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Children's National Medical Center history
Children's National Medical Center company history timeline
December 5, 1870: The “Children’s Hospital of the District of Columbia” is incorporated
Children’s National was one of the nation's first children’s hospitals, opening in 1870 and growing from a modest 12-bed facility to a 323-bed facility that performs more than 17,000 surgeries and conducts more than 669,000 outpatient visits in more than 60 specialties each year.
February 11, 1871: The first patients are admitted to the 12-bed hospital housed in a rented rowhouse
June 1875: Land purchased for construction of new hospital at 13th and W Streets, NW
1875: The hospital begins its first “letter campaign” to solicit residents to become members of Children’s Hospital
October 1, 1878: The central, or administrative building and the east wing of the new hospital is completed
1887: The first medical students from George Washington and Georgetown Universities begin training at Children’s
1890: The west wing is opened, bringing the total beds to 162.
May 1894: A 12-bed baby ward is opened to care for children under the age of 18 months.
1900 - Planning for the first Children’s Hospital begins at a town meeting at the YMCA Auditorium, in what is now Downtown Los Angeles.
Founded in 1901, Children's Hospital Los Angeles is a worldwide leader in pediatric and adolescent health.
During the hospital's first fiscal year (through March 30, 1902) 14 patients were admitted.
1902 - Known as “the little house on Castelar Street,” in what is now Chinatown, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles admits 14 patients in its first year.
The financial panic of 1907 brought difficult times for the hospital but brought good fortune in the selection of Mrs.
1910: First private (paying) patients admitted when two additional wings, running north and south are erected.
1912 - A new hospital named Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles will be built on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vermont Avenue in Hollywood.
Doctor Wilson's father was the hospital's first intern in 1912.
1914: Infant Welfare Station is opened to provide nourishment and preventive care for infants and children.
1920 - The Department of Physiotherapy opens for children in need of physical rehabilitation, many of whom are suffering from polio.
1921 - The Children’s Hospital School of Physical Therapy opens, one of only five accredited physical therapy schools in nation.
1924: Central wing added, brining bed capacity to 177 and housing for interns.
1928: Child Welfare Society continues preventative care efforts of Infant Welfare Station by opening a clinic.
1930: Social Services Department is established by the Junior League of Washington
1932: The Child Guidance Center, predecessor of today’s Psychiatry Department opens.
1934 - The Kate Page Crutcher Building opens, housing a physical therapy gymnasium, indoor swimming pool and treatment rooms.
1936: Opening of new building to house heating/laundry plant
January 1939: Blood Bank opens
Heart InstituteThe Heart Institute performed the first pediatric heart surgery on the West Coast in 1939.
1940: Medical Library opens.
June 1943: Completion of an addition to dispensary and an office for admitting officer.
1944: The scientific publication Clinical Proceedings is launched to publish medical articles.
1945: West annex is built to house x-ray and laboratory facilities, as well as 20 additional beds.
1947: The Research Foundation and the Department of Volunteers, financed by the Junior League of Washington are established
1947 Children’s National began its research program with an initial budget that consisted of a contribution by the Medical Staff of $2,792, a gift of $1,000 from the Child Welfare Society and a Public Health Service grant of $6,000 for polio studies.
1947 - Mary McAlister Duque joins the Board of Children’s Hospital.
July 1948: Doctor Reginald Lourie appointed director of newly established Psychiatry Department
1949: Valley Children’s founding mothers – Carolyn Peck, Gail Goodwin, Helen Maupin, Agnes Crocket and Patty Randall – announce their vision to establish a dedicated pediatric hospital in the Central Valley.
1950: The well baby clinic founded by the Child Welfare Society becomes part of the hospital.
1950 - The Hematology Program is established.
1952: Through fundraising efforts by the original Guild, Valley Children's Hospital officially opens at the corner of Shields and Millbrook avenues in Fresno.
1953: The hearing clinic, Premature Nursery and Electroencephalography Laboratory is open.
1955: Valley Children’s pediatric cardiac surgery program begins with closed-heart procedures.
1956: The adolescent medicine inpatient unit, the first of its kind in the United States, opens.
1956 - The Santa Anita Foundation Research Building is dedicated, allowing for expansion of research programs.
By 1958, Valley Children’s performs its first open-heart atrial septal defect closure.
March 1959: New building opens to house Research Foundation.
1959 A three-story facility for research was built with funds from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Variety Club of Washington.
1960 - The Division of Hematology is established.
1961: The Hospital acquires a heart defibrillator.
1962 - Nearly nine acres of land surrounding the hospital are acquired, paving the way for expansion.
1963: Pediatric Surgery is established as a discipline and the surgery training program is initiated.
1964: The new outpatient department, an intensive care unit and an open heart surgery program are established.
1964 Judson Randolph, M.D., the Children’s National chief surgeon at the time, developed the first pediatric surgical residency program in the country.
January 1967: The Comprehensive Health Care Program begins.
1967 - The Division of Nephrology is founded, becoming one of only two programs in the United States performing dialysis on children.
December 1968: Children’s Board of Directors decides to relocate and build a new hospital.
1968: The first exclusive pediatric internship is established
1968 The Charles Engelhard Foundation helped endow the Parrott Chair, the hospital’s first endowed professorship.
1968 - The new 282,000-square-foot, nine-story hospital building opens.
1971 - The first pediatric protective environment is developed, now known as the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, for children with resistant cancers undergoing intense chemotherapy.
1971: Our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) opens with eight beds.
1973 - The Divisions of Neonatology and Pediatric Pulmonology are established, including the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, now known as the Newborn and Infant Critical Care Unit.
1975: The first physicians specializing in critical care begin to provide care.
1975: Our fully equipped emergency room opens.
The dedication of the hospital's newest building, named for Board of Directors member and noted Southeran California philanthropist, George C. Page, took place on December 12, 1977.
1977 - For the first time in Children’s Hospital history, a six-month-old patient on mechanically-assisted ventilation for a breathing disorder is discharged home while still on a ventilator.
1978: Division of Child Protection established for cases of physical and sexual abuse.
1978 - The first successful bone marrow transplant of a patient with Wiskott Aldrich Syndrome, a genetic immune system disorder that can lead to frequent infections and excessive bleeding, is performed at Children’s Hospital.
1978: In a first for the area, Valley Children’s surgeons separate conjoined twins.
1978: “AM admissions” or Day Surgery unit opens.
1979: Valley Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) opens.
1980 - The Weingart Foundation Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is established, becoming the largest PICU in the western United States.
1980: A newly remodeled intensive care unit opens.
September 1981: Home Care program begins after Doctor Gloria Eng, chairman of Physical Medicine receives a one-year grant.
In 1982, the independent Child Life Council (CLC) was established with its own officers and its own professional development conference.
June 1983: Children’s hosts first Children’s Miracle Network Telethon in conjunction with Osmond Foundation.
The hospital's Immunology Program begins in 1983 for treatment of children with immune system deficiencies.
1983: The first telethon to benefit Valley Children’s airs.
June 1984: ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) program begins.
November 1985: Special Immunology Team is established to treat HIV-infected patients and their families (now known as the HIV Prevention and Treatment Program).
Robert Parrott, M.D., was named first Director of the Research Foundation, serving until 1985.
1985 - Researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles discover the relationship between Type 1b glycogen storage disease and inflammatory bowel disease, leading to an innovative treatment.
1985: Valley Children’s NICU opens at Saint Agnes Medical Center in Fresno.
1986 - Children’s Hospital establishes the first formal pediatric AIDS program in Southern California.
1986: Valley Children’s rehabilitation center opens.
1987: Facilities Enhancement Project approved and plans are made for additions and renovations.
1987 - The ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) program accepts its first patients, offering heart-lung bypass support to infants in respiratory failure.
1988: First bone marrow transplant procedure performed.
May 4, 1989: Groundbreaking held for west wing addition, relocation of helipad and expansion of parking garage.
1989 Children’s National leadership conceived and developed a strategic plan that resulted in the formation of a separate entity within Children’s National Medical Center, called Children's National Medical Center Research, which was later changed to Children’s National Research Institute (CNRI).
1989 - Children’s Hospital is named among the top four pediatric facilities in the country in the first United States News & World Report “America’s Best Hospitals” survey.
1989: Valley Children’s Olivewood Specialty Care Center in Merced opens.
January 1990: The Center for Prenatal Evaluation a joint endeavor with The George Washington University sees first patient.
July 1990: The Ambulatory Infusion Center in the Department of Hematology/Oncology opens doors.
1990 - Physicians pioneer the development of limb implants to treat bone cancer, saving young patients from amputation or death.
1992 - A 110,000-square-foot outpatient tower opens on the south side of the Children’s Hospital campus, allowing for expansion of needed clinic space.
1993 The Engelhard Foundation helped to establish the Bosworth Chair, which was first held by Stephan Ladisch, M.D., who published many influential studies that pointed to novel strategies to impede the growth of brain tumors.
1993 - Surgeons perform three firsts for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles: a pediatric heart transplant, a pediatric lung transplant and, in worldwide first, a double-lobe lung transplant, using a lung lobe from each of the patient’s parents.
1995 Children’s National constructed a fifth floor of research laboratories in the hospital, adding 40,000 square feet of space and total research funding increased to $14.7 million.
1995 - Researchers at Children’s Hospital discover the key role that transcription factor TTF-1 plays in the formation of the embryonic lung, a major advancement in the quest to grow or regenerate organs for repair or transplant.
1995: Valley Children’s NICU opens at Mercy Medical Center in Merced.
1996: Valley Children’s NICU opens at Adventist Health in Hanford.
1997 NIH annual funding for research at Children’s National reached $7,548,458 with total research funding increasing to over $16 million.
1997 - Physicians collaborate on a clinical trial using gene therapy for the first time on a child with HIV-1 infection, resulting in the world’s first gene therapy treatment for children with the disease.
1997: Our first primary care physician practice, Charlie Mitchell Children’s Center, opens in Madera.
1998 Mark L. Batshaw, M.D., became the first Director of Children's National Research Institute and was installed as the Fight for Children Chair of Academic Medicine.
A method of professional certification was adopted that assured a standard of practice for child life specialists, and by 1998 a standardized Child Life Professional Certification Examination was in place.
1998 - Surgeons perform the hospital’s first liver transplant, and in that same year, its first living donor liver transplant.
1998: Valley Children’s Hospital moves a few miles north to its new location in Madera.
1999 Patricio Ray, M.D., was installed as the first Robert H. Parrott Professor of Pediatric Research.
1999 - Helinet Aviation provides a $2 million Sikorsky S-76A helicopter to be used exclusively by the hospital’s Emergency Transport Program, ensuring 24-hour helicopter services at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
2000 The Ruth Pack Wolf and William B. Wolf, Sr., Professorship in Neuroscience and the Cohen-Funger Distinguished Professorship in Cardiovascular Surgery were established.
2000 - Identical twins suffering from hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare blood disease, are the first to receive a bone marrow transplant from the same donor.
2001 - Children’s Hospital Los Angeles celebrates its Centennial with a full year of activities.
2002 Vittorio Gallo, Ph.D., became the first Ruth Pack Wolf and William B. Wolf, Sr., Professor of Neuroscience and the Director of the Center for Neuroscience Research.
2002: Valley Children’s Olivewood Specialty Care Center in Modesto opens.
2003 Mendel Tuchman, M.D., was named the first Mary Elizabeth McGehee Joyce Professor of Genetics Research.
2003 - The Saban Research Institute opens; both the Institute and the 88,500-square-foot Saban Research Building are named with a transformative $40 million gift from Cheryl Saban, PhD, and Haim Saban, among the largest individual donors in the hospital’s history.
2004 - Surgeons perform the hospital’s first small bowel transplant.
2005 John N. van den Anker, M.D., Ph.D., was installed as the first Evan and Cindy Jones Professor of Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology and Paramjit T. Joshi, M.D. becomes the first Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
2005 - A groundbreaking ceremony is held to celebrate construction of a new $636 million Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion, to be built next to Children’s Hospital.
2006 - Eight local high school students are the first to participate in LA-HIP (Latino and African American High School Internship Program), opening more opportunities in research to minorities.
2006: The Hospital receives a $4 million donation from the Wonderful Company that allows us to expand 60,000-square feet with additional surgical suites, imaging department, PICU and Emergency Department (ED).
2007: New East Inpatient Tower opens, enhancing the expert, family-centered care at Children’s.
2007 The Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute was established with generous contributions from the Gilbert family.
2008: Valley Children’s becomes a Magnet Nursing hospital for a second time (hospitals may apply for redesignation every four years). Valley Children’s Hospital becomes the first hospital in the state to offer private rooms in our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
2008 Children’s National opened an additional floor of laboratory space (20,000 square feet) at an institutional cost of $18 million, bringing the total amount of Children's National Research Institute laboratory research space to 100,000 square feet.
2009 Children's National received a $150 million gift from the government of Abu Dhabi – the largest gift ever given for pediatric surgery – which launches the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation.
2009 - Children’s Hospital creates the Center for Personalized Medicine, which coordinates, supports and expands basic and translational research in genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, molecular genetics, molecular microbiology and cytogenetics.
2010 Children's National Medical Center, in partnership with the George Washington University Medical Center, received the first NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award given to a children's hospital.
2010 - Children’s Hospital’s 460,000-square-foot Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion is completed.
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is one of just seven children’s hospitals to be designated a “Top Hospital” for 2010 by The Leapfrog Group, and the only one in the western United States.
On July 17, 2011, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles officially opens the 317-bed Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion.
2011 Children’s National Research Institute is awarded accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP). Total annual research funding increased to $64 million; $39 million from NIH alone.
2012 The total annual research funding increased to $73 million, with NIH funding staying constant at $39 million.
2013 Children’s National opens the Sheikh Zayed Institute’s Pain Medicine Care Complex, one of only a few programs in the country focused exclusively on managing pain for infants, children and teens.
2013 – The hospital is again ranked among the top five children’s hospitals in the country, and is the only hospital on the West Coast to be listed on United States News and World Report’s Honor Roll of children’s hospitals for 2013-14.
2014 Roger J. Packer, M.D., and Yuan Zhu, Ph.D., were installed as the inaugural Gilbert Family Professors in Neurofibromatosis.
2014 – The hospital continues its streak, ranking among the top five children’s hospitals in the country for the third year in a row, and is again the only hospital on the West Coast to make United States News and World Report’s Honor Roll of children’s hospitals.
2014: Valley Children’s Healthcare officially forms, a network focused on providing comprehensive, high-quality pediatric care to more families across our vast service area.
The hospital welcomes new president and CEO Paul S. Viviano in August 2015.
2015 – For the seventh straight year, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is ranked among the top 10 children’s hospitals in the nation on United States News & World Report’s prestigious honor roll of children’s hospital.
2015: Valley Children’s 34th Street Specialty Care Center in Bakersfield opens.
2016 Children’s National signed an agreement with the United States Army to accept the transfer of nearly 12 acres of land from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center property in Northwest Washington, D.C. – an acquisition that nearly doubles the health system’s footprint in the city.
As a result of the rebranding efforts, the Child Life Council officially changed its name to the Association of Child Life Professionals in 2016.
2016: Valley Children’s Hospital ranks for the first time as one of United States News & World Report’s “Best Children’s Hospitals” – in Neonatology.
2017 – CHLA is again ranked among the top 10 children’s hospitals in the nation, gaining one spot at No.
2017: The inaugural class of the Valley Children’s Pediatric Residency Program, affiliated with Stanford University School of Medicine, arrives.
United States News & World Reports ranks Children's National top 5 overall and number 1 for babies for the 2018-19 Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll.
2018 Children’s National marked the official start of construction on its pediatric research and innovation campus with a groundbreaking event.
2018: Valley Children's transitions its 34th Street Specialty Care Center services to the newly built, 52,000-square-foot Eagle Oaks Specialty Care Center in Bakersfield.
2019 – CHLA jumps one spot to No.
2019: To meet the growing need for pediatric specialty care services in the North Valley, Valley Children’s transitions services at its Olivewood Specialty Care Center to the new Pelandale Specialty Care Center, a 40,000-square-foot building that sits on six acres in north Modesto.
At the end of 2020, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) posted the Children's Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) program funding awards for fiscal year 2020.
2020 - CHLA is again ranked the No.
2021 - For the third straight year, CHLA is ranked the No.
©2022 Children's Hospital Los Angeles is a 501(c)(3) organization
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