June 30, 2023 – Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Franciscan Children’s (FC) have finalized their affiliation agreement and will officially close on the agreement as of July 1.
The providers say that the affiliation “will reshape children’s mental health and rehabilitative care in Massachusetts and throughout the region.”
The organizations will make significant investments to increase available beds, build a more diverse care workforce, modernize the Franciscan campus, and expand community-based prevention programs.
As sister organizations, BCH and FC will be able to offer a fully integrated care system – providing children with care where and when they need it, all with one point of contact for families.
This affiliation will invest more than $500 million to modernize the FC campus, including a new, state-of-the-art, net carbon-neutral building that will house the full continuum of care programs for medical rehabilitation and mental health services. BCH and FC will offer a fully integrated continuum of care across inpatient, outpatient, primary care, and school-based settings.
BCH and FC will increase the number of available beds for inpatient services from 98 to 127, and nearly double the behavioral health bed capacity. This will reduce the number of kids forced to board in emergency rooms for medical and mental health needs.By 2030, the organizations intend to hire 150-200 new full-time employees related to care for children, and invest in programs to build a diverse employee pipeline from high school through medical school. They will also increase training programs for students and staff.