At its May meeting, the Board of Directors approved the initiation of a Child Development Center. Initially the current Child and Adolescent Mental Health Program for children from age three to eighteen and our early childhood Healthy Steps Program for children from birth until age three will be included under the umbrella.  Over time growth will include infant mental health and the creation of a Next Steps Program for children who “graduate” from Healthy Steps but still require support. 

Thank you to everyone for the teamwork that has resulted in continued growth at Infant Welfare. When we look at the period July - December 2006, we had 8,150 more medical and dental visits and welcomed 444 more new patients to the agency than the same period in 2005. Many of the new patients were former patients and are now returning to us because we are located near where they live.

The Quality Management Program is analyzing data being collected on the measurements identified several months ago by each unit of service. The data is helping us make adjustments in programs and providing benchmarks for the next six months. For instance, now that we know the average time between the delivery of an Infant Welfare women’s baby and the beginning of her next pregnancy, we can assure healthier babies and families by working to increase the interval before the next pregnancy begins.

We have recently completed some major administrative functions: our Audited Financial Statements were published; the 2006 Annual Report has gone to the printer; the 2007 – 2011 Strategic Plan for the agency was completed; we have signed a contract to replace our old billing and appointment software (Mega West) with a G.E. Windows-based system (implementation in July); and most significantly, we have just gone above the $10 million mark in our investment account and hopefully will reach $15 million by our Centennial. The investment account is what will secure the long-term future of Infant Welfare. The fact that we have not had to borrow from the account over the past 19 months has allowed it to grow. By doing what each of you do well — staff, Board, and Auxiliary —- you have all contributed to this success. Thank you.

Did you know that the menu of services that we offer at Infant Welfare is unique in the city of Chicago? Did you know that our model of care may be something that we can market to other cities? During the next couple of years, the Quality Management Program and I will try to demonstrate that our uniqueness makes a difference in the health outcomes of our patients. If this is clearly true, we will consider marketing the Infant Welfare “model of care” and gain additional name recognition.

For this fiscal year, I committed to the Board of Directors that I would build a more robust Development Unit. Since July, a lot has already happened. Among the accomplishments are: our moving to a new development software package that allowed us to “clean-up” our lists of donors; the hiring of a development director and grants manager; writing a Development Plan; exceeding the $30,000 matching gift of Ted Wolff, a Board member , by $15,000; reconnecting with Advisory and Honorary Board members individually and at a December 4 luncheon at Infant Welfare; completing a year-end appeal to our individual donor base; exploring with Board and Auxiliary members the matching gift programs of their employers; the drafting of a Planned Giving Program; and the contracting of JoEllen Zacks, an Advisory Board member, to launch our public relations and communication activities.

Finally, I am pleased that we have reached the point where staff turnover is quite low. I am told that this is unusual for a community-based clinic. I hope it means that we are all enjoying ourselves and our work at Infant Welfare.

Our patient service numbers continue to increase due to the efficient and quality manner in which we provide our services and the dental clinic is leading the way. I also committed to the Board that we would build a robust Development Unit. With the arrival of our Director of Development, Denis O’Keefe, many new ideas are moving off the drawing board — all of which will help us meet our budget while securing the long-term future of the organization by building our investment account. I am pleased to report that after the first four months of the fiscal year, we are one third of the way toward our development goal of raising $1.5 million.

Examples of the work in Development are our first-ever Challenge Grant made possible through the generosity of Ted Wolff, an Advisory Board member. Our goal is to match his commitment of $30,000 by raising an equal amount of new dollars between November 1st and the end of the year. With the leadership of our Auxiliary president, Marge Tresley, a new Development newsletter went out to an updated list of individual donors, our Board, and Auxiliary members. And at noon on December 4, you will see some of our Honorary and Advisory Board members, former Board members, as well as past presidents of the Auxiliary visiting Infant Welfare for lunch in the community room followed by a tour of the facility. This event is being co-chaired by former Board presidents Tim Johnson and Linda Celesia.

The Board of Directors is beginning to plan for the long-term future of the Infant Welfare Society. Board member, Mayur Patel, is leading the strategic planning committee of the Board through a process that is identifying our future vision and goals and moving them toward objectives and actions. By the beginning of the new year, some of the ideas will be presented to staff both for their information and input.

Infant Welfare held its 95th Annual Meeting at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago.  Remarks were made by Board president, Anna Igoe, Executive Director, Dr. John Wilhelm, Auxiliary president, Marge Tresley, and Board treasurer, Colleen Creighton.

The recipient of Infant Welfare’s Champion for Children Award was Sr. Catherine Ryan who is currently the executive director of Maryville Academy based in Des Plaines, Illinois but with eight service sites scattered throughout the Chicago area.  Sr. Catherine was introduced by friend and professional colleague Cook County State’s Attorney Richard A. Devine.

Sr. Catherine Ryan is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law and served for many years as Assistant State’s Attorney and Chief of the Juvenile Justice Bureau in the Office of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office before accepting the position at Maryville Academy in 2005.  In accepting the award she recognized the similarity of missions between Infant Welfare and Maryville Academy and the importance of nurturing our youth in a respectful and hopeful environment.

Special recognition was given to Mr. James H. Stacke of Stein Roe Investment who has served for 34 years on the Board of Directors for Infant Welfare.  Mr. Stacke accepted a position on the Society’s  Honorary Board.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Dr. Wilhelm presented awards to his CFO Stanley Jewell, Senior Accountant Orkun Ozkaymak, and Billing Manager Marisol Mendez as Employees of the Year. 

This year’s meeting was attended by several Advisory and Honorary Board members.

July and August were special months for me.  It felt great to be accepting kudos from people who were recognizing our successes this past fiscal year (July 2005 – June 30).  The number of patients increased (a base of 8,930) as did the total number of patient visits (40,884). This represents 5,350 more patients than the previous fiscal year. And, very importantly, our revenue covered expenses. You, the staff, as well as the Board and Auxiliary should be proud of how well we worked as a team to bring about these successes. And this was against a background of major changes in both systems and personnel.  I am grateful for your hard work on behalf of the patients we serve. This sense of focus has always been Infant Welfare’s strength. 

Because we are a not-for-profit organization, the challenges never stop.  It’s like turning the pages of next year’s calendar.  Everything we dealt with last year will come around again.  Our challenge is to maintain what we have and hopefully do better. From the data we have for July and August, it looks as though our growth will continue.

As we finished our first fiscal year on Fullerton Avenue, I am very confident about the quality and efficiency of our clinical care much of which is now being provided in English, Spanish and Polish — pediatric dentistry, child and adolescent mental health, pediatrics including Healthy Steps, ophthalmologic services, prenatal, family planning, women’s health, triage — all with the improved support of medical records, the appointment desk, front desk and financial interviewing staff.  You may not realize it but this menu of services being offered in a single building is unique in the city of Chicago. Our clinical management team (Kisti Gibbs, Julia Foust and Joanne Leck) will continue to seek your input on how we can provide an even better experience for our patients so that our patients will become our promoters in the community.

Because our clinical care is so good, I am looking forward to spending a great deal of time this fiscal year raising money by “marketing” our product.  Already some members of the Board of Directors have made significant contributions because they have confidence in what we are doing.  One recent donation will be used to challenge the Board and Auxiliary to raise an equal amount between November 1^st and the end of the year. If we meet the challenge, we will receive a match up to $30,000.  

Among the staff joining us, I want to draw your attention to our Director of Development, Denis O’Keefe, who will begin on September 19.  Filling this position will go a long way in securing our immediate fundraising goal and also in building our investment account which will secure our long-term viability as an organization.

And finally, I want to recognize the accomplishments of our finance team.  Not only have they managed our money to assure prompt payment of our bills but, with their additional efforts on some weekends, we are well on our way to completing the audit.

I am pleased to be able to share comparison data from the past three fiscal years.  I am proud that there is slow and steady growth, especially following our relocation from Lincoln Park to West Logan Square in April 2005.

Patient Base           New Patients          Total Patient Visits

FY06 - 8,930          FY06 - 2,465            FY06 - 40,884

FY-5 - 7,825          FY05 - 2.028             FY05 - 38,000

FY04 - 7,646          FY04 -   906              FY04 - 33,709

Since 1971 when Infant Welfare moved to our former facility on Halsted Street, we have been providing pediatric dental services. Granted we began with one chair and ended our stay on Halsted Street with six chairs.  Our move to 3600 West Fullerton Avenue allowed us to add a seventh chair. 

Looking at our data for the fiscal year that just ended, it is clear that our growth has resulted in more service.  On average we saw 158 more dental patients each month;  1903 more patient visits; and had a total of 1,557 patients who were new to the dental clinic.  Our current unduplicated number of dental patients is 4,600.

The other thing which pleases me is that 96% of our pediatric patients had at least one visit in the dental clinic.  Our clinicians and front desk staff are doing a good job of referring patients between services.  When patients come through our door, they receive everything we offer. 

We began to lay the groundwork for the stategic planning process which will begin in September.  The initial tasks for our staff are to identify the demographics of our patients (ages, zipcodes); look at the numbers and types of visits over the past three years; compare our service mix to that of similar clinics; determine the revenue and expense of each service; list what qualitymeasures are being used for each entity (clinical and administrative); show the trends in development over the past three years as well as the increases and decreases in both revenue and expenses.

This information with be the basis for forecasting what we will or should look like in three to five years.

I am Dr. John Wilhelm, the executive director at the Infant Welfare Society. I came to this position last July after being on the Board of Directors for 12 years. It has been a very busy and successful year.

I am pleased to have the IWS Blog. I believe it will help to keep us informed and vibrant as an organization.