Founded in 1907, Seattle Children's Hospital provides excellent patient care with compassion and respect, and conducts leading-edge pediatric research. The hospital also serves as an educational resource for patients, families and healthcare professionals.
Ranked as one of the top 10 children's hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Children's serves as the pediatric referral center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.
In addition to nearly 60 subspecialty areas from adolescent medicine to virology, Children's provides comprehensive care through day surgery, outpatient clinics, 24-hour emergency services and urgent after-hours care.
Networks of regional critical care ground and air transport bring patients to Children's from community hospitals located throughout the region. The hospital services also include childcare, social work, pastoral care, interpreter services, respiratory therapy, nutritional care, occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy.
Children's uses a modified version of Toyota Lean Process Improvement called Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) to evaluate and improve healthcare from the patient and family point of view. Our work is about improving the quality of our care and service, our cost-effectiveness and financial strength, access to specialists, the safety of our environment and the engagement of our people.
As the primary pediatric training site for the University of Washington School of Medicine, Children's provides broad clinical experiences for more than 683 residents and fellows each year.
Through work at Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and partnerships with the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Children's is at the forefront of leading-edge pediatric treatment, prevention and research.
Our Mission
We believe all children have unique needs and should grow up without illness or injury. With the support of the community and through our spirit of inquiry, we will prevent, treat, and eliminate pediatric disease.
History
Seattle Children's celebrated its centennial in 2007. Read more about our history.
2009 Key Facts and Statistics
Annual patient visits: 291,912
- Outpatient clinic visits: 227,901
- Main campus (Seattle): 158,989
- Off-site: 68,912
- Bellevue: 26,877
- Everett: 3,772
- Federal Way: 4,168
- Odessa Brown: 29,506
- Olympia: 2,323
- Tri-Cities: 876
- Alaska Cardiology: 1,390
- Emergency Room visits: 38,414
- Admissions to the hospital: 14,106
- Short-stay visits: 11,491
Patient statistics
- Inpatient days: 75,708
- Average length of stay (days): 5.1
Beds and procedures
- Licensed beds (total): 250
- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, including Cardiac ICU: 26
- Neonatal ICU: 19
- Medical Unit: 77
- Surgical Unit: 63
- Seattle Cancer Care Alliance/Oncology: 33
- Rehabilitation and Complex Care Unit: 12
- Psychiatric Unit: 20
- Surgeries (total): 13,334
- Outpatient: 7,765
- Inpatient: 5,569
Financial statistics
- Gross revenue: $1.01 billion
- Total uncompensated care: $96.4 million (90% Medicaid shortfall; 10% charity care)
- Research awards (total): $57,942,529
- Federal: $40,018,823
- Foundation: $11,954,229
- Corporate: $5,777,410
- Other: $192,067
- Contributions to the foundation and Guild Association: $43,252,000
- Net revenue from retail (gift shops and thrift stores): $384,000
- Payor mix:
- Medicaid: 43%
- Other government: 6%
- Insurance and managed care: 49%
- Other: 2%
Top 10 reasons for inpatient admissions
- Asthma: 542 admissions
- Chemotherapy: 534
- Bronchiolitis due to RSV: 420
- Seizure: 384
- Cleft lip/palate: 311
- Acute gastroenteritis: 305
- Appendicitis: 289
- Cellulitis: 280
- Diabetes: 239
- Pneumonia: 219
Staffing statistics
- Active employees (total): 4,492
- Active medical staff (total): 1,118
- Hospital-based physicians: 592
- Hospital-based mid-level health professionals (including advanced registered nurse practitioners and certified physician assistants): 133
- Private-practice providers: 393
- Seattle Children's Research Institute staff: 479
- Research Institute principal investigators: 236
- Fellows: 104
- Pediatric residents: 94
- Volunteers:
- Average number of volunteers per month: 1,084
- Volunteer hours (total for 2008): 138,410
- Guild members: 7,000
Recognition
In June 2009, U.S. News & World Report magazine placed Seattle Children's Hospital among the nation's top children's hospitals for the 17th consecutive year. The results were announced as part of U.S. News & World Report's annual America's Best Children's Hospitals issue. Children's was ranked fourth in the country for kidney disorders, sixth for cancer, eighth for urology, ninth for respiratory disorders and ninth for neurology and neurosurgery. Other Children's programs receiving top recognition in 2009 by U.S. News & World Report included neonatal care, orthopedics, digestive disorders and heart and heart surgery. Children's was the only children's hospital in the Pacific Northwest to make this list.
In February 2009, Parents magazine placed Seattle Children's Hospital among the nation's top children's hospitals for the fifth consecutive time. Children's was ranked 13th overall, up two spots from the previous ranking, and was the only children's hospital in the Pacific Northwest to make this list. Children's cancer program also received special recognition by Parents as one of the top five in the country. The results were announced as part of the magazine's biannual survey to identify the nation's best children's hospitals.
Children's is home to the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics, the nation's first center devoted exclusively to pediatric bioethics.
Children's was named Large Non-profit Employer of the Year by the Washington state Governor's Committee on Disability Issues and Employment.
In 2008, Seattle magazine featured 89 Seattle Children's physicians in its annual Top Doctors listing.
Affiliations
Children's, the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, and the University of Washington form the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA).
Children's is a member of the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI).
Continuous Growth
In 2007, Children's announced plans to expand facilities on the main campus. The expansion, which includes increasing inpatient beds, will meet the region's growing demand for Children's services while ensuring we continue to provide safe quality care in a healing environment. For more information, please visit the Web site.
Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute opened in Fall 2006 with nine research centers:
- Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies
- Center for Childhood Infections and Prematurity Research
- Center for Tissue and Cell Sciences
- Center for Clinical and Translational Research
- Center for Childhood Cancer (FHCRC)
- Center for Genetics and Development (UW)
- Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development
- Center for Integrative Brain Research
- Center for Developmental Therapeutics
Seattle Children's also announced and developed a new initiative in 2008, forming the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity and Stillbirth (GAPPS). The mission is to lead a collaborative, global effort to increase awareness and accelerate innovative research and interventions that will improve maternal, newborn and child health outcomes. The alliance includes international stakeholders in maternal, newborn and child health.
Cutting-edge Procedures/Technology
Drs. Gordon Cohen and Lester Permut became the first cardiac surgeons in the Northwest to implant a mechanical Berlin Heart in a child under age 5. Six weeks later, the physicians successfully performed a heart transplant on the 2-year-old boy.
Children's became the first medical center west of the Mississippi to perform a heart transplant on an infant whose blood type was different than the organ donor's (known as an ABO-mismatched transplant).
Children's established the only small intestine transplant program in the Northwest — and one of only a handful in the country — under the leadership of pioneering surgeon Dr. Jorge Reyes. The first intestine transplant in the Northwest was completed at Children's in January 2007.
Children's has been using the da Vinci robot to assist with surgery and teaching since April 2006. The technology has benefits over conventional laparoscopic and traditional "open" surgery with reconstructive operations that require very intricate surgical techniques. Benefits include smaller incisions, minimal scarring, faster recovery and less operative dehydration and blood loss.
Recent Research Accomplishments
Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute conducts groundbreaking research aimed at preventing, treating and eliminating childhood disease.
Seattle's reputation as a leading force in biotechnology attracts the world's best pediatric physicians and scientists to Children's Research Institute. Scientists work in interdisciplinary research centers around common thematic focus areas and identifiable sets of core programs.
Currently there are 175 independent grant investigators based at Children's, supported by nearly $40 million in federal grants in fiscal year 2009. National Institutes of Health prime grant awards totaled $24 million, placing Children's fifth in the U.S. for 2009, in terms of this funding among pediatric research institutions.
In 2010, more than 500 faculty and staff conduct research in 300,000 square feet of laboratory and support space, located in downtown Seattle close to other biotech leaders. The institute has acquired 2 million square feet of developable space devoted specifically to research growth in the coming years.
Some key research breakthroughs and findings:
- Dr. Matthew Speltz's study on plagiocephaly (flat head syndrome) in babies found that infants who had flat spots on their skulls may have developmental delays in cognitive and motor skills.
- Dr. Pooja Tandon found that parents who saw calorie information on fast food restaurant menus may select fewer calories for their children when ordering for them, supporting the menu labeling changes taking place across the country.
- Dr. Andrew Scharenberg and Dr. David Rawlings are the principal investigators on the largest research grant received by Children's in its 100-year history. The $23.7 million grant to study gene repair was awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and will support the Northwest Genome Engineering Consortium, led by Children's in partnership with the University of Washington School of Medicine and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
- A study led by Dr. James Olson showed that tumor paint is 500 times better than MRI at helping surgeons distinguish between cancer cells and normal brain tissue. Olson and his team developed the paint, which can be used during surgery, from a scorpion-derived peptide called chlorotoxin.
- Dr. Dimitri Christakis found that playing with toy blocks may lead to improved language development in young children. In a separate study, Christakis showed that while educational videos may hinder language development in infants, they have no positive or negative affect on the vocabularies of toddlers.
- Dr. Daniel Rubens found a strong connection between Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and an abnormality in the inner ear. Rubens' findings may help doctors identify newborns at risk for SIDS by a simple, affordable and routine hearing test administered shortly after birth.
- Dr. Rita Mangione-Smith learned that children in the U.S. fail to get recommended health care more than 50% of the time. The study shows that many children are not receiving preventive care basics, such as regular height and weight measurements, nor are they receiving standard care for common ailments, such as asthma and diarrhea.
Family-Centered Care
When a child is hospitalized, the whole family is affected. Our patient care units include amenities to help reduce the inevitable stress of a hospitalization by providing private spaces on each floor for parents to meet with doctors or family members and pull-out couches in each room.
The Family Resource Center provides information and support for patients, families, staff and the community. Child health information is available on specific illnesses and conditions, parenting, growth and development, grief and loss and safety.
Services and facilities are free and include parent massage, vending area with coffee and tea, computers with Internet access, phones, fax, lockers, showers and laundry.