination of Intermountain Health's Primary Promise fundraising efforts to improve pediatric health care, which operates 33 hospitals and nearly 400 clinics in seven Western states. Welke said Intermountain hopes to raise more than $600 million.
As Welki says, “We're not there yet.” (Watch part of our conversation with Katie Welke. This story continues below.)
“We should do more.”
Welke said the fundraising effort started several years ago, but faced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the long campaign also gave donors time to think about making legacy gifts.
“That was a really inspiring part. Seeing people not just donate, but involve their whole family in making the decision whether to donate and being involved in the whole donation process. It was unlike anything I had seen before,” Welki says. “But that was one of the real highlights.”
Welke cited a $50 million donation from prominent Utah businesswoman Gail Miller as a “transformative” moment in the campaign. The giveaway was announced in 2020.
“We've never received anything at that level at Intermountain. So that was kind of the highlight…this is going to be good,” Welke says.
Intermountain originally set a $500 million fundraising goal, but revised the goal to more than $600 million after community members implored the system to tackle some big challenges.
“When we started getting involved in the community, we were told pretty clearly that it wasn’t enough,” Welke says of his initial goals.
Intermountain began focusing on expanding access, including offering more behavioral health services, as the number of pediatric patients in need of treatment increased. Donors told Intermountain that behavioral health needs to be prioritized.
“We got a very clear message that we need to do more,” Welki says.
Intermountain's new children's hospital includes inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services. The system's campaign also included renovations to a behavioral health campus called Wasatch Canyon.
Lessons learned from the campaign
Welke points out that there are many factors that contribute to the success of a Primary Promise campaign.
She points out that the involvement of patient advocates is “absolutely critical.”
“There is nothing more powerful for a donor or for a community than hearing the stories of people and their families who have been through the hospital and having them be a part of their journey,” Welke says.
Welke also noted the importance of early donors helping to “build a strong philanthropy cabinet” to guide campaigns and connect with others.
Looking back, Welke says one area the system could have done better was to involve the marketing and communications teams earlier to “really see the big picture” of the campaign. .
“We started with a high vision,” Welke says. “But there were some details that we didn't really have. And a lot of that came as we got further into the campaign effort.”
“If I could do it all over again, I would probably force some of the smaller work a little earlier to tell the story a little more clearly and make the vision a little better,” she says.
Still, Welki points to one clear takeaway from the campaign's success. She said the entire Intermountain organization focused on pediatric fundraising.
“I think focusing the entire organization on specific initiatives makes a big difference,” Welke says. “So children's hospitals and children's health weren't the only ones focused on this issue.”
Colleagues across Intermountain were raising questions about what it would take to build a healthier country.
“I think that made a difference,” she added. “I think that's going to be a great blueprint for how to really energize the whole system around initiatives.”
