Arkansas Children's
Strategic Plan
2025-2030
Overview
Join our team
enterprise priorities
Giving
Imagine
A Strategy to Reach The Children Who Need Us Most
We sit between two remarkable and urgent realities. On one side, we face rising maternal and child health challenges that threaten the well-being of an entire generation. These are exacerbated by socioeconomic disparities, workforce shortages and barriers to care. On the other, we are witnessing exceptional breakthroughs in pediatric medicine that are redefining what’s possible for children with complex and rare conditions. Our responsibility is to bridge that divide and ensure that innovation reaches every child who needs us, regardless of location.
MARCY DODERER, FACHE
President & CEO
Arkansas Children’s
STRATEGIC VISION TEAM
Ashlie Hilbun, Ed.D., FACHE
Chief strategy officer
Bill Steinbach, M.D.
Pediatrician-in-chief
Todd Maxson, M.D.
Surgeon-in-chief
The Evolving Needs Of
Our Patients
Children with childhood
diseases are living
longer, healthier lives.
Escalating medical and behavioral chronic conditions.
Increasing maternal risk factors are negatively impacting the health of newborns.
Fewer pediatric services available in hospitals across the United States.
Fewer professionals are entering pediatrics.
The Courage to Be Different:
Advancing a Nationally Excellent, Specialized Pediatric Health Care System that Works for Children in America’s Heartland
Arkansas Children’s is on a journey to build the next generation of care. The health system is focused on defining, discovering and delivering answers to the difficult questions facing child health — answers that families desperately need and ones that few others can provide.
Today’s traditional hospital-based approach to addressing complex and chronic needs is not turning the tide for every child in America’s heartland. The miles are long, the providers and resources are limited, the scale is different and the evolving needs of our patients require us to think differently.
We live in a remarkable era of advancement, and new medicine, technology and innovation give us the tools to create a new way. Nationally excellent, specialized pediatric care delivered in a way that works for rural America — this is our unique, dual opportunity.
We must treat to cure. We must discover to eradicate. We must build to reach. And we must deliver value.
LEADING AIMS
1
2
3
4
5
Create the best value by leading in outcomes, discovery and resource stewardship.
Expand specialized services for complex and critically ill children, regardless of geography.
Lead in top-of-mind awareness and share for all services in hub markets.
Establish care at the earliest moment possible — quicker, closer and easier than ever before.
Advance child health knowledge by driving research and community education.
ENTERPRISE
PRIORITIES
Rely on Each Other
Regionalize
Care
Revolutionize
Medicine
Realize Our
Promise
who we are
Mission
We champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow.
Unprecedented child health. Defined, discovered, delivered.
Vision
We are vigilant about creating an error-free environment for patients, families and team members.
Values
SAFETY
TEAMWORK
COMPASSION
EXCELLENCE
We coordinate, communicate, cooperate and collaborate to ensure mutual respect and the highest level of service for our patients, families and team members with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
We demonstrate empathetic and equitable care and concern for patients, families and team members.
We achieve the highest of standards and serve with distinction in order to be the best.
RECOGNIZED AS A BEST CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
MAGNET RECOGNIZED
BEACON AWARD NICU, CVICU & PICU RECOGNIZED
RECOGNIZED AS A BEST CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
MAGNET RECOGNIZED
BEACON AWARD NICU, CVICU & PICU RECOGNIZED
Health System Overview
HOSPITALS AND CLINICS
throughout the region for the best outcomes
PHILANTHROPIC FOUNDATION
for maximum impact
PEDIATRIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE & USDA NUTRITION CENTER
for medical discoveries
CLINICALLY INTEGRATED NETWORK PARTNERS
for broadest reach
LEVEL 1 PEDIATRIC SURGICAL CENTER
designated by the American College of Surgeons
LEVEL 1 & LEVEL 4 PEDIATRIC TRAUMA CENTERS
accredited by the American College of Surgeons
LEVEL IV NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
PEDIATRIC and ADULT BURN CENTER
24-HOUR COMMUNICATIONS CENTER
NATIONALLY ACCREDITED PEDIATRIC TRANSPORT PROGRAM
Life-Changing Outcomes
1
Improved quality of care
2
Lowered cost of care
3
Decreased patient travel
4
More children served
5
New science discovered and implemented
6
Sustained financial investment
Building a
New Generation of Care
Imagine a health system investing in your child’s future. Imagine the next chapter of child health. Imagine the best care for your child.
+150
NEW DOCTORS STATEWIDE
+400
NEW TEAM MEMBERS
+170,000
RENOVATED SQUARE FEET OF FACILITIES
+330,595
NEW SQUARE FEET OF FACILITIES
Learn More About the Expansion
Advancing Medicine
Expanding
Access
Improving Health
SUSTAINABILITY AND PARTNERSHIPS
Arkansas Children’s is a not-for-profit, independently-governed, freestanding pediatric health system that has existed for more than a century to serve children and patients needing lifesaving and life changing health care.
Fundraising Focuses
Facility Expansion
Regionalize Care
Research Growth
Maternal-Fetal Services
Strategically investing in an ambitious vision for child health is essential and will take all of us. No organization can do this work alone. For more than a century, Arkansas Children’s has partnered with the community to champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. This work has never been more important than it is now. Together, we will sustain a healthy future for children.
Join Our Efforts
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1. Revolutionize Medicine
2. Regionalize Care
3. Realize Our Promise
4. Rely on Each Other
5. Remove Barriers
enterprise priorities
RECOGNIZED AS A BEST CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL
MAGNET RECOGNIZED
BEACON AWARD NICU, CVICU & PICU RECOGNIZED
© 2025 Arkansas Children's.
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Expansion
GROWING TEAM
Giving
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