With a longtime career in pediatric healthcare, including roles at the Lurie Children’s in Chicago and Texas Children’s in Houston, Lucio “Lou” A. Fragoso joined Children’s Hospital New Orleans five years ago. His passion for the work is undeniable, and Fragoso told Avenue Magazine about the latest programs and developments at this incredible New Orleans institution.
Fragoso stressed that one of the key features that makes Children’s Hospital New Orleans unique is all the work done in the community. In order to make generational change in healthcare, their team is dedicated to moving beyond the four walls of the hospital. To that end, their ThriveKids Student Wellness program reaches 100,000 students from birth to age 18 across 180 schools and early learning centers in Orleans and Jefferson Parish. Essentially a health department for schools, the program focuses on the mental and physical health of students, supporting their ability to succeed in academics.
To demonstrate the impact of this program, Fragoso shared a story that illustrates how close a child can come to being a statistic or having hope. At one of the ThriveKids partner schools, a social worker connected with one student who was doing poorly in school. The social worker determined that the student had failed both hearing and eye exams, but she had missed 90 percent of follow-up appointments to address these issues. With both parents working, as well as a language barrier and transportation issues, the student did not have a reliable way to reach these appointments. The ThriveKids team scheduled transportation, got an interpreter, lined up her appointments, and helped her receive hearing aids and glasses.
“And guess what? She’s doing well in school. Now she has a chance. Her parents are incredibly grateful. It’s the difference between having no hope and hope,” said Fragoso.
The program also offers mental health consultations with professionals in schools, so that students have a space to discuss any issues that are causing them to struggle. The need for this outlet is clear, as over 5,000 consultations took place in schools during the program’s first year.
In addition to the ThriveKids program, the hospital also supports an immunization bus that visits underserved communities. This provides children with the vaccinations necessary to attend school.
Lastly, the hospital’s BeSMART campaign offers free biometric gun safes to families throughout the city, in partnership with the New Orleans Health Department. This prevents children from accessing firearms, which are among the leading causes of death for children in the United States.
“Here in New Orleans we’ve built one of the largest and most comprehensive behavioral health programs in the entire country,” said Fragoso. “We have 260 beds, and 51 of our beds are dedicated to behavioral health.” Devoted to helping meet the mental health needs of young people, the Behavioral Health Center’s team includes child and adolescent psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, pediatricians, psychologists and social workers.
The hospital is also in the process of building a new home for its child abuse pediatrics programs, the Morgan Rae Center for Hope, to address the needs of the vulnerable children who have suffered abuse or human trafficking. The hospital treats about 1,400 of these cases a year, but unfortunately thousands more need help. They are doubling the size of the current care center to bring in more providers and care for these children, who often need both mental and physical support. “It’s years of effort, not one fifteen-minute visit,” said Fragoso. “I always tell people: this is not like fixing a broken bone, but you’re literally trying to fix the human spirit, and really have them regain faith in humanity because of what happened to them.”
On the medical side, as one of a select group of hospitals in the country selected to do gene therapy for kids with sickle cell disease, Children’s Hospital can better serve the 500 children at their hospital who live with the painful, disruptive condition. The patients with the most severe complications now have access to the only established cure for the disease.
As the variety of in-hospital and community outreach programs prove, Children’s Hospital is dedicated to providing world-class care to children throughout Louisiana and the Gulf South. “There’s no greater place than New Orleans, and no greater cause than Children’s Hospital New Orleans,” said Fragoso.
Get Involved
As Fragoso explained, donations are crucial to the mission of the organization. “We can’t do what we do without the support of the community. Every year we essentially give away 36 million dollars, either dedicated to community programs like the ThriveKids Program, the Care Center, the vaccination bus, or by providing free care. We say yes to every child, regardless of their ability to pay.” To learn more about donation opportunities, visit chnola.org/giving.
