St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) is ranked among the best children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1879 as a 15-bed facility in downtown St. Louis, SLCH is now a 250-bed institution that offers a full range of pediatric services. The immediate service area has a population of 2.8 million, but the hospital has cared for patients from all 50 states and 56 countries. The hospital is staffed exclusively by Washington University faculty physicians, and it employs 2,700 people.

Each year about 275,000 patients visit SLCH. The hospital is a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center, and the emergency department receives approximately 50,000 visits annually, or 120-130 visits daily. SLCH is one of the top pediatric transplant centers in the country. The world’s leading pediatric lung program is at SLCH, and it has active programs in transplant for heart, liver, kidney, lung, small intestine and bone marrow.

Recent construction at SLCH added seven floors — 124,000 square feet — to the existing building and renovated 160,000 square feet of existing space. SLCH facilities include a 29-room emergency department, 13 operating suites, a 67-bed neonatal intensive care unit, a 36-bed PICU with 12 cardiac beds, and a six-bed bone marrow transplant unit. Other units moving into new space included the dialysis unit, wound service, burn center, therapy services and sports medicine gym, and a Ronald McDonald Family Room.

SLCH is moving toward private patient rooms and recently increased such rooms from 30 percent to 80 percent of the total. Patient rooms are equipped with a bathroom, telephone, color television, VCR and wireless Internet capability. Each room is designed to accommodate one parent per patient for overnight stays (intensive care units are exceptions).

In addition to outstanding medical care, SLCH also provides extensive community outreach services, including home care, patient and parent support groups, educational programs, and a free child health information line staffed by pediatric registered nurses (454-KIDS).

St. Louis Children’s Hospital (SLCH) is ranked among the best children’s hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1879 as a 15-bed facility in downtown St. Louis, SLCH is now a 250-bed institution that offers a full range of pediatric services. The immediate service area has a population of 2.8 million, but the hospital has cared for patients from all 50 states and 56 countries. The hospital is staffed exclusively by Washington University faculty physicians, and it employs 2,700 people.

Each year about 275,000 patients visit SLCH. The hospital is a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center, and the emergency department receives approximately 50,000 visits annually, or 120-130 visits daily. SLCH is one of the top pediatric transplant centers in the country. The world’s leading pediatric lung program is at SLCH, and it has active programs in transplant for heart, liver, kidney, lung, small intestine and bone marrow.

Recent construction at SLCH added seven floors — 124,000 square feet — to the existing building and renovated 160,000 square feet of existing space. SLCH facilities include a 29-room emergency department, 13 operating suites, a 67-bed neonatal intensive care unit, a 36-bed PICU with 12 cardiac beds, and a six-bed bone marrow transplant unit. Other units moving into new space included the dialysis unit, wound service, burn center, therapy services and sports medicine gym, and a Ronald McDonald Family Room.

SLCH is moving toward private patient rooms and recently increased such rooms from 30 percent to 80 percent of the total. Patient rooms are equipped with a bathroom, telephone, color television, VCR and wireless Internet capability. Each room is designed to accommodate one parent per patient for overnight stays (intensive care units are exceptions).

In addition to outstanding medical care, SLCH also provides extensive community outreach services, including home care, patient and parent support groups, educational programs, and a free child health information line staffed by pediatric registered nurses (454-KIDS).