Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt


Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt , also known as Vanderbilt Children's Hospital , is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital affiliated with Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The hospital has 267 pediatric beds and is affiliated the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the Nashville and the greater mid south region. Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt also features an American College of Surgeons level I pediatric trauma center for critically ill pediatric trauma patients. The hospital is attached to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and is affiliated with the nearby Ronald McDonald House of Nashville.
The hospital is routinely ranked among the best children's hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

History

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital began in 1923, with the establishment of the Junior League Home for Crippled Children. The Children's Regional Medical Center within Vanderbilt University Medical Center was founded in 1971.
In the fall of 1971, Frances Keltner Hardcastle led a group of dedicated women and community leaders of the Junior League of Nashville, who had created and sustained the Junior League Home for Crippled Children, to form the Friends of the Children's Hospital to support the Children's Regional Medical Center and to raise funding and public awareness for a fully distinct Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
In 1980, construction on the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital facility was completed, and the patients from both the Children's Hospital and the Junior League Home for Crippled Children moved into a single medical facility dedicated to children's medicine.
During the 1980s and '90s, the Friends of the Children's Hospital continued community outreach and development efforts to support the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University. Monroe J. Carell, Jr., former CEO of Central Parking Corporation, lead in the raising of $79 million in funds for the construction of a new stand-alone facility, including $20 million from his family's personal donations.
In 2004, the 616,785-square-foot Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University opened with 238 inpatient beds, 16 operating rooms, 36 intensive care unit beds, and space for 104 premature infants in the neonatal intensive-care unit.
In 2007, Providence House published More Than a Place: The Origins of a Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt by Lisa A. DuBois. More Than a Place traces the development of the children's hospital from its genesis as the Junior League Home for Crippled Children to its establishment as a premiere children's hospital, detailing how the hospital's advocates battled racism, religious differences, politicians, academics, lawsuits, and hospital administration in addition to disease and pain to ensure that children in middle Tennessee were served by a medical facility dedicated to them.

About

Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital opened on February 8, 2004. Receiving over 375,000 pediatric cases per year, with 15,000 inpatients and 357,000+ treated in the emergency and outpatient departments, the not-for-profit hospital provides pediatric health care regardless of ability to pay.
VCH is equipped with 267 licensed beds devoted to acute care, pediatric critical care, and neonatal intensive care.
More than 48,626 patients visited the hospital in fiscal year 2015, and more than 269,449 patients were cared for in outpatient clinics. Although the majority of patients were from Davidson County, more than 10% of patients seen were from outside of Tennessee.

Research and innovations

In September 2016, Children's Hospital began construction on a 160,000-square-foot four-floor expansion for a projected cost of $100 million. The facility's expansion was supported by a fundraising effort led by Kathryn Carell Brown. The first two floors to be completed will provide approximately 80,000 square feet of new patient care space and will include 76 critical and acute care beds for newborns and pediatric patients. The new space will also include family areas, a playroom, a large waiting room, educational space and patient consultation rooms.
The hospital originally underwent a expansion with a $30 million price tag in May 2012. The five-story addition added 33 beds, as well as additional treatment areas.