Dr. DiStefano serves as chief medical officer for Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Southern Region, overseeing quality and safety across a 115-bed pediatric tertiary hospital, ambulatory specialty clinics and an outpatient behavioral health facility. He partners with Children’s Colorado executives, University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty and community physicians to ensure access to high-quality care across the region. He holds an important community leadership role, directing pediatric response to public health priorities and liaising with emergency medical services and law enforcement. He is also tasked with coordination of care and provider workforce planning. He is credited as a driving force behind launching and staffing a freestanding pediatric hospital in a geographically underserved area, including recruiting clinicians and building clinical departments with no prior footprint in Colorado Springs. As a practicing pediatric emergency medicine physician, he has expanded behavioral health services through outpatient mental health clinics, partial hospitalization, crisis assessments in the pediatric psychiatric emergency department, and increased telehealth coverage for needed pediatric subspecialties. He also developed a novel intake system to improve patient flow and led emergency department discharge improvements, including a 72-hour return quality improvement initiative to reduce emergency department revisits and improve satisfaction.
