Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

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Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. In June of 1883, a meeting of women from parish communities around Cincinnati established a mission to create a Diocesan Hospital for Children. In November of that year, the "Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church" of the Diocese of Southern Ohio was incorporated.

The original articles of incorporation are as follows: "This corporation is not created for profit, but will rely for its establishment and support on the voluntary gifts and contribution of the charitable and humane, and therefore is to have no capital stock."

In 1884 the initial building was a single three bedroom home in Walnut Hills, a community north of downtown Cincinnati, at the corners of Park Avenue and Kemper Street. This building provided for fifteen patients, and within eight months had admitted a total of 38 children. The only patients eligible for admission were aged 1-15, suffering from an acute or chronic disease (or convalescent from such), required medical or surgical treatment. The only restriction was that no child with an infectious disease may be admitted.

The original site admitted 157 patients over the next four years. On November 23, 1887, all patients were transferred from the Walnut Hills location to the site of the permanent location on Burnett Avenue in Clifton.

Originally endowed with a fund of $3,506.48 in November 1884, the hospital's endowment had grown to over $85,000 (c. $2,000,000 in 2005 dollars) by the turn of the century.

In 1904, a new three story wing, connecting with the rear of the main building, was built. The addition cost over $20,000 at the time (around $500,000 in 2005 dollars), and included provisions for a large play-room, a chapel, twenty beds on the second floor, and an isolation ward for contagious diseases on the third floor. A new operating room was installed on the top floor of the main hospital at this time, and various other improvements increased the capacity of the hospital at this time to 90 beds.

The hospital has been a significant player in a variety of historic medical breakthroughs, most prominently Dr. Albert Sabin's development of the oral polio vaccine, which went into use in the United States in 1960. Currently the hospital reports roughly 800,000 patient encounters a year, and has a budget of $1,000,000,000 dollars.

The vision statement for Cincinnati Children's is, "We will be the leader in improving child health." Children's is realizing this vision through a dedication to global child health issues. For research, Cincinnati Children's receives the second highest awards to a pediatric institution from the National Institutes of Health and is recognized as one of the top five pediatric training institutions in the United States.

In July of 2006, Cincinnati Children's was awarded the prestigious American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize® for its leadership in improving outcomes through family-centered care and a dedication to transparency.

As of September 7, 2006, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center now ranks second in the nation among all pediatric medical centers in research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

In 2007, Child Magazine ranked the hospital as 5th in the nation.