Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Encyclopedia
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is one of the largest and oldest children's hospital
s in the world. CHOP has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report
and Parents Magazine
in recent years. As of 2008, it was ranked #1 in the nation for pediatrics. The hospital is located next to the University of Pennsylvania
and its physicians serve as the pediatrics
department of Penn's School of Medicine
.
CHOP has over 430 beds, 40 percent of which are allocated to neonatal, cardiac, and pediatric intensive care. Each year the hospital admits more than 15,000 children and more than 600,000 are seen in the emergency and outpatient departments.
, typhoid, and scarlet fever
. In the worst month of 1855, 300 children under 12 years old died, primarily of infectious disease
s. A Philadelphia physician, Dr. Francis West Lewis, inspired by a visit to the new Great Ormond Street Hospital
for Sick Children in London
(founded 1852), enlisted Drs. T. Hewson Bache and R.A.F. Penrose to found the first children's hospital
in North America.
The first location of the original Children's Hospital was a small building on Blight Street (now Watts St). The hospital consisted of 12 beds and a dispensary. That year they recorded 67 inpatient admissions and 306 outpatient visits.
. This hospital consisted of 35 beds and a dispensary.
at 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, adjacent to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania
, was begun in 1969 and the first building was opened in 1974. This present Children's Hospital complex occupies part of the site of the old Philadelphia General Hospital and Blockley Almshouse
.
Milestones and advances in pediatric care pioneered at CHOP include the first formal medical training in pediatrics
, techniques for the correction of congenital heart malformations, incubators for newborn intensive care, home ventilator care, and vaccine
development.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is in Philadelphia's University City neighborhood, and since 2001 has been undergoing a $1.5 billion expansion that has doubled the hospital's size, while also building more than one million square feet of new research and outpatient facilities on a large, eight acre site south of the main hospital on Civic Center Boulevard. The South Campus expansion includes the eleven-story Colket Translational Research Building, which will provide lab space for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research and the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics. The new South Campus will also include an underground parking garage and an ambulatory care building with outpatient services.
This South Campus expansion adjoins the University of Pennsylvania Health System's construction of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
and Roberts Proton Therapy Center.
as a place for children to receive rehabilitation treatment. In 1990 the hospital moved to its current location next to CHOP and in 1998 it was acquired by CHOP. As of 1998, the hospital had 45 beds. It currently provides inpatient and outpatient care for children with developmental disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Children's hospital
A children's hospital is a hospital which offers its services exclusively to children . The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th century, as pediatric medical and surgical specialties separated from internal medicine and adult surgical specialties...
s in the world. CHOP has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
and Parents Magazine
Parents (magazine)
Parents, published by Meredith Corporation, is the oldest parenting publication in the U.S. It was first published in October 1926.Its editorial focus is on the daily needs and concerns of mothers with young children. The glossy monthly features information about child health, safety, behavior,...
in recent years. As of 2008, it was ranked #1 in the nation for pediatrics. The hospital is located next to the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and its physicians serve as the pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
department of Penn's School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
The Perelman School of Medicine , formerly the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, was founded in 1765, making it the oldest American medical school. As part of the University of Pennsylvania, it is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is widely...
.
CHOP has over 430 beds, 40 percent of which are allocated to neonatal, cardiac, and pediatric intensive care. Each year the hospital admits more than 15,000 children and more than 600,000 are seen in the emergency and outpatient departments.
History
In 1855, Philadelphia had a population of about 460,000, and recorded 10,507 deaths. Leading causes of death were smallpoxSmallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
, typhoid, and scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
. In the worst month of 1855, 300 children under 12 years old died, primarily of infectious disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
s. A Philadelphia physician, Dr. Francis West Lewis, inspired by a visit to the new Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
for Sick Children in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(founded 1852), enlisted Drs. T. Hewson Bache and R.A.F. Penrose to found the first children's hospital
Children's hospital
A children's hospital is a hospital which offers its services exclusively to children . The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th century, as pediatric medical and surgical specialties separated from internal medicine and adult surgical specialties...
in North America.
First hospital 1855–66
On November 23, 1855 the following small advertisement appeared in the Philadelphia Public Ledger:The Children's Hospital—located on Blight Street, running from Pine to Lombard, below Broad, is now open for the reception of Patients. Children suffering from Acute Diseases and Accidents will be received free of charge. A dispensaryDispensaryA dispensary is an office in a school, hospital or other organization that dispenses medications and medical supplies. In a traditional dispensary set-up a pharmacist dispenses medication as per prescription or order form....
, for sick children, is also attached to the Hospital and will be open at the same place every day, (Sundays excepted from 11 to 12 o'clock, when advice and medicine will be given free of charge.)
The first location of the original Children's Hospital was a small building on Blight Street (now Watts St). The hospital consisted of 12 beds and a dispensary. That year they recorded 67 inpatient admissions and 306 outpatient visits.
Second hospital 1866–1916
Children’s Hospital was relocated to 22nd Street between Locust and Walnut Sts after the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. This hospital consisted of 35 beds and a dispensary.
- Surgery was being performed by 1870.
- The first residentResidency (medicine)Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident physician or resident is a person who has received a medical degree , Podiatric degree , Dental Degree and who practices...
physician was appointed in 1873. - Formal medical teaching in medical and surgical clinics began in 1877.
- A long-term care ("convalescent") facility was opened as a County Branch near Overbrook.
- Capacity was increased to 94 beds by 1892.
- A nursing school, the Ingersoll Training School, was opened in 1894.
- In 1899 the County Branch convalescent facility was closed and the program and patients transferred to the Seashore House near Atlantic City, New Jersey.
- In 1900 the Catherwood Milk Laboratory was established.
- In 1914 the first Department for the Prevention of Disease in the nation was established.
Third hospital 1916–74
Construction adjacent to the 2nd hospital was begun in 1913 and the first unit was opened in 1916 extending toward 18th and Bainbridge Sts. In 1919 the hospital became affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The affiliation became steadily closer over the next 17 years, with the Children's Hospital becoming identical to the pediatric department of the school of medicine, with most of the attending physicians appointed jointly to both institutions.- In 1925 the hospital became affiliated with the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic.
- The first formal allocation of funds to research was recorded in 1937.
- The nursing school was disbanded in 1945 and converted into an affiliate training center.
- A six-story research building next to the hospital was dedicated in 1954.
- In 1962 under Dr. C. Everett KoopC. Everett KoopCharles Everett Koop, MD is an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and served as thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989.-Early years:Koop was born...
the first neonatal intensive care unitNeonatal intensive care unitA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit —also called a Special Care Nursery, newborn intensive care unit, intensive care nursery , and special care baby unit —is an intensive care unit specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants.The problem of premature and congenitally ill infants is not a...
(NICU) in the nation was opened, along with a new neonatal surgical unit. - In 1965 the first home care program for children was established.
- A Clinical Research Center under the auspices of the National Institutes of HealthNational Institutes of HealthThe National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
was opened in 1965.
Fourth hospital 1974–present
Construction of the new hospital at a new site on the west side of the Schuylkill RiverSchuylkill River
The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
at 34th Street and Civic Center Boulevard, adjacent to the campus of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, was begun in 1969 and the first building was opened in 1974. This present Children's Hospital complex occupies part of the site of the old Philadelphia General Hospital and Blockley Almshouse
Blockley Almshouse
The Blockley Almshouse, later known as Philadelphia General Hospital, was a charity hospital and poorhouse located in West Philadelphia. It originally opened in 1732/33 in a different part of the city as the Philadelphia Almshouse...
.
- A helicopter transport system for critically ill and injured children was inaugurated in 1973.
- CHOP celebrated its 150th anniversary on November 18, 2005.
Milestones and advances in pediatric care pioneered at CHOP include the first formal medical training in pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
, techniques for the correction of congenital heart malformations, incubators for newborn intensive care, home ventilator care, and vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
development.
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is in Philadelphia's University City neighborhood, and since 2001 has been undergoing a $1.5 billion expansion that has doubled the hospital's size, while also building more than one million square feet of new research and outpatient facilities on a large, eight acre site south of the main hospital on Civic Center Boulevard. The South Campus expansion includes the eleven-story Colket Translational Research Building, which will provide lab space for the Center for Childhood Cancer Research and the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics. The new South Campus will also include an underground parking garage and an ambulatory care building with outpatient services.
This South Campus expansion adjoins the University of Pennsylvania Health System's construction of the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
The Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine is located at 34th and Civic Center Blvd, on the former site of the Philadelphia Civic Center, on the campus of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The $302-million project was designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects and completed in 2008...
and Roberts Proton Therapy Center.
Children's Seashore House
Children's Seashore House was founded in 1872 near Atlantic City, New JerseyAtlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...
as a place for children to receive rehabilitation treatment. In 1990 the hospital moved to its current location next to CHOP and in 1998 it was acquired by CHOP. As of 1998, the hospital had 45 beds. It currently provides inpatient and outpatient care for children with developmental disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Rankings
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has been ranked the best hospital for children for the fifth consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report. A detailed ranking of pediatric facilities in the United States is printed in the publication's first stand-alone "America's Best Children's Hospitals" issue.See also
- Philadelphia Ronald McDonald HousePhiladelphia Ronald McDonald HouseThe Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House was the first of the Ronald McDonald House Charities and now stands at 39th and Chestnut Streets in West Philadelphia.-History:...
: A "home away from home" for outpatients and families at CHOP and other nearby hospitals. - Center for Applied GenomicsCenter for Applied GenomicsThe Center for Applied Genomics is a Center of Emphasis at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia with the primary goal of discovering and translating basic research findings into medical innovations....
at CHOP