Craig Insider Newsletter Vol. III Issue 3

CRAIG INSIDER

Stories of hope, tenacity and new beginnings

Winning the Life Lottery Milestones That Inspire

For three stressful days in late February, 31-yearold Eilish Tanner sat in a room at the Tampa Convention Center to take the Florida Bar Exam.

“I really hope I pass so I can achieve my dream of becoming a personal injury attorney,” Eilish explains. “Since my accident, I have dreamed of helping others who have endured life-changing adversities. I am proof that even with a traumatic brain injury, you can still chase your dreams.”

She adds, “Craig Hospital taught me that it might be challenging — and you will have days where you take 10 steps back — but staying strong and positive is vital. Every day I thank God for Craig. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the hospital. I literally won the life lottery by being at Craig.”

STRUGGLING TO RECOVER

Back in January 2020, Eilish was driving home from her legal assistant job at a law firm in rural Oklahoma.

“I left work a little early that day because of an incoming snowstorm,” she recalls. “I remember being on the phone with my mom via my truck’s Bluetooth when all of a sudden I was struck head-on by a tractor-trailer towing rebar at highway speeds.”

Eilish was rushed to a local hospital, and after the storm passed, was life-flighted to Swedish Medical Center, where she stayed for two weeks before being transferred to Craig.

“I had post-traumatic amnesia until Valentine’s Day, but then woke up at Craig to see my family and meet my amazing care team,” she says. “They were helping me recover from a severe TBI; broken neck, arm and hand; and an injured eye.”

After spending three months at Craig, Eilish returned home to Florida to continue her outpatient therapies. “Recovering from the TBI has been very difficult. To this day, I still struggle with aphasia, and my processing speeds are slower than before the accident. I remember feeling like I had a whole new brain that was completely scrambled and I needed to learn how she worked,” she says.

Eilish adds, “But I did not want the accident to define me. I refused to give up on my dream of becoming a lawyer.” So in August 2022, Eilish began law school at the University of Wyoming College of Law in Laramie.

DREAMING BIG

“Going back to school after a brain injury was intimidating at first. Thankfully, I had accommodations in place, which definitely helped, but there’s no question that school

was very challenging,” she says. “The workload was heavy and I needed medication to help me focus. Everything just took me so much longer than before.”

In addition to the workload, Eilish also worried about money.

“Before my accident, I was saving money so I could pay for law school with no assistance. But the accident dried up my savings and put me into medical debt,” she explains. “It was frightening to think about paying for school until I talked to Laura Magnuson [Craig’s school program coordinator] about Craig’s donorsupported Alumni Educational Scholarship. With this financial assistance, I feel optimistic that one day I’ll be able to pay off my debt.”

She adds, “I am grateful that Craig offers a scholarship for grads who want to keep pursuing their dreams. I am forever appreciative for everything that the hospital has given me, and I feel lucky to be where I am today.”

Join the Community, Fuel the Mission

Opportunities to engage, support and lead

Empowering Lives Through Corporate Support

Engagement Opportunities

• Team volunteering

• Campus tours

• Hosting Craig at your workplace

Philanthropy Opportunities

• Sponsorships

• Workplace giving

• Matching gifts

Scan the QR code for more information about getting your company involved with Craig:

Contact the Foundation at 303-789-8650 or foundation@craighospital.org or visit craighospital.org/foundation/howtogive to learn more.

The Heart Behind the Gift

Honoring the generosity and compassion of our donors

Investing in the Future of Craig

Founded in 2017, the Craig Hospital Aphasia Therapy (CHAT) program has helped more than 120 individuals dealing with aphasia, a language disorder caused by damage to brain areas that control the language system, usually on the left side of the brain.

“Craig’s three-week intensive program is not covered by insurance, so self-funding can be a big commitment for many people,” explains Betsy Batts, speech language pathologist and CHAT program coordinator. “But thanks to generous donors, we are able to offer numerous scholarships for the program.”

One of these donors is the Arapahoe Sertoma Club, which recently made a $75,000 donation to the CHAT program. A local, nonprofit civic organization, Arapahoe Sertoma, short for SERvice TO MAnkind, has been supporting numerous local nonprofits, including Craig, since 1952.

“We are primarily focused on improving quality of life for those at risk of or impacted by hearing health issues through education, support and community service,” explains Scott Manley, a member of the organization, “and that is why we chose to support Craig’s CHAT program,”

“I worked at Craig as the chief operating officer from 1970 to 2006,” he says. “In addition, my wife and daughter-in-law used to work at the hospital, and my son, Jake, has been working in the marketing department for more than 25 years.”

He adds, “Craig Hospital is definitely near and dear to my heart. I loved being part of the Craig family before retiring and joining Arapahoe Sertoma.”

In addition to their donation to CHAT, the club also donated $125,000 to the Hope & Homecomings campaign, Craig’s largest fundraising effort, focused on expanding capacity, accelerating innovation and growing holistic programs.

These funds will be applied to establishing a legacy for the club by naming a patient room after Arapahoe Sertoma.

“We are happy to support Craig in any way we can,” Scott says. “The hospital is a gift to so many, and we are thrilled to support its wonderful mission.”

Email foundation@craighospital.org to explore how your club or civic organization can get involved!

Raise the ROOF!

On Oct. 10, 2025, Craig Hospital officially broke ground on its transformative campus expansion and launched Hope & Homecomings, a $100 million campaign designed to expand access to and accelerate innovation in neurorehabilitation. The plan’s center is an 86,000-square-foot expansion of the East Building, expanding up and out with additional floors and a northward expansion, while renewing existing spaces to better serve patients and families. We are deeply grateful because this work is donor-powered and your generosity is what turned a landmark moment into real progress that is now taking shape on campus.

• New Neuromedical Unit to provide patients with Craig’s world-class care sooner

• Human Movement Lab will bridge science and care to improve strength and independence

• Relocated North Garden as a therapy area and peaceful green retreat

framing was completed for the new fourthfloor bridge, and in May the south loading dock reopened, while updates shared target reopening dates for the courtyard and the Level 3 bridge.

SEE US GROW!

Watch the time-lapse video to see the East Building rise frame by frame, each milestone powered by your generosity through Hope & Homecomings and bringing us closer to serving more patients and families sooner.

Since groundbreaking, construction has moved from ceremony to visible milestones. In early February, steel beams were installed to frame the new fourth floor of the East Building, marking a clear step forward in the vertical expansion. By March, steel beams were framing new floors on top of the East Building and excavation had begun to prepare for the northward expansion. This spring, the project entered a major connector phase as work began to add a new fourth-floor level to the bridge, with planned closures to support safe construction while maintaining access routes around campus. By late April, we celebrated another milestone as

THANK YOU!

Your generous contributions have raised over $74 million!

We are getting closer to our $100 million goal, all because of you!

Turning Hope Into Science

Stories of hope, tenacity and new beginnings

Enhancing the Work Experience of Nurses at Craig Hospital

Within rehab settings, the work performance of nurses plays a vital role in ensuring highquality patient care. However, nurses sometimes experience a disconnect between their routine clinical tasks and patient outcomes.

“This can reduce nurses’ perception of how their decisions and actions affect patient safety, which can lead to a reduced sense of control over the quality of patient care,” explains Annie Toth, Ph.D., BSN, RN, CBIS, Craig’s nursing research and Magnet Recognition Program coordinator.

To tackle this issue, some of today’s healthcare settings use digital dashboards — data visualization tools that provide nurses with realtime, at-a-glance summaries of patient status and unit performance — to monitor patients and improve inpatient outcomes.

“In order to assess the value of using a clinical dashboard at Craig, we designed the study Evaluating a Dashboard for Individual Clinician Enhancement (DICE) for Rehabilitation Nurses,” Annie says. “Our goal is to assess the feasibility and usability and explore the impact of a DICE designed specifically for nurses in a rehab setting.”

She adds, “For this study, our research team designed a DICE specifically for nurses working in an inpatient neurorehabilitation setting. The DICE presented individual-level key performance indicators (KPIs) alongside unit- and hospital-level data and included benchmarks for comparison. We examined the perceived usability of the DICE, the frequency with which nurses accessed the DICE and the preliminary effects on KPIs and job empowerment associated with access to individualized data in the DICE format.”

The donor-supported study consisted of two phases. Phase 1 included a focus group made up of Craig nurses, several of whom had trialed an initial version of the DICE for several months prior to the session. Using a set of open-ended questions to guide the focus group, nurses provided feedback and suggestions for a second version of the DICE.

Phase 2 was an exploratory, randomized controlled trial where some nurses were asked to use the second version of the DICE for six months.

The results of the study indicated that the DICE was utilized by nurses, who described the DICE as encouraging and accessible, validating of their efforts, and very helpful in increasing the awareness of their individual contributions to patient care and quality improvement.

For Valerie Wass, BSN, RN, CRRN, Craig’s clinical quality and patient safety analyst, having personalized metrics is extremely helpful. “The

DICE data allows me to personally assess my performance,” she explains. “Access to this type of data — such as time spent in patient rooms and medication administration/safety — can be empowering and contribute to job enhancement.”

According to Annie, the DICE offers nurses access to quantitative measures of their performance, which promotes self-awareness of safe nursing practices. “By supporting continuous individual growth and recognizing daily contributions, the DICE can facilitate evidence-informed decision-making,” she says.

Annie adds, “Our findings justified rolling out the DICE to all nurses and support designing a DICE for other types of clinicians, such as pharmacists. Rehab technicians have also expressed interest in having their own version of the DICE that displays KPIs relevant to their specific role.”

For more information on supporting research at Craig Hospital, please visit craighospital.org/foundation/donate

Join us for a tour of our state-of-the-art facilities and experience our unique cheerful and positive campus atmosphere firsthand.

Choose from one of the upcoming tour dates below and contact the Craig Foundation at 303-789-8650 or foundation@craighospital.org to confirm details.

Wednesday, July 8 | 10 a.m.

Thursday, July 16 | 2 p.m.

Thursday, July 23 | 10 a.m.

Thursday, Aug. 6 | 2 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 11 | 2 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 20 | 10 a.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 9 | 2 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 17 | 10 a.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 22 | 2 p.m.

Thank you to our sponsors, givers and performers! You raised $300,000 for Craig!

IMPACT CELEBRATION: ADAPTIVE ATHLETICS

THURSDAY, JUNE 25 I KENT DENVER

Featuring wheelchair rugby! Craig graduates push boundaries and redefine possibility through full-contact sports and sharing powerful stories of resilience, determination and triumph.

GLOW & ROLL: ILLUMINATE WHAT’S POSSIBLE

SATURDAY, AUG. 29 | CLEMENT PARK, LITTLETON

Glow & Roll is an inclusive twilight 5K + 1 mile walk/run/roll where walking, running and rolling come together under a canopy of light, music and hope to shine a spotlight on Craig Hospital’s incredible work.