Children's Hospital Colorado is an academic pediatric acute care children's hospital located in the Anschutz Medical Campus near the interchange of I-225 and Colfax Avenue in Aurora, Colorado. The hospital has 434 pediatric beds at its main campus in Aurora. As CHCO is a teaching hospital, it operates a number of residency programs, which train newly graduated physicians in various pediatric specialties and subspecialties. The hospital is affiliated with the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–25 throughout Colorado and the Midwest. The hospital also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. Children's Hospital Colorado is the only children's hospital in Colorado. Additionally, The hospital has outpatient centers, campuses, and doctors offices around Illinois. The hospital features an ACS verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center and features a rooftop helipad to transport critically ill patients.
History
In 1897, Dr. Minnie C.T. Love, a physician, political office holder, suffragist, and a member of the Women of the Ku Klux Klan, led the founding of the Babies Summer Hospital in Denver, Colorado. Denver's high-country ventilation was touted as a cure for a variety of diseases. Using a mix of fresh air and Colorado sunshine, six medical staff and volunteer nurses treated up to 50 children under the age of five. Early on, those volunteers saw a need for a permanent hospital that would “care for sick, injured and crippled children from birth to 16 years of age” and which would be supported mainly by volunteer contributions. With that goal to guide them, this same group of intrepid volunteers officially incorporated as The Children's Hospital on May 9, 1908. In 1909, Children's Colorado converted a former residence at 2221 Downing Street in Denver into a “well equipped institution with a capacity of 30 beds,” admitting its first patients on Feb. 17, 1910. As the demand for child healthcare services increased throughout the region, the hospital quickly outgrew its original location and raised funds to build a new and improved facility, which opened in 1917 at 19th Avenue and Downing Street in downtown Denver. After numerous expansions over the years at the hospital's downtown Denver location, Children's Hospital Colorado opened its new campus in Aurora on September 29, 2007. The hospital designed by ZGF Architects includes 284 beds and advanced medical equipment especially designed for children, as well as inspiring artwork and outstanding family accommodations. On June 21, 2011, the hospital announced that its name was changing from The Children's Hospital to Children's Hospital Colorado. The hospital made the change to help differentiate it from other hospitals in the country with the same name. In March 2020, the hospital announced that it was expanding its age limit to all patients up to age 30 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to help bring demand away from overcrowded adult hospitals. Although the hospital is treating patients under 30, it is not accepting patients with significant substance use or psychiatric disorders because those are outside of its areas of care. This is a small difference from the hospitals usual age limit of 25. In 2021 the hospital was ranked as the #6 best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News and World Report on the publications' honor roll list.
About
Noteworthy Programs
It is the only Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center in Colorado.
It has a Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the highest distinction granted by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Children's Hospital Colorado NICU treats nearly 750 infants each year from a 10-state area, and is the only NICU in the region with the experience and technology to treat virtually any medical condition affecting newborns.
The Heart Institute at Children's Hospital Colorado is the largest in the region, treating more than 20,000 patients each year. It is also one of only eight stand-alone pediatric research centers in the country.
*Children's Hospital Colorado Heart Institute Transplant Program/
Children's Hospital Colorado Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders is the only pediatric cancer center in the Rocky Mountain region providing care for patients from birth to age 25. It also has the region's only pediatric neuro-oncology program for brain tumor diagnosis and treatment; program for teenagers with cancer; pediatric bone marrow transplant program; pediatric onco-fertility program that helps cancer patients maximize their chances for future fertility; and the region's only pediatric Experimental Therapeutics Program investigating promising new drugs for cancer treatment.
The Orthopedics Institute at Children's Hospital Colorado treats growing muscles, joints and bones.
The Center for Gait and Movement Analysis at Children's Hospital Colorado was the second lab in the world to offer movement analysis through motion-capture technology, kinetics, and electromyography, helping specialists fine-tune the best possible course of treatment.
The Breathing Institute at Children's Hospital Colorado, along with other Colorado physicians, pioneered many of the standard practices used to treat and diagnose pediatric respiratory disease today. It was the first in the world to recognize and treat interstitial lung disease, the first to use nitric oxide to treat neonatal hypertension, and the first to initiate newborn cystic fibrosis screening.
Children's Colorado's campus is affiliated with, and adjacent to, the University of Colorado School of Medicine. The University is home to education and research facilities. Children's Colorado is staffed with doctors from the Department of Pediatrics.
