Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Reducing Pediatric Mental Health Readmissions at Dayton Children’s

Date: January 31, 2026
Host: Chris Sosa (A)
Guests: Dr. Kelly Sandberg (B), Dr. Katie Winner (C)

Overview

This episode explores how Dayton Children’s Hospital has tackled the challenge of pediatric mental health readmissions through strategic quality improvement initiatives since launching their inpatient mental health unit in 2019. Dr. Kelly Sandberg, Chief Medical Quality Officer, and Dr. Katie Winner, Chief of Psychiatry, share specific interventions, partnerships, and system-wide culture shifts that have driven measurable improvements—and offer practical advice to other health systems pursuing similar goals.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background & Motivations

• Dayton Children’s Inpatient Mental Health Launch:
  • Inpatient unit opened in 2019.
  • Identified a need to address frequent readmissions—children returning due to unmet needs from initial admissions.
• Leadership Roles:
  • Dr. Sandberg provided quality improvement infrastructure.
  • Dr. Winner led clinical psychiatry and inpatient unit operations.

2. Four Pillars for Reducing Readmissions

([03:24]–[04:04]; [05:15]–[07:00])

a. Individualized Readmission Programming

• Standard hospital programming was “like Groundhog Day”—repeating the same groups for each patient, regardless of needs.
• New strategy: Personalize plans, especially for returning patients, by asking:
  • What didn’t we address last time?
  • How can we adjust interventions to avoid repetition and improve outcomes?

“How do we make changes so that we're not doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different outcomes?”
— Dr. Katie Winner [03:04]

b. Follow-up Phone Calls

• Recognized difficulty for families to absorb all discharge info in crisis.
• Started calls within 24–72 hours post-discharge to:
  • Review and reinforce instructions.
  • Troubleshoot barriers (e.g., medication acquisition, appointments).
  • Prevent new crises by early intervention.
• Recently expanded calls to patients seen in the crisis center (psychiatric ER), most of whom discharge to home.

c. Conflict Management in Group Therapy

• Data revealed many readmissions tied to unresolved conflict at home, school, or among peers.
• Added structured conflict management content to all group therapy:
  • Communication, empathy, anger management skills for every patient.

d. Standardized Readmission Checklist

• Created to ensure all patients—regardless of treatment team—receive the same comprehensive aftercare options.
• Increased consistency and equity in discharge planning.

“It was really just a way to standardize what we were doing and make sure that no matter who you got assigned to your treatment team, you got the same options for aftercare available to you.”
— Dr. Katie Winner [03:56]

3. Building & Scaling the Program

([04:22]–[08:37])

a. Learning from Peers

• Extensive collaboration with other Ohio pediatric hospitals; observed and adapted effective practices from others.

“We leaned very heavily on others’ learnings and trying to make the best program that we could make.”
— Dr. Katie Winner [04:50]

b. Systematic Expansion

• Initiatives like follow-up calls scaled across all Dayton Children’s departments.
• Enhanced data monitoring (dashboards), standardized practices for scalability, and ensured intervention “fidelity” as capacity grows (e.g., expansion from 24 to 48 beds).
• Strong sense of cross-discipline and community collaboration, including ongoing work with social determinants of health.

c. Operational Improvements & Culture

• Quality improvement tools now routine in mental health leadership and daily practice.

“It's not difficult to put quality improvement into pretty much every practice, routine practices.”
— Dr. Katie Winner [06:26]

4. Patient & Family Feedback

([08:37]–[09:54])

• Positive feedback specifically about post-discharge calls:
  • Families appreciate the sense of “wraparound” support.
  • Reinforces that program changes make a meaningful difference for patients.

“They felt so much wraparound from our team that they were calling just to check in on their child and to make sure that they really had the tools available to them…”
— Dr. Katie Winner [09:26]

5. Advice for Other Organizations

([10:12]–[13:34])

Dr. Kelly Sandberg’s Advice:

• Center Frontline Voices: Listen to doctors, nurses, therapists, and community workers for real-world challenges and solutions.
• Involve Non-Subject-Matter Experts: Invite process or quality experts to help analyze issues “from the outside.”
• Collaborate Widely: Engage other hospitals and community organizations (e.g., social services, government) to understand shared challenges.
  • Especially important with mental health under-resourcing and legislative complexities.

“Finding the key stakeholders in the community... those key stakeholders in the community could also include, you know, organizations that support homelessness or group homes, or seeing how, you know, and understanding what their challenges are so that we could better, you know, work together for the kids.”
— Dr. Kelly Sandberg [11:56]

Dr. Katie Winner’s Advice:

• Just Start—Small Steps Matter: Jump in, act on passion for improving care, even if resources are limited.
• Seek Mentorship: Find champions within the organization (“Kelly has been the cheerleader in this,” she notes).
• Use Data and Make Incremental Changes: Small interventions (like follow-up calls) don’t demand big budgets but can have a significant impact.

“There are small changes, things like a phone call, that don't take a lot of resources, that you can make a difference.”
— Dr. Katie Winner [13:18]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “What we found was conflict… so we added conflict management into all of our groups for every child.” — Dr. Katie Winner [03:46]
• “It has now become part of our leadership on the mental health unit, where we use things like the tools we had, checklists, standardizations, we built dashboards.” — Dr. Katie Winner [06:32]
• “If we've been successful, then we should be able to help the community by expanding, you know, that resource as well as offering community additional resources with respect to mental health and starting to tackle some of the social drivers of health.” — Dr. Kelly Sandberg [07:43]
• “Sometimes just jumping in, finding something that you're passionate about, and then finding a mentor.” — Dr. Katie Winner [12:41]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–01:03 | Host and guest introductions
• 01:24–04:04 | Four key readmission reduction initiatives described
• 04:22–05:15 | Collaborating and learning from other hospitals
• 05:15–08:37 | Building on success, scaling up, and operational improvements
• 08:37–09:54 | Positive patient/family feedback on programs
• 10:12–13:34 | Advice for other health systems

Conclusion

Dayton Children’s success in reducing pediatric mental health readmissions is rooted in collaborative, data-driven quality improvement, practical individualized interventions, and a commitment to ongoing learning and expansion. The episode’s insights provide a blueprint for any healthcare team working to tackle complex, entrenched challenges—emphasizing teamwork, community engagement, and the potency of even simple interventions.