About Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

On April 1, 1901, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles was incorporated as the Childrens Hospital Society of Los Angeles – it began as a small house with only two bedrooms and four beds at the southwest corner of Alpine and Castelar streets, the former home of Civil War hero Gen. Edward Bouton, who had served with Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and had been recognized for his leadership by President Abraham Lincoln.

At the end of its first fiscal year, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles had admitted 14 children for ailments ranging from severe malnutrition and intestinal infections to burns and broken limbs, but by 1905, and despite limited facilities, more than 225 children were receiving care – most at no cost; others at reduced rates based upon their parents’ abilities to pay for services.

In 1906, Los Angeles resident Emma Phillips made provisions in her Will for a bequest of almost four acres of land in a largely undeveloped, remote part of the city at the southeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue in Hollywood, “recognizing the beneficent work now being done by the Childrens Hospital Society…and also recognizing the increasing needs of that Society in this city.” On Feb. 7, 1914, the “…new…” Childrens Hospital Los Angeles was opened by President Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the ceremonies via telegraph from The White House.

Today, most know Childrens Hospital Los Angeles for its patient care. The sickest, most seriously injured children are treated at the hospital. It sets the standard for pediatric medical care, not only in Los Angeles, but, increasingly, nationally and internationally.

Patient Care Perspective:

• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles treats more than 62,000 patients a year in its Emergency Department, alone. It admits more than 11,000 children a year to the hospital, with almost 50 percent of those admissions children under four years of age. There are more than 287,000 visits a year to its 29 outpatient clinics and laboratories; more than 2,800 visits at community sites through its Division of Adolescent Medicine.
  
  
• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is designated as a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center by the Los Angeles County EMS Agency. It operates one of the largest dedicated neonatal/pediatric transport programs in the nation.
  
  
• The 40-bed Center for Neonatal Infant Critical Care at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles provides innovative therapies for high-risk infants transferred from other hospitals throughout Southern California – and around the world.
  
  
• The 20-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the 15-bed Cardiothoracic Intensive Care Unit – the only dedicated, separately staffed pediatric CTICU on the west coast – provide 35 pediatric critical care beds at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, more than at any other hospital in the western United States.
  
  
• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is one of America’s premier teaching hospitals – it trains the very best pediatricians and pediatric nurses in the country.

Teaching Perspective:

• The training programs at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles include 360 medical students, 83 full-time residents and 86 fellows, who collectively reflect the diversity of its patient population and the city of Los Angeles. As many as 400 residents and fellows from other hospitals rotate through Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, annually.
  
  
• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles selects only the best and brightest applicants; its residency program, for example, annually receives more than 700 applications for only 29 first-year positions.
  
  
• For the past eight years, 98-percent of residents upon immediate graduation from our program passed the American Board of Pediatrics exam on the first attempt.
  
  
• Its unique approach to teaching also has created a new national model – The RN Residency in Pediatrics, a 22-week program that provides new nursing school graduates with a comprehensive guided clinical experience to prepare them for work in an acute care environment. To date, 531 nurses have successfully completed the residency.
  
  
• Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is known for its leadership in pediatric research. Its physician-scientists integrate their laboratory experience with their clinical expertise, moving effectively from “Bench to Bedside,” to address difficult medical questions others in pediatric medicine might never see or hear. It’s these questions and, most importantly, their answers that can lead to changes in the standard of care for children in Los Angeles, but also for children everywhere. 
  

Research Perspective:

• The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles is among the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States, with nearly 128 investigators engaged in more than 267 laboratory studies, clinical trials and community-based research and health services.
  
  
• The Saban Research Institute is one of the few freestanding research centers in the nation to combine scientific inquiry with patient clinical care – dedicated exclusively to children. Its base of knowledge is widely considered to be among the best in pediatric medicine.
  
  
• The Saban Research Institute received $39.4 million in extramural funding for biomedical research in FY ’06, including more than $32.2 from federal sources – the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Defense.
  
  
• Investigators at The Saban Research Institute are working to create a world in which all children are healthy – a world in which they are no longer threatened by such diseases as cancer, congenital heart defects, diabetes, sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, immune deficiencies and respiratory disorders. They ask basic questions about human biology, find new ways to see inside the body, explore genetic mysteries, develop promising drug treatments and test preventive strategies – scientific inquiries that benefit both children and adults.
  
  
• Programs and initiatives at The Saban Research Institute include the Body and Bone Composition Initiative; the Cancer Program; the Cardiovascular Research Program; the Community, Health Outcomes and Intervention Research Program; the Developmental Biology Program; the Gene, Immunology and Stem Cell Therapy Program; the Imaging Research Initiative; the Microbial Pathogens Initiative; and the Neuroscience Program. Clinical research is conducted under the auspices of the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism; the Childrens Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases; the General Clinical Research Center; The Heart Institute; the Childrens Orthopaedic Center; and the USC-CHLA Institute for Pediatric Clinical Research.

Revision November 14, 2007