While most of the children admitted come from Los Angeles County, others come from the seven-county area near Los Angeles that includes Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Additional referrals come from elsewhere around the world. CHLA also has five outpatient specialty centers, as well as dozens of specialty physician offices across the Los Angeles Area. The hospital does not turn away patients regardless of socioeconomic status or insurance coverage. In 2021 the hospital was ranked as the #5 best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News and World Report on the publications' honor roll list.
Research and education
Children's Hospital Los Angeles is home to The Saban Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research centers in the Western United States. The institution conducts laboratory, clinical, translational and community research designed to investigate the developmental origins of health and disease. More than 400 faculty collaborate to combat cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, autism, obesity and diabetes, among other devastating pediatric conditions. The hospital is the eighth most productive center in the nation, as measured by its funding levels from the National Institutes of Health—which provides highly competitive grants to researchers. Training programs include 364 medical students, 277 student shadowers, 93 full-time residents, three chief residents and 127 fellows. For the past 19 years, 96 percent of those graduating from the CHLA Residency Program passed the American Board of Pediatrics exam on the first attempt, well above the national average of 75 to 80 percent. In 2013, Stanley Black donated a $15 million to fund research and clinical care programs; CHLA's Gateway Building was renamed the Joyce and Stanley Black Family Building.
University affiliation
The hospital has been academically affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932. Physician leaders all hold faculty appointments at USC.
Leadership
The president and CEO is Paul S. Viviano who joined the institution in August 2015.
Sunset Bridge
Children's Hospital Los Angeles has a bridge across Sunset Boulevard. The hospital's main bridge connects its north and south sides of its main campus with a bridge that crosses Sunset Boulevard, an iconic thoroughfare that not only traverses Hollywood and a major section of Los Angeles. The 40-ton, 117-foot-long walkway bridge was bolted into place above Sunset Boulevard between Vermont Avenue and Rodney Drive in October 2012 and was dedicated in March 2013. Construction of the Los Angeles city landmark was jointly supported by two of Los Angeles' most significant philanthropists, Cheryl Saban, PhD, and Marion Anderson, who, along with their spouses Haim Saban and the late John Edward Anderson, jointly funded the $10 million project.