Children’s hospitals are medical institutions that specialize in infancy and childhood diseases. These hospitals generally integrate medical care, preventive services, teaching, and research. They are the centers of health care and research, providing innovative solutions to pediatric healthcare problems. The patients in these hospitals include children from rural as well as metropolitan areas. The child health care team in a children’s hospital consists of physicians, nurses, dieticians, and speech therapists, along with specialists required for the all kinds of health problems. They offer a full range of care from routine checkups and emergency care to extensive patient care. While most children’s hospital serve children with complex and severe medical conditions, many of them also help children to grow up healthy through preventive care like vaccines.
The history of children’s hospitals can be traced back to the year 1821 when the lack of medical services to sick children in Dublin led some eminent doctors to found the city’s National Children’s Hospital. This hospital was among the first ones set up exclusively for children. Dr. Charles West, one of the founders of the hospital, helped to launch another children’s hospital in London in the year 1852. The hospital was named the Great Ormond Street Hospital. Ten of the oldest children’s hospital in U.S. and Canada are the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (1855), Boston Children’s Hospital (1869), Children's Hospital National Medical Center, Washington, D.C; St. Mary's Hospital for Children, Children's Seashore House, Atlantic City; The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto; Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, and Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati.
Hospitals for children play a vital role in the health care of children and have been affiliating with research institutes and medical colleges to find the best means to diagnose, treat and cure pediatric diseases. They also train nurses, occupational therapists, dentists and health professionals who contribute to the welfare and healthy development of children in these children’s hospitals.
