Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

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Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, a not-for-profit healthcare organization, was formed in 1998 when Egleston Children’s Health Care System and Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center merged. Both hospitals maintained their original locations, but the merger brought together Egleston’s teaching and research strengths with Scottish Rite’s successful private-practice model. In February 2006 Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta assumed responsibility for the management of services at Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital, located in downtown Atlanta at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Children’s, a pediatric-accredited hospital, offers family-centered care while providing specialized medical procedures and supplies, age-appropriate play therapy, psychosocial support and a hospital-based school program. A continuing medical education program helps community healthcare providers stay abreast of advances in clinical care. With approximately half a million annual patient visits in 2006, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is one of the country’s leading pediatric healthcare providers.

Children’s is expanding both Children’s at Egleston and Children’s at Scottish Rite. Expansion is also planned for Children’s at Hughes Spalding. The $365 million facilities expansion project is an investment in pediatric patients and employees. Additionally, Children’s has 16 satellite locations in metropolitan Atlanta, more than 6,000 employees, and 1,400 pediatric physicians.

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[edit] History

In 1915 the Scottish Rite Convalescent Home for Crippled Children opened as an 18-bed facility in two small wood-frame cottages in Decatur, GA.The home provided indigent children a place to recover from surgery performed at other hospitals. By 1919 it had grown to a 50-bed facility and changed its name to Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children. In the 1970s the hospital moved to North Atlanta.

In 1928 Henrietta Egleston Hospital for Children opened in downtown Atlanta with the financial support of Thomas R. Egleston Jr. In the first year the 52-bed facility was open, 605 children were treated. In the 1950s Egleston became the pediatric teaching affiliate for the Emory University School of Medicine and relocated to the university’s campus.

In 1952, the Hughes Spalding Pavilion officially opened as a private hospital for black and African-American patients. After numerous transformations, the Hughes Spalding Pavilion shut its doors in 1989. The facilities re-opened in 1992 as Hughes Spalding Children’s Hospital—an 82-bed, freestanding facility dedicated to serving Atlanta’s inner-city pediatric population.

[edit] Services

The hospitals provide patient families with:

  • 24-hour family visitation throughout the hospital, including the Intensive Care Units
  • In-hospital playrooms so children can enjoy time with siblings and other children
  • In-room sleeping sofas so a parent can always be close by
  • Local accommodations through the Mason House and Ronald McDonald houses for extended stays

[edit] Multidisciplinary Services

Other nationally acclaimed services at Children’s are the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, orthopaedics, neurosurgery and organ transplant. Children’s has an exhaustive list of other services, including emergency/trauma care, respiratory care and rehabilitation. A call center offers a 24-hour nurse advice line, physician referrals and an audio health library.

[edit] Breakthroughs

  • Transplants performed on the youngest (10 days old) and three smallest (2 to 4 pounds) liver transplant recipients worldwide.
  • One of the first centers in the country to perform sentinel lymph node mapping on children to determine if cancer has spread past the point of origin, helping some patients avoid further surgery.
  • One of the few centers in the country evaluating a new procedure called capsule endoscopy, where a disposable capsule containing a miniature camera is used to detect and diagnose gastrointestinal disorders in children.
  • Among the first in the country to use a biventricular assist device (Bi-VAD) to keep pediatric heart failure patients alive while waiting for a transplant
  • Among the first to use a GliaSite catheter to treat aggressive childhood brain tumors
  • Developed the first dissolvable midface expander for children with craniofacial abnormalities
  • Among a few pediatric hospitals in the country to perform 400 kidney transplants—since 1999 the Kidney Transplant team has had a 100 percent, three-year patient survival rate
  • Designed a computerized tracking and documentation system for children treated in our Emergency department that is now used by hospitals around the country
  • One of a few centers in the United States to perform three pediatric heart transplants in 24 hours and multiple ABO-incompatible heart transplants*

[edit] Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service

The Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service of Children’s is a national leader among childhood cancer, hematology, and blood and marrow transplant programs, serving infants to young adults. Recognized as one of the top five pediatric cancer centers in the country by Child magazine, the Aflac Cancer Center treats more than 325 new cancer patients each year and follows more than 2,000 patients with sickle cell disease, hemophilia and other blood disorders. The Aflac Cancer Center is one of many programs at Children’s committed to enhancing the lives of children through excellence in patient care, research and education.

[edit] The Children’s Sibley Heart Center

Treating nearly 28,000 children every year, the Children’s Sibley Heart Center has garnered widespread national recognition for our innovative treatments, leading-edge research and compassionate care. In 2007, the Children's Sibley Heart Center was named one of the country’s top three pediatric cardiac programs by Child magazine. Located at Children’s at Egleston, the center provides comprehensive cardiac services for congenital and acquired heart disease from infancy through young adulthood, as well as prenatal diagnostics.

[edit] Community collaboration

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta collaborates with leaders in the medical community, including the Emory University School of Medicine, Emory Winship Cancer Institute, the Morehouse School of Medicine, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and private-practice physicians. Children's researchers are engaged in more than 600 active studies, including 65 multisite clinical trials, in the community to improve the delivery of pediatric care in 30 specialty areas, with an emphasis on hematology/oncology, blood and marrow transplantation and cardiology.

[edit] Charity care

Children’s is the largest Medicaid provider in Georgia. In 2006, Children’s provided $81.1 million in unreimbursed care and treated three out of five pediatric inpatient Medicaid cases in metro Atlanta. Additionally, Children’s serves as a statewide training resource for the prevention of illness, injury and obesity in children. The Children’s Child Protection Center trains law enforcement personnel on child abuse detection and prevention.

[edit] Awards and recognition

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has been recognized for its outstanding staff and for its visionary physicians in pediatric medicine. Atlanta Business Chronicle ranked it the number one healthcare organization on its list of Atlanta’s A+ Employers in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2006 and in 2007 Fortune magazine ranked Children’s as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Children’s was also recognized as one of America’s best children’s hospitals in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by U.S.News & World Report.

In early 2007 Child magazine ranked Children’s third among the top 10 pediatric hospitals in the country. The magazine also ranked the Aflac Cancer Center, the Sibley Heart Center, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the pulmonology program, and the orthopaedics division in the nation’s top five pediatric specialties in 2007. In addition, nearly 150 doctors at Children’s, more than any other hospital in Georgia, are included among the nation’s best doctors as listed by Best Doctors in America.

[edit] References

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