About Us

Child patient care

Boston Children's Hospital is a 395-bed comprehensive center for pediatric health care. As one of the largest pediatric medical centers in the United States, Children's offers a complete range of health care services for children from birth through 21 years of age. (Our Advanced  Fetal Care Center can begin interventions at 15 weeks gestation, and in some situations, we treat adults.)

Children's records approximately 24,943 inpatient admissions each year, and our 228 specialized clinical programs schedule more than 557,620 visits annually. Additionally, the hospital performed 26,534 surgical procedures and 158,791 radiological examinations last year.

Research

Children's is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric hospital. More than 1,100 scientists, including nine members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 on-staff members of the Institute of Medicine and 9 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, comprise our research community. Current initiatives have attracted a record $225 million in annual funding, including more federal funding than any other pediatric facility.

 In the John F. Enders Pediatric Research Laboratories, named for the Children's researcher and Nobel Prize recipient who cultured the polio and measles viruses, hundreds of laboratory researchers and physician investigators search for answers to some of the most perplexing diseases.

In 2003, a generous philanthropic gift made the 295,000 square foot  Karp  Family Research Laboratories possible. The building increased our research space by more than 60 percent. The Karp family gift is just one of many important gifts that support Children's vital research enterprise.

Through the years, scientists at Children's have set the pace in pediatric research, identifying treatments and therapies for many debilitating diseases, including those of adulthood.

Recognition

Boston Children's is the #1 ranked pediatric hospital nationwide according to the 2012-13 edition of Best Children's Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. Children's has been ranked first in Heart & Heart  Surgery, Neurology & Neurosurgery, and Kidney  Disorders.

Boston Children's Hospital ranks second in Cancer, Diabetes & Endocrinology, Gastroenterology and Urology, third in Neonatology and Orthopedics, and fourth in Pulmonology. Unlike the rankings in previous years, this edition does not rank the overall institutions; instead it identifies an honor roll of the 10 hospitals that rank in all 10 specialties. Since the magazine began ranking hospitals over 20 years ago, Children's has always been ranked as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country.

Please visit our   Rankings page for more information.

Magnet status

Children's is a certified Magnet hospital for nursing excellence. The Magnet award is the highest level of recognition for hospital nursing awarded by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.