Sights set on growth. And the technology to achieve it.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital is more than a hospital. It is a wide-ranging health system that delivers expert, compassionate care to children across Arizona. But expanding these services isn’t always easy. In fact, it rarely is. As leaders at Phoenix Children’s sought to continue its expansion, a partnership to ensure full scalability and complete access to a ready-to-use infrastructure was crucial. As a world-renowned pediatric hospital, with each new facility came a greater need for technology that will grow with them. Offering more than 50 specialties, it was vital that Phoenix Children’s partnered with the right health IT provider to have a flexible and trusted system, one with which the organization didn’t have to spend time configuring and implementing complex capabilities. Instead, the focus was on operational growth and efficiency, and most important, to provide quality care for children and to comfort families.

The partnership with Altera and the capability of hosting enabled this significant scalability to become a reality. Phoenix Children’s quickly rolled out its hospital’s electronic health record (EHR) system, Sunrise, as a turnkey solution without additional customization or setup. With Altera’s hosting capabilities, Phoenix Children’s new location was up and running within days, rather than weeks or months, including IT systems, software and accessible data from any location. Phoenix Children’s simply sets the date, and applications are available, right away, on day one. The use of a pre-configured cloud hosting environment enabled Phoenix Children’s to bypass the traditional delays associated with physical infrastructure setups. Altera’s Hosting solution provided the flexibility to expand and support the hospital’s technology at a rapid pace, so the organization can continue to grow, and families in the Southwest Valley can rest assured their children are receiving the highest-quality care.

Expansion in action

In August 2024, Phoenix Children’s successfully opened its state-of-the-art, 175,000-square-foot Arrowhead Hospital. The Arrowhead campus has a 24/7 emergency department with 30 treatment rooms, six operating rooms and a multi-specialty clinic that offers care across 20 pediatric subspecialties. This top-ranked, freestanding pediatric hospital opened without any issue or hidden upfront costs. In fact, using Altera’s cloud hosting services, Phoenix Children’s saved up to 50% on long-term operational costs associated with onsite infrastructure maintenance. Relying on Altera Hosting, the organization was able to scale the system environment to deliver Sunrise and custom clinical documentation tools to this new site. System availability was not an issue and go-live was an instant success. “It was a breeze to bring up our new Arrowhead Hospital. We just walked in and the EHR was available,” said Shari Schneider, VP of Clinical Information Systems. As Phoenix Children’s continues to flourish and expand into the East Valley, the seamless transition and effective processes Altera Hosting delivered will only stoke the confidence of the leadership team to continue growing—with the right partner by its side.

"Through our partnership with Altera Hosting services, we are embracing a future where quick technology deployments, reliable infrastructure and cutting-edge solutions empower us to provide exceptional patient care.”

Shari Schneider,
VP of Clinical Information Systems, Phoenix Children’s Hospital

For the journey ahead…

Any large migration and expansion raises the need for attentive and helpful account management and technical support. The human side of the partnership. Humans providing care for other humans. That is the central ethos of any health system, and it certainly rings true for Phoenix Children’s. With the many moving parts involved in an all-hands integration, Altera knew it was imperative to work side-by-side with the staff at Phoenix Children’s, day and night, to ensure the growth was on time and efficient while also providing the team the resources needed to feel confident in this new expansion—and beyond. With 24/7 available IT support, the response times for IT issues were reduced by 50% compared to other traditional in-house IT teams, ensuring faster troubleshooting and minimal disruption. Shari Schneider describes her relationship with the Altera account management team: “Our Altera Hosting account manager listens to our needs and delivers.” This partnership truly made the integration not only a positive experience for everyone but also made a community’s dream come true for more extensive pediatric care. And speaking further of her working relationship with Altera, she said, “I have the Dream Team!”

…to the summit of healthcare

Just across the valley, construction continues as the Phoenix Children’s Hospital – East Valley location will soon provide next-level pediatric services to children in that region, further extending the health system’s reach of care. Other expansion initiatives are in the works for the recent Arrowhead location as the hospital plans to expand—yet again—to 48 beds in early 2025. Phoenix Children’s use of Altera’s Hosting services has made these scalable expansions possible. "Through our partnership with Altera Hosting services, we are embracing a future where quick technology deployments, reliable infrastructure and cutting-edge solutions empower us to provide exceptional patient care,” Schneider said. Altera is honored to be part of such a meaningful project and is ready to help Phoenix Children’s on its journey to the summit of healthcare.