Spotlight On: Alicia Schulhof, President, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital
June 2025 — In an interview with Invest:, Alicia Schulhof, president of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, discussed the hospital’s leadership in pediatric healthcare and its commitment to ensuring accessible, affordable, and specialized care. Schulhof also emphasized the hospital’s goal to continue to excel in patient-centered care, innovation, and community advocacy.
What have been some recent highlights for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital?
Our highlights always start with our patients and the amazing families we have the opportunity to serve. Those we are privileged to be with each day are truly our heroes, as their care and safety are our No. 1 priority, which is why continuing to have quality and safety at the forefront of everything we do is paramount to our mission. We are pleased to be the No. 1 children’s hospital in the state of Florida and to serve as one of only four licensed specialty children’s hospitals. We take this as a great opportunity to advocate for children’s health needs.
How does the hospital ensure that its focus on quality of patient care remains consistent while continuing to innovate and meet patients’ evolving needs?
At our hospital, patients and their families are our top priority. We are committed to delivering the highest standards of quality and safety, which has led to our recognition as Florida’s No. 1 children’s hospital. Our unwavering advocacy efforts and rigorous patient safety standards have also earned us recognition from the Leapfrog Group, a national non-profit organization that assesses hospitals across the country on the highest standards for quality and safety, further solidifying our dedication to excellence.
Quality, safety, and patient care needs always come first, and everything else follows. This commitment remains our defining edge. As we have emphasized before, our strategic plan focuses on being a trusted leader in the Tampa Bay area and across the state of Florida. These elements are critical to ensuring we serve our patients and their families in the most meaningful way possible.
What are some growth and expansion initiatives that you are undertaking?
The healthcare sector, like the rest of the Tampa Bay community, is growing, thriving, and changing. We have aligned our mission and priorities to make care and access easier for our patients and their families. Our work focuses on four areas of our mission: treatment, education, research, and advocacy. We have been executing our strategic plan, which we started three years ago. The plan’s five key pillars help us achieve our vision to become the premier academic pediatric health system in the southeastern United States.
One way we are responding to the community’s growth is by expanding access. We recently announced a second campus in Wesley Chapel, which will be a 56-bed facility at the intersection of I-75 and Overpass Road. Additionally, we are expanding our footprint on the St. Petersburg campus. We are adding a 28,000-square-foot expansion to our Emergency Center and increasing operating room capacity to meet the growing demand for our services.
What services are most in demand right now, and where do you see the most growth moving forward?
Our patients recognize us as a national and local community leader in child health and wellness. This begins prenatally with maternal-fetal medicine care, continues through neonatal care for families needing a neonatal intensive care unit, and extends to primary care. The demand for our primary care services is high because people seek out our quality and compassionate providers.
Throughout a child’s life, access to our Emergency Center and urgent care centers is critical. Families trust Johns Hopkins All Children’s providers for advanced treatment in child healthcare. We are also recognized for niche or pioneer programs, such as our congenital diaphragmatic hernia program. This program is the only one in the world dedicated to this disease state, where a child’s survival rate can exceed 90%, compared to the national average of 60% to 80%.
Another specialized program is our Esophageal and Airway Treatment Service, which helps children from across the country with esophageal and airway issues. These programs make us a magnet for specialized care, attracting patients from across the country.
How are telehealth, AI, and data analytics impacting your role in the healthcare world?
We recently hosted our fourth annual Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Research Symposium. This reflects our commitment to using data and technology to create the best outcomes for children. These tools provide our clinical team with insights to make the best decisions for individual patients and identify trends that can help prevent conditions from developing.
For example, our use of a heart-lung bypass machine called ECMO helps our Center for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia achieve some of the best outcomes in the country. We bring together our passion for the mission with the expertise of our scientists and researchers, moving innovations from the bench to the bedside. Our commitment to research and advocacy for children’s health is strengthened by our adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.
Given the broader workforce challenges, what initiatives are in place to ensure you remain an employer of choice?
Our people are the key to our success. Their dedication to our families is our greatest asset. Many employees have built their careers here for decades, and we are proud to be a destination employer. We support our team with programs that promote personal growth, resilience, and work-life balance, such as our Healthy at Hopkins program, employee support programs, and tuition reimbursement for employees and their children. After all, one of the pillars of our strategic plan is cultivating healthy and thriving communities, which focuses on supporting our teams internally so we can extend that support to the community.
How did the recent hurricanes affect the sense of community and shared purpose among employees, and how has this influenced the hospital’s overall culture?
Indeed, Tampa Bay faced significant challenges this past year, as the region was impacted by two major storms within a short two-week period. During this time, approximately 1 in 3 employees at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital were significantly affected, with many dealing with personal and family hardships. Despite these difficulties, the hospital’s team demonstrated remarkable resilience and camaraderie, rallying together to support one another through an “employees helping employees” program. This culture of care and solidarity has strengthened the organization, resulting in employee engagement reaching its highest level in nearly 100 years, while turnover rates have fallen to their lowest in the hospital’s history. This achievement is a testament to the dedication and mission-driven focus of the team, even in the face of adversity.
What are your thoughts on the state of healthcare costs, and how are you helping patients manage these costs?
As a nonprofit hospital with about 60% of our patients on Medicaid, we take financial responsibility very seriously. We collaborate with other specialty children’s hospitals in Florida to advance child health and focus on making healthcare more affordable. We also provide wraparound services to address challenges like food insecurity. For example, we offer a food market and partner with the community to create public-private partnerships that ensure every child has access to care.
Florida ranks third in the country for the highest number of children, and it accounts for 6% of pediatric cancer cases. We focus on addressing these challenges by promoting child health and ensuring care is accessible here in Florida.
As the healthcare industry evolves, what role do you see Johns Hopkins All Children’s playing in Tampa Bay, and what are your top priorities for the next two to three years?
Healthcare is always changing, but our mission to care for children and their families will never waver. We are listening to our community’s needs and focusing on making healthcare more accessible. Our biggest priorities include expanding into Wesley Chapel, growing our St. Petersburg campus, and increasing access through outpatient care centers along the west coast of Florida. We are also expanding urgent care services to make access easier for families. I would also like to highlight our recent expansion in physical therapy and occupational therapy space, which has allowed us to increase access to behavioral health services. We are proud to provide specialized care for children and to contribute to the health of Tampa Bay. Healthy kids promote healthy communities and families, and we take that responsibility very seriously.
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