Ent Credit Union Establishes New Endowed Chair

We experience the world through our five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. For otolaryngologists, commonly known as ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctors, protecting these senses is at the heart of their work. At Children’s Hospital Colorado, our ENT team — led by Soham Roy, MD, MMM — is one of the largest in the country, caring for more than 30,000 patients each year.

Inspired by the breadth and depth of the work done in the Pediatric Otolaryngology Department, Ent Credit Union has donated $2.5 million to support ENT care. This philanthropic investment establishes the Ent Credit Union Endowed Chair in Pediatric Otolaryngology, with Dr. Roy serving as the inaugural chairholder.

Dr. Roy joined Children’s Colorado in 2022. He’s currently the Chair of Pediatric Otolaryngology with more than 20 years of experience as a pediatric ENT surgeon. In this discussion, Dr. Roy shares how this generous endowment donation will support pediatric ENT care at Children’s Colorado, including plans for its use, goals for growth, improved outcomes and more.

Q: What are your goals for the ENT team?

A: Conditions of the ears, nose and throat significantly affect a child’s quality of life, physical health, emotional well-being, social development and academic performance. That’s why we are going to deliver the highest quality care, and we’re also going to emphasize our activities as a scholarly department. We are going to show what we’re accomplishing — the broad range of surgery and clinical care from the most routine to the most complex, exceptionally high-quality care and the great outcomes for the patients we care for.

Q: What will the endowed chair support?

A: Annual distributions from the endowment will be used to fund a number of different endeavors. The first, and perhaps the most important for me, is professional development and education. I want to emphasize that ENT is a team sport. I want this to be the place people come to and say, “this is where I want to work the rest of my career.” This applies to not only our physicians but also our faculty advanced practitioners, our nursing staff, our clinical and administrative teams and teams that work with us,  such as audiology and speech and language pathology.

We’ll also use endowment distributions on capital expenses. This endowment allows us to purchase some capital equipment to streamline our processes.  Right now, we’re working toward getting all our clinics on a cloud-based endoscopy system. That way, team members can pull up exams from the ENT clinic including endoscopies, no matter where they are in the Children’s Colorado system.

The endowment funds will also help support research projects. There are many opportunities for this funding to  support things that not only empower our people but allow them to grow professionally, advance our care mission, make discoveries and continue to innovate for our patients and families.

Q: How does ENT fit into the greater mission of Children’s Colorado?

A: ENT conditions, such as hearing, speech, breathing and sleep problems, upper respiratory diseases and infections, are the primary reasons for pediatric doctor visits and hospitalizations of children. We perform the most surgical cases of all services at Children’s Colorado. We’re very adept at making changes and seeing what works. By doing that, we’ve been able to not just improve ENT but improve Children’s Colorado. We have an expression in our department, “As goes ENT, so goes Children’s Colorado,” because we want to always be on the forefront of continuous improvement in this already incredible organization.

Q: What’s one of the biggest challenges facing pediatric ENT?

A: Funding for children, in my opinion, has always been considered secondary to other healthcare expenditures. As a nonprofit hospital, we rely on community philanthropy to help us care for kids. Partnering with Ent Credit Union to establish this endowed chair provides the support that we need to achieve some of our higher-level strategic goals.