September 18, 2024 • 29 mins
Pam Keen became CEO of The Children’s Home & Lemieux Family Center in 1993 and is credited with expanding and creating programs to best meet the needs of families through our programs: Adoption, Child’s Way, Pediatric VIEW, Counseling, Family Centered Therapy Services and the Pediatric Specialty Hospital. After 31 years, Pam is retiring. Stacy Schesler, who has been with the organization for 11 years and is the current Chief Operating Officer...will be stepping in the role of CEO.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
greater Pittsburgh area. I'm your host, Johnny Hertwell, let's say
elo to Pam Keene and Stacy Schessler of the Children's
Home of Pittsburgh. Good to see you. Thank you for
coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you so much all, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Pam, you have a big announcement. Tell us everything we
need to know.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh my gosh, Well, Johnny, after thirty one years, I
am retiring as CEO.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, and you're passing the baton to Stacy.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Absolutely. So. I've had the pleasure of working with Stacy
now for eleven and a half years at the Children's Home.
She came in as our HR manager and has worked
her way up as Chief Operating officer. And now I
am really pleased to announce that she is the next
Chief executive Officer of the Children's Home of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, congratulations, and so you have what's your goals? What's
the first thing you want to do?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, let's first acknowledge that I have quite large shoes
to fill. I mean, Pam has been the CEO for
thirty one years, and in her thirty one years, she
has transformed our organization from a single program into what
we are building into seven programs. Today, we are a
pediatric healthcare organization with a social service backbone. We do
(01:32):
incredible work for families, surrounding them or moving barriers and
really working with them to provide holistic care for them
and their children. And yeah, I mean, I can go on.
I'm just going to continue carrying on the passion that
Pam has displayed over her thirty one years. And I
(01:54):
have learned so much in the eleven years that I've
been working alongside of her. So I've been blessed to
have an incredible team of like minded, strong individuals who
are thought leaders in our community and really have the
same passion for the services that we are providing to
the community.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I've been working with your organization for a couple of
years now, but it wasn't until maybe a year and
a half ago I was privileged to visit the home
and really see what you guys do and what an
amazing organization and all. The problem with the Children's Home
is that you do so much for the community, and
(02:36):
so it's so hard to explain what you do because
you do so much. So yes, I mean, if you're
going to have problems, I guess those are the problems
to have, right.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yes, Because what we do is we are, like I said,
we're surrounding families and meeting them where they're at. We
obviously are a healthcare institution, and we also provide adoption
and foster care. Our adoption is our founding program. But
what we have done is we listen to what our
families needs and what the community needs, and we then
(03:08):
find a way to provide those services with the resources
that we have. Which is why you don't hear a
lot about the Children's Home because we don't have a
robust budget for marketing and we don't spend money in
that way. We spend money internally on our families, making
sure that we can provide the incredible support that they
truly need to be able to manage their new reality
(03:31):
with their families and their children.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So what is the history behind the Children's Home? Can
you take us back to the when when it was
first founded? Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, the good news is I didn't start one hundred
years ago, years ago, So the Children's Home is one
hundred and thirty one years and we were providing adoption
in the early eighteen ninety three, and so we're placing
(04:01):
orphaned and abandoned children with loving families. We continue to
do that to this day. You know, children that are
in foster care, we help find families for them. And
then in nineteen eighty four we started Transitional Infant Care Hospital,
which has now grown tremendously. We used to care for
(04:24):
just premature and high risk infants, helping families transition to home,
so a bridge from the hospital to home. They learned
how to care for medically fragile infants, providing oxygen, providing medication,
learning how to do the therapies that their child needed.
(04:44):
And then we grew that program as well, so now
we're a thirty bed pediatric specialty hospital. And then Child's
Way nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
All right, so this is in nineteen ninety three when
you took over. What were some of your goals that
you wanted to accomplish when you took over as CEO.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So when I took over, you know, I was having
conversations with the CEO of Children's Hospital, and what they
were finding was that they needed a transition for older,
more medically complex infants children who were dependent. So around
nineteen ninety five I started the first ventilator dependent program
(05:26):
or you know, where children were dependent on technology and
the families needed to learn things like how to change
a trake, how to change trait ties, how to clean
a G tube, how to do gtube feedings, how to
make sure that they could help their child if their
(05:46):
child was in a crisis. And you need to learn
all of that, and it's difficult to learn it in
a tertiary care hospital where they're in an intensive care unit.
I mean, you have to learn the practical things like
how do you care for a child, taking them out
of a bed and putting them in a kid cart,
taking them outside, being in the backyard with their other siblings.
(06:10):
So those were things that I thought this model of
care that they had for the infants could be expanded,
and that's why we expanded them on site on Kentucky Avenue,
which was our you know, one of our original facilities,
and then expanded from there.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
You mentioned that, you know, the conversation with the Children's hospital.
Do people confuse that the Children's Home and Children's Hospital
because you have some overlap, Do they assume that you
are connected in some way, and you really aren't.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We aren't, so we are probably one of the only
independent healthcare facilities left. We are not part of UPMC,
and yes, they do get confused. We are six tenths
of a mile down the road from the children's hospital.
We're on penn Avenue, but.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
You work with the Children's hospital from there.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
We work really closely with them. Some of our physician
over site, so the critical care medicine physicians and the
neonatologists still come round at our hospital, but we have
our own hospitalists on staff who care for the children
that are in our hospital. You know, the hospital is
(07:25):
for children that really need a longer term care stay
where families. The focuses on teaching families, supporting them, eliminating
barriers as Stacey gives them.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
A little more examples of how you do that and
what happens at the children's home.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So when a family comes over and they're admitted to
the hospital, they can come and visit any time. There's
no restrictive visiting hours. We actually have a place called
the Lemieux Family Center and families can stay overnight there
and all the amenity are provided for them. We eliminate barriers,
(08:03):
as Stacy mentioned, to caring for their children, so that
they don't pay for parking. We have food cupboards and
pantries so that food is available. We give them all
these gift cards. We give them, you know, get go
cards to fill up with gas so that you know,
just eliminating those things that can be a burden on
(08:26):
families so that they can be there to focus on
learning the care for their children. And that means if
there's a special medication, they have to learn how to
measure it and administer it, you know, making sure that
they can monitor their children, they can understand the side
effects of medications and maybe what is entailed, and caring
(08:49):
for a child with a certain diagnosis. Those are the
kinds of things a focus is on education and support.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You know, as a father of three, it was tough
to know how to take care of a child, but
when you have a child with complex medical situations, it's
even more difficult. So you kind of give them a
way to transition to taking care of that child. Now
you mentioned the new Family Center. Now people probably think
(09:21):
that when you have a name associated with Lemieux that
it comes with the amazing benefactor of money coming in
from the Penguins or Mario Lemieux, but that's really not
the case. There's an advantage to it. You know, they
were certainly helpful with developing this family center, but it's
(09:43):
not like you're getting funds every year from the Lemieux family.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
No, no, yes, I mean they have been instrumental in
our support over the years through the establishment of the
first Austin's Playroom in our lower level of our original
building and then again in our new building, and then
they were very helpful in supporting our capital campaign. But
(10:11):
that that is truly kind of where it lies. And
we are often confused that we do have that level
of ongoing regular support and we really aren't. We're off
very dependent on the donations and support from the community
and foundations, and we provide well over four million dollars
(10:34):
in charitable care a year, so we have to find
funding and means to be able to pay for that,
to be able to provide all of these supports for
the family.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Now, Stacey, you're taking over a CEO, but you've been
with the organization for over a over a decade. How
did you come to the Children's Home? How did you start?
Do you remember?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I do remember it was actually really bizarre. I don't
even know if I've time to talk about. But I
called up a friend who I was trying to provide
him a job. I worked at P and C and
employee relations and taught me a lot. And I called
(11:22):
him up and said, Hey, you would really love working here.
And he said, actually, you would love my job. I'm
going back to Ohio and you really need to apply.
You would love this organization. And I applied, and the
CFO interviewed me, and I mean, how could you resist?
She just fell in love with my passion, and I
(11:45):
just fell in love with everything about the Children's Home.
And every day I've just been so thankful because I
found my home. I found an amazing and incredible mentor
family truly at the Children's Home, because our our staff
all care about the mission, and everybody is trying to
(12:07):
help do the right thing, move it forward, grow our services,
get the support that we know we need to be
able to continue doing it. And and it is very
satisfying and self rewarding and maybe selfish of me to say,
but I'm so thankful that I work with the team
that I have, and that I've been so thankful and
(12:29):
blessed to work alongside Pam because as you see, look
at all that she's accomplished in thirty one years, and
that passion is instilled within me and I can only
imagine what I'm going to be able to accomplish with
our with our team and with your your continued support,
and I mean, she'll be at everything.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Off.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
But I'm taking a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But you're still going to be associated with the with
the organization.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, yeah, so I've been nominated to be a member
of the board directors, which you know, I'm excited to
serve on the board. I'll probably be one of the
more active board members. I'm going to say that I
will be attending all the events. I'm going to help
with our fundraisers. So our Shake your Booty's fundraiser that
happens every year. Super excited about that this year. Julia
(13:20):
Taylor is the chair for that event. It's going to
be at the Casino again this year. It's gonna be
Mother's Day weekend, I think is It's in May. So
we're looking to raise all kinds of money. As you know,
Stacey said that we depend we depend on that income
to help defray that four million dollars in charitable care
(13:41):
every year.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Okay, let's talk about funding the Children's Home. Where do
you find you have to do the fundraisers or do
you have a benefactor? How does how does that work?
How's how do you fund the Children's Home?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Wow? So we have a senior director of development. You know,
Stacy has created an incredible team. I've been there alongside,
you know, since I announced that I was going to
retire eighteen months ago. She's put a tremendous plan in
place to hire all the staff that she would need
moving forward and all the leadership. And they have a
(14:15):
plan development plan which entails, you know, going out direct
mail to more than fourteen thousand in our database telling
people that they can give donate online, go to our website,
you know, www Children's Home pgh dot org. Make a
donation through the website. You can support the radiothon which
(14:39):
we started last year. So excited about that country music
fans supported us. It was tremendous so for year one.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So let me ask you a couple of questions. When
it comes to fundraising, does it go directly to funding
the programs that you have?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
How important those fundraisers.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Oh my gosh, they are so important and it does
go directly. So most organizations have lower levels and levels
of upper management and you know vice presidents and managers
and directors and all of that. We have basically two levels.
We have a management team and then we have direct
(15:22):
staff who provides all the care that's being provided. So
our overhead is very small, so the money that does
come in, it goes directly to staff salaries, but it
also goes directly to helping families.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Now, the reason why I brought that up, why donations
and the fundraisers and all those campaigns that you do,
because when it comes to your patients, hmm, it's so
important because the money they really don't get a bill,
do they know. So that's one thing I really wanted
to really stress that, you know, you provide all these
(16:01):
services and the family doesn't get a bill.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
For most cases, yes, for our pediatric Specialty Hospital, any
of our families who stay with us, there is no bill.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So we do bill.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
The insurance company and whatever is left over that insurance
or payers don't cover, we pay for. The families never
receive a bill from the children's home for their stay
and as you can imagine. I mean I personally just
had an ED visit and it was eighteen thousand dollars,
so you can imagine. Our families stay with us sometimes
(16:37):
twenty one days up up even longer than that. I mean,
we have families who've been there over three months, so
that bill would be a tremendous barrier for them when
they got home.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And so many of your patients, you know, especially hospital,
are their complex situations, so it's going to cost a
lot of money. So these fundraiser is, these donations, the
things that.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
They're truly truly impactful.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
All right, talking about Let's talk a little bit about
some of your services, because you do a lot of
We kind of touched on the pediatric Specialty hospital, but
let's talk let's get in a little deeper, what exactly
that is, what you are, what you provide for the
Pittsburgh community.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Okay, so, yeah, we did talk about the hospital. The
average one to stay, as Stacy mentions about, could be
twenty one days. You know, we take pediatric patients with
complex medical issues that need continued hospitalization. That's kind of
the criteria for the admission for our hospital. But then
(17:38):
we have Child's Way which is a daycare for medically
fragile children. It's the only alternative to in home care
when a family member can't stay home to care for
a child because they have to work. And what if
it's a single mom or dad and they have a
child that has a G tube, while a regular daycare
can't take care of that child, so they can bring
(18:01):
them to Child's Way, and it's wonderful to see these
young children socialize with other children. You know, it's like
a regular daycare. They have circle times.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I was just going to say, when you walk into
the daycare center, it looks like a regular daycare center,
but you have like you know, uh special hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You know, the equipment and the nursing staff.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
We're dually licensed and we're the only one in the state.
We're licensed by the Department of Health, which is that's
all of the medical peace and the nursing care, and
then we're also licensed by the Department of Human Services
and we are a Keystone Star for daycare center, which
is the highest level of developmental education for an early
(18:49):
education center, and we do maintain that.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
You know, it's amazing that you're the that's the only
only in the state in the state and to think that,
you know, in Philadelphia and places all over Pennsylvania, you're
going to see situations that they don't have that in
their community. But we do and you guys provide that service.
That's amazing. Talk a little bit about your signature service,
(19:14):
which is adoption.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Well, we kind of already touched on that. That was
our founding program eighteen ninety three, and you know, as
adoptions have kind of unfolded in what we see today,
there is a high demand for foster families. There are
so many children in the foster in foster care right now,
(19:40):
and we are always looking for foster families. We are
participant of the Statewide Adoption Network. We are the Children's
Home and our staff is a leader leader amongst that
SWAN network, and we are working closely with other organizations
on trying to match families with children to you know,
(20:04):
have permanency for them. And that's all up to twenty
one and probably be on in some unique cases.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So yeah, I mean, like Stacy said, we really do
need foster families. So if families are hearing this today
and they're interested in being a foster family, they can
reach out and contact the Children's home. Just go to
our general phone number and ask to speak to somebody
in our adoption program and they can get right through
(20:34):
and start a process.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Is there any kind of requirement.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Well, I mean there are things that have to be done.
I mean there's obviously requirements, but they'll have a family
study done and they'll work with a counselor who will
walk them through the process of the paperwork that needs
to be done, the clearances and things like that, and
so you know, we're here to make the process easy
(20:59):
and our staff is tremendous at doing that, is walking
you through so they don't just say, well, you're on
your own.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
We've been talking a lot a lot about how unique
your organization is, and one unique facet and service is
Pediatric View. Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You go ahead, because you had this you just jumped
on that.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah. Well, so Pediatric View has been around since nineteen
ninety eight. It's been around a long time, but doctor
Christine Roman came to me it's now almost three and
a half, almost four years ago, three years ago, and
pediatric View needed a home.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
What is pediatric View.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So, pediatric View is for patients who have cortical visual impairment.
Which is a brain based blindness. So if you do
an exam of the eye, the eye exam may look normal. However,
what's going on in the brain can't process what the
eye is seeing. So patients, pediatric patients that have had strokes,
(22:11):
or that have cerebral palsy, or have had an accident,
or they've had a brain injury, or they're premature where
they've had a brain bleed, those kinds of things that
can impact your vision. So the way it's described is
if you were looking through a kaleidoscope, So you can
(22:33):
imagine trying to identify daily objects, but seeing it through
a kaleidoscope would be so difficult to identify that object.
And what pediatric view does is they bring the patient
and the family in and they do an assessment to
figure out how can they help that child see that object.
(22:59):
And it might mean placing a spoon on a red
background and the spoon jumps out and then they can
learn that's a spoon, that's what I used to feed myself.
And there are grades of cortical visual impairment, there's a range.
But doctor Roman, she's absolutely incredible. I mean, she's internationally renowned.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And I met her by accident. You had a little
barbecue and I sat down and I was like, so,
what do you do? And then she started talking about it,
and I was like this, I've never heard anything, and
we have it. We have these services right here in Pittsburgh,
which is another we keep saying, you have such a
unique facility and the opportunity to you know, Pittsburgh just
(23:48):
doesn't realize that they have this an amazing organization that
does so much. So if you have the opportunity to
support the Children's Home, either through donations or participating in
some of their you know, their radiothons or their their
you know, shake your booty fundraisers, I highly recommend and
at the very least call the Children's Home and ask
(24:09):
for a tour, because it really is amazing. It will
change how you know. You may think it's a children's hospital,
but it's so much more. And by going through it,
I think you'll have a greater appreciation of what you do.
Do you hear that a lot?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Oh? Yeah, I mean, we don't want to be the
best kept secret in Pittsburgh anymore, you know, And we
thank you so much for bringing us on, you know,
allowing us to talk about the mission of the Children's
Home and the services that we provide. One last thing
which is really important and Stacy was at the core
of developing this with Erica, is we have a counseling program,
(24:51):
and mental health counseling is so important and we see,
you know, adoptees that need support. We have always provided
infertility counseling and support and those kinds of things, so
now we're beginning to expand that and provide more mental
health counseling and support.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
If somebody needs, you know, or is interested in learning
more about counseling or some of your therapy services, or
adoption or any of your services, what do you recommend
calling or going to the website or both.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, I would say calling our number for one two
four four one four eight eight four or visiting us
on our website at www dot Children's Home pg dot org.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
All right, Pam, you're leaving a CEO, but you're still
going to be associated with the Children's Home. Is there
anything in particular you're most proud of? What is your
your peak accomplishment at CEO.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I think through the years it's been surrounding myself with
very good people and you know, an organization isn't just
as good as its leader, It's as good as all
the people that are involved with it, and so staff
that has a heart for the mission, and they always
(26:19):
have the leadership that I've worked with the management team
over the years, in particular Stacey, who have a vision,
who can carry it out. I wouldn't sit here and
take credit for any one particular thing because it truly
(26:39):
has been an effort by all of the staff, and
we just have a tremendous staff.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, I congratulate for congratulate you for everything you've done
for not only the Children's Home, but everything you've done
for the Pittsburgh community. I wish you luck and I
hope to work with you as in some capacity. But
going to Stacy, your vision for the future, You've had
a great mentor but looking forward, what are some things
(27:09):
that you would like to see done or what are
some things that you would like to work on as CEO.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yes, as Pam mentioned, we do have a newer program,
our counseling program, and there is such a tremendous need.
I mean we see that every day with our families.
Who's taking care of the caregiver, you know, who's helping them.
I mean, that's just one avenue, and you know that
is something we need to in the community needs and
(27:40):
we've learned that we're just going to continue building on
and growing. And in addition, we also are expanding our therapy.
You know, one thing that the children in Child's Way
and the children who stay with us in our hospital,
they receive incredible therapy services with our with our team,
(28:00):
they're able to be seen on a daily basis and
communicate regularly with the families. And we're expanding that into
early intervention to be able to work with the children
in the homes and also outpatient therapy services. There's such
an incredible demand and need for additional therapy for pediatrics
(28:21):
and you know, the Children's Home is going to just
keep building and growing that and we have a remarkable
leadership team for those initiatives. And you know, as we
keep growing, we keep asking ourselves, you know, what is
the next thing that's needed. What can we be doing better?
What what do the families need and do these children
need and what can we do within our resources. So again,
(28:47):
any support that you can provide to the Children's Home,
it is truly impactful. You know, you can give to
a lot of organizations. There's so much work that's that
is being done that's great where but please know, if
you're giving to the Children's Home, it immediately goes right
back into every good thing that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
All right. If you're interested in supporting the Children's Home
or would like to find out more about their services,
their website is Children's Home pgch dot org. Pam Keene
a CEO. We will miss Thank you, Johnny and a CEO.
We are getting to know Stacy Scheschler of the Children's
Home of Pittsburgh. Good luck and hopefully we'll be working
(29:26):
with you very soon.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Thank you, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
As always, if you have any comments, concerns, or an
idea for a future program, please email us from this
radio station's website. I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank you so much
for listening.
And welcome in. This is a public affairs program shedding
the light on the interest, issues and concerns of the
greater Pittsburgh area. I'm your host, Johnny Hertwell, let's say
elo to Pam Keene and Stacy Schessler of the Children's
Home of Pittsburgh. Good to see you. Thank you for
coming in.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you so much all, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Pam, you have a big announcement. Tell us everything we
need to know.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh my gosh, Well, Johnny, after thirty one years, I
am retiring as CEO.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, and you're passing the baton to Stacy.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Absolutely. So. I've had the pleasure of working with Stacy
now for eleven and a half years at the Children's Home.
She came in as our HR manager and has worked
her way up as Chief Operating officer. And now I
am really pleased to announce that she is the next
Chief executive Officer of the Children's Home of Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Well, congratulations, and so you have what's your goals? What's
the first thing you want to do?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well, let's first acknowledge that I have quite large shoes
to fill. I mean, Pam has been the CEO for
thirty one years, and in her thirty one years, she
has transformed our organization from a single program into what
we are building into seven programs. Today, we are a
pediatric healthcare organization with a social service backbone. We do
(01:32):
incredible work for families, surrounding them or moving barriers and
really working with them to provide holistic care for them
and their children. And yeah, I mean, I can go on.
I'm just going to continue carrying on the passion that
Pam has displayed over her thirty one years. And I
(01:54):
have learned so much in the eleven years that I've
been working alongside of her. So I've been blessed to
have an incredible team of like minded, strong individuals who
are thought leaders in our community and really have the
same passion for the services that we are providing to
the community.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I've been working with your organization for a couple of
years now, but it wasn't until maybe a year and
a half ago I was privileged to visit the home
and really see what you guys do and what an
amazing organization and all. The problem with the Children's Home
is that you do so much for the community, and
(02:36):
so it's so hard to explain what you do because
you do so much. So yes, I mean, if you're
going to have problems, I guess those are the problems
to have, right.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yes, Because what we do is we are, like I said,
we're surrounding families and meeting them where they're at. We
obviously are a healthcare institution, and we also provide adoption
and foster care. Our adoption is our founding program. But
what we have done is we listen to what our
families needs and what the community needs, and we then
(03:08):
find a way to provide those services with the resources
that we have. Which is why you don't hear a
lot about the Children's Home because we don't have a
robust budget for marketing and we don't spend money in
that way. We spend money internally on our families, making
sure that we can provide the incredible support that they
truly need to be able to manage their new reality
(03:31):
with their families and their children.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
So what is the history behind the Children's Home? Can
you take us back to the when when it was
first founded? Sure?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, the good news is I didn't start one hundred
years ago, years ago, So the Children's Home is one
hundred and thirty one years and we were providing adoption
in the early eighteen ninety three, and so we're placing
(04:01):
orphaned and abandoned children with loving families. We continue to
do that to this day. You know, children that are
in foster care, we help find families for them. And
then in nineteen eighty four we started Transitional Infant Care Hospital,
which has now grown tremendously. We used to care for
(04:24):
just premature and high risk infants, helping families transition to home,
so a bridge from the hospital to home. They learned
how to care for medically fragile infants, providing oxygen, providing medication,
learning how to do the therapies that their child needed.
(04:44):
And then we grew that program as well, so now
we're a thirty bed pediatric specialty hospital. And then Child's
Way nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
All right, so this is in nineteen ninety three when
you took over. What were some of your goals that
you wanted to accomplish when you took over as CEO.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So when I took over, you know, I was having
conversations with the CEO of Children's Hospital, and what they
were finding was that they needed a transition for older,
more medically complex infants children who were dependent. So around
nineteen ninety five I started the first ventilator dependent program
(05:26):
or you know, where children were dependent on technology and
the families needed to learn things like how to change
a trake, how to change trait ties, how to clean
a G tube, how to do gtube feedings, how to
make sure that they could help their child if their
(05:46):
child was in a crisis. And you need to learn
all of that, and it's difficult to learn it in
a tertiary care hospital where they're in an intensive care unit.
I mean, you have to learn the practical things like
how do you care for a child, taking them out
of a bed and putting them in a kid cart,
taking them outside, being in the backyard with their other siblings.
(06:10):
So those were things that I thought this model of
care that they had for the infants could be expanded,
and that's why we expanded them on site on Kentucky Avenue,
which was our you know, one of our original facilities,
and then expanded from there.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
You mentioned that, you know, the conversation with the Children's hospital.
Do people confuse that the Children's Home and Children's Hospital
because you have some overlap, Do they assume that you
are connected in some way, and you really aren't.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
We aren't, so we are probably one of the only
independent healthcare facilities left. We are not part of UPMC,
and yes, they do get confused. We are six tenths
of a mile down the road from the children's hospital.
We're on penn Avenue, but.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
You work with the Children's hospital from there.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
We work really closely with them. Some of our physician
over site, so the critical care medicine physicians and the
neonatologists still come round at our hospital, but we have
our own hospitalists on staff who care for the children
that are in our hospital. You know, the hospital is
(07:25):
for children that really need a longer term care stay
where families. The focuses on teaching families, supporting them, eliminating
barriers as Stacey gives them.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
A little more examples of how you do that and
what happens at the children's home.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
So when a family comes over and they're admitted to
the hospital, they can come and visit any time. There's
no restrictive visiting hours. We actually have a place called
the Lemieux Family Center and families can stay overnight there
and all the amenity are provided for them. We eliminate barriers,
(08:03):
as Stacy mentioned, to caring for their children, so that
they don't pay for parking. We have food cupboards and
pantries so that food is available. We give them all
these gift cards. We give them, you know, get go
cards to fill up with gas so that you know,
just eliminating those things that can be a burden on
(08:26):
families so that they can be there to focus on
learning the care for their children. And that means if
there's a special medication, they have to learn how to
measure it and administer it, you know, making sure that
they can monitor their children, they can understand the side
effects of medications and maybe what is entailed, and caring
(08:49):
for a child with a certain diagnosis. Those are the
kinds of things a focus is on education and support.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
You know, as a father of three, it was tough
to know how to take care of a child, but
when you have a child with complex medical situations, it's
even more difficult. So you kind of give them a
way to transition to taking care of that child. Now
you mentioned the new Family Center. Now people probably think
(09:21):
that when you have a name associated with Lemieux that
it comes with the amazing benefactor of money coming in
from the Penguins or Mario Lemieux, but that's really not
the case. There's an advantage to it. You know, they
were certainly helpful with developing this family center, but it's
(09:43):
not like you're getting funds every year from the Lemieux family.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
No, no, yes, I mean they have been instrumental in
our support over the years through the establishment of the
first Austin's Playroom in our lower level of our original
building and then again in our new building, and then
they were very helpful in supporting our capital campaign. But
(10:11):
that that is truly kind of where it lies. And
we are often confused that we do have that level
of ongoing regular support and we really aren't. We're off
very dependent on the donations and support from the community
and foundations, and we provide well over four million dollars
(10:34):
in charitable care a year, so we have to find
funding and means to be able to pay for that,
to be able to provide all of these supports for
the family.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Now, Stacey, you're taking over a CEO, but you've been
with the organization for over a over a decade. How
did you come to the Children's Home? How did you start?
Do you remember?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I do remember it was actually really bizarre. I don't
even know if I've time to talk about. But I
called up a friend who I was trying to provide
him a job. I worked at P and C and
employee relations and taught me a lot. And I called
(11:22):
him up and said, Hey, you would really love working here.
And he said, actually, you would love my job. I'm
going back to Ohio and you really need to apply.
You would love this organization. And I applied, and the
CFO interviewed me, and I mean, how could you resist?
She just fell in love with my passion, and I
(11:45):
just fell in love with everything about the Children's Home.
And every day I've just been so thankful because I
found my home. I found an amazing and incredible mentor
family truly at the Children's Home, because our our staff
all care about the mission, and everybody is trying to
(12:07):
help do the right thing, move it forward, grow our services,
get the support that we know we need to be
able to continue doing it. And and it is very
satisfying and self rewarding and maybe selfish of me to say,
but I'm so thankful that I work with the team
that I have, and that I've been so thankful and
(12:29):
blessed to work alongside Pam because as you see, look
at all that she's accomplished in thirty one years, and
that passion is instilled within me and I can only
imagine what I'm going to be able to accomplish with
our with our team and with your your continued support,
and I mean, she'll be at everything.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Off.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
But I'm taking a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But you're still going to be associated with the with
the organization.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Well, yeah, so I've been nominated to be a member
of the board directors, which you know, I'm excited to
serve on the board. I'll probably be one of the
more active board members. I'm going to say that I
will be attending all the events. I'm going to help
with our fundraisers. So our Shake your Booty's fundraiser that
happens every year. Super excited about that this year. Julia
(13:20):
Taylor is the chair for that event. It's going to
be at the Casino again this year. It's gonna be
Mother's Day weekend, I think is It's in May. So
we're looking to raise all kinds of money. As you know,
Stacey said that we depend we depend on that income
to help defray that four million dollars in charitable care
(13:41):
every year.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Okay, let's talk about funding the Children's Home. Where do
you find you have to do the fundraisers or do
you have a benefactor? How does how does that work?
How's how do you fund the Children's Home?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Wow? So we have a senior director of development. You know,
Stacy has created an incredible team. I've been there alongside,
you know, since I announced that I was going to
retire eighteen months ago. She's put a tremendous plan in
place to hire all the staff that she would need
moving forward and all the leadership. And they have a
(14:15):
plan development plan which entails, you know, going out direct
mail to more than fourteen thousand in our database telling
people that they can give donate online, go to our website,
you know, www Children's Home pgh dot org. Make a
donation through the website. You can support the radiothon which
(14:39):
we started last year. So excited about that country music
fans supported us. It was tremendous so for year one.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
So let me ask you a couple of questions. When
it comes to fundraising, does it go directly to funding
the programs that you have?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
So?
Speaker 1 (14:59):
How important those fundraisers.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Oh my gosh, they are so important and it does
go directly. So most organizations have lower levels and levels
of upper management and you know vice presidents and managers
and directors and all of that. We have basically two levels.
We have a management team and then we have direct
(15:22):
staff who provides all the care that's being provided. So
our overhead is very small, so the money that does
come in, it goes directly to staff salaries, but it
also goes directly to helping families.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Now, the reason why I brought that up, why donations
and the fundraisers and all those campaigns that you do,
because when it comes to your patients, hmm, it's so
important because the money they really don't get a bill,
do they know. So that's one thing I really wanted
to really stress that, you know, you provide all these
(16:01):
services and the family doesn't get a bill.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
For most cases, yes, for our pediatric Specialty Hospital, any
of our families who stay with us, there is no bill.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
So we do bill.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
The insurance company and whatever is left over that insurance
or payers don't cover, we pay for. The families never
receive a bill from the children's home for their stay
and as you can imagine. I mean I personally just
had an ED visit and it was eighteen thousand dollars,
so you can imagine. Our families stay with us sometimes
(16:37):
twenty one days up up even longer than that. I mean,
we have families who've been there over three months, so
that bill would be a tremendous barrier for them when
they got home.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
And so many of your patients, you know, especially hospital,
are their complex situations, so it's going to cost a
lot of money. So these fundraiser is, these donations, the
things that.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
They're truly truly impactful.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
All right, talking about Let's talk a little bit about
some of your services, because you do a lot of
We kind of touched on the pediatric Specialty hospital, but
let's talk let's get in a little deeper, what exactly
that is, what you are, what you provide for the
Pittsburgh community.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Okay, so, yeah, we did talk about the hospital. The
average one to stay, as Stacy mentions about, could be
twenty one days. You know, we take pediatric patients with
complex medical issues that need continued hospitalization. That's kind of
the criteria for the admission for our hospital. But then
(17:38):
we have Child's Way which is a daycare for medically
fragile children. It's the only alternative to in home care
when a family member can't stay home to care for
a child because they have to work. And what if
it's a single mom or dad and they have a
child that has a G tube, while a regular daycare
can't take care of that child, so they can bring
(18:01):
them to Child's Way, and it's wonderful to see these
young children socialize with other children. You know, it's like
a regular daycare. They have circle times.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
I was just going to say, when you walk into
the daycare center, it looks like a regular daycare center,
but you have like you know, uh special hospital.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
You know, the equipment and the nursing staff.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
We're dually licensed and we're the only one in the state.
We're licensed by the Department of Health, which is that's
all of the medical peace and the nursing care, and
then we're also licensed by the Department of Human Services
and we are a Keystone Star for daycare center, which
is the highest level of developmental education for an early
(18:49):
education center, and we do maintain that.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
You know, it's amazing that you're the that's the only
only in the state in the state and to think that,
you know, in Philadelphia and places all over Pennsylvania, you're
going to see situations that they don't have that in
their community. But we do and you guys provide that service.
That's amazing. Talk a little bit about your signature service,
(19:14):
which is adoption.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Well, we kind of already touched on that. That was
our founding program eighteen ninety three, and you know, as
adoptions have kind of unfolded in what we see today,
there is a high demand for foster families. There are
so many children in the foster in foster care right now,
(19:40):
and we are always looking for foster families. We are
participant of the Statewide Adoption Network. We are the Children's
Home and our staff is a leader leader amongst that
SWAN network, and we are working closely with other organizations
on trying to match families with children to you know,
(20:04):
have permanency for them. And that's all up to twenty
one and probably be on in some unique cases.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So yeah, I mean, like Stacy said, we really do
need foster families. So if families are hearing this today
and they're interested in being a foster family, they can
reach out and contact the Children's home. Just go to
our general phone number and ask to speak to somebody
in our adoption program and they can get right through
(20:34):
and start a process.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Is there any kind of requirement.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Well, I mean there are things that have to be done.
I mean there's obviously requirements, but they'll have a family
study done and they'll work with a counselor who will
walk them through the process of the paperwork that needs
to be done, the clearances and things like that, and
so you know, we're here to make the process easy
(20:59):
and our staff is tremendous at doing that, is walking
you through so they don't just say, well, you're on
your own.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
We've been talking a lot a lot about how unique
your organization is, and one unique facet and service is
Pediatric View. Tell us about that.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
You go ahead, because you had this you just jumped
on that.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah. Well, so Pediatric View has been around since nineteen
ninety eight. It's been around a long time, but doctor
Christine Roman came to me it's now almost three and
a half, almost four years ago, three years ago, and
pediatric View needed a home.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
What is pediatric View.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
So, pediatric View is for patients who have cortical visual impairment.
Which is a brain based blindness. So if you do
an exam of the eye, the eye exam may look normal. However,
what's going on in the brain can't process what the
eye is seeing. So patients, pediatric patients that have had strokes,
(22:11):
or that have cerebral palsy, or have had an accident,
or they've had a brain injury, or they're premature where
they've had a brain bleed, those kinds of things that
can impact your vision. So the way it's described is
if you were looking through a kaleidoscope, So you can
(22:33):
imagine trying to identify daily objects, but seeing it through
a kaleidoscope would be so difficult to identify that object.
And what pediatric view does is they bring the patient
and the family in and they do an assessment to
figure out how can they help that child see that object.
(22:59):
And it might mean placing a spoon on a red
background and the spoon jumps out and then they can
learn that's a spoon, that's what I used to feed myself.
And there are grades of cortical visual impairment, there's a range.
But doctor Roman, she's absolutely incredible. I mean, she's internationally renowned.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
And I met her by accident. You had a little
barbecue and I sat down and I was like, so,
what do you do? And then she started talking about it,
and I was like this, I've never heard anything, and
we have it. We have these services right here in Pittsburgh,
which is another we keep saying, you have such a
unique facility and the opportunity to you know, Pittsburgh just
(23:48):
doesn't realize that they have this an amazing organization that
does so much. So if you have the opportunity to
support the Children's Home, either through donations or participating in
some of their you know, their radiothons or their their
you know, shake your booty fundraisers, I highly recommend and
at the very least call the Children's Home and ask
(24:09):
for a tour, because it really is amazing. It will
change how you know. You may think it's a children's hospital,
but it's so much more. And by going through it,
I think you'll have a greater appreciation of what you do.
Do you hear that a lot?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Oh? Yeah, I mean, we don't want to be the
best kept secret in Pittsburgh anymore, you know, And we
thank you so much for bringing us on, you know,
allowing us to talk about the mission of the Children's
Home and the services that we provide. One last thing
which is really important and Stacy was at the core
of developing this with Erica, is we have a counseling program,
(24:51):
and mental health counseling is so important and we see,
you know, adoptees that need support. We have always provided
infertility counseling and support and those kinds of things, so
now we're beginning to expand that and provide more mental
health counseling and support.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
If somebody needs, you know, or is interested in learning
more about counseling or some of your therapy services, or
adoption or any of your services, what do you recommend
calling or going to the website or both.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, I would say calling our number for one two
four four one four eight eight four or visiting us
on our website at www dot Children's Home pg dot org.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
All right, Pam, you're leaving a CEO, but you're still
going to be associated with the Children's Home. Is there
anything in particular you're most proud of? What is your
your peak accomplishment at CEO.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
I think through the years it's been surrounding myself with
very good people and you know, an organization isn't just
as good as its leader, It's as good as all
the people that are involved with it, and so staff
that has a heart for the mission, and they always
(26:19):
have the leadership that I've worked with the management team
over the years, in particular Stacey, who have a vision,
who can carry it out. I wouldn't sit here and
take credit for any one particular thing because it truly
(26:39):
has been an effort by all of the staff, and
we just have a tremendous staff.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
Well, I congratulate for congratulate you for everything you've done
for not only the Children's Home, but everything you've done
for the Pittsburgh community. I wish you luck and I
hope to work with you as in some capacity. But
going to Stacy, your vision for the future, You've had
a great mentor but looking forward, what are some things
(27:09):
that you would like to see done or what are
some things that you would like to work on as CEO.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yes, as Pam mentioned, we do have a newer program,
our counseling program, and there is such a tremendous need.
I mean we see that every day with our families.
Who's taking care of the caregiver, you know, who's helping them.
I mean, that's just one avenue, and you know that
is something we need to in the community needs and
(27:40):
we've learned that we're just going to continue building on
and growing. And in addition, we also are expanding our therapy.
You know, one thing that the children in Child's Way
and the children who stay with us in our hospital,
they receive incredible therapy services with our with our team,
(28:00):
they're able to be seen on a daily basis and
communicate regularly with the families. And we're expanding that into
early intervention to be able to work with the children
in the homes and also outpatient therapy services. There's such
an incredible demand and need for additional therapy for pediatrics
(28:21):
and you know, the Children's Home is going to just
keep building and growing that and we have a remarkable
leadership team for those initiatives. And you know, as we
keep growing, we keep asking ourselves, you know, what is
the next thing that's needed. What can we be doing better?
What what do the families need and do these children
need and what can we do within our resources. So again,
(28:47):
any support that you can provide to the Children's Home,
it is truly impactful. You know, you can give to
a lot of organizations. There's so much work that's that
is being done that's great where but please know, if
you're giving to the Children's Home, it immediately goes right
back into every good thing that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
All right. If you're interested in supporting the Children's Home
or would like to find out more about their services,
their website is Children's Home pgch dot org. Pam Keene
a CEO. We will miss Thank you, Johnny and a CEO.
We are getting to know Stacy Scheschler of the Children's
Home of Pittsburgh. Good luck and hopefully we'll be working
(29:26):
with you very soon.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Thank you, Johnny.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
As always, if you have any comments, concerns, or an
idea for a future program, please email us from this
radio station's website. I'm Johnny Heartwell, thank you so much
for listening.
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