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2005-2010

2005

  • St. Louis Children's Hospital earns the Magnet designation. This is the nation’s highest honor for nursing excellence and a seal of approval for quality and requires superior patient outcomes and patient satisfaction.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is named a Child magazine 10 Best Pediatric Hospital
  • Children’s Hospital is named to US News & World Report’s list of the Nation’s Best Children’s Hospitals.
  • A baby is the first patient in Missouri to receive a heart pump called the Berlin Heart as a “bridge” to transplant.
  • The hospital holds its first overnight summer camp – “Camp Rhythm” – for kids with heart problems.

2006

  • F. Sessions Cole, MD, is appointed Chief Medical Officer at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
  • US News & World Report recognizes St. Louis Children's Hospital as one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals.
  • An International Adoption Center debuts. The center specializes in providing families and their pediatricians with patient evaluations of children in the weeks following their adoption.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine partner to establish the Children’s Discovery Institute. The collaboration focuses on accelerating cures for childhood diseases such as congenital heart disease, cancer, lung and respiratory disorders, and musculoskeletal diseases.
  • A newly expanded Newborn Intensive Care Unit opens, featuring 36 single-patient rooms.

2007

  • Ronald McDonald House Charities of Metro St. Louis Inc., in partnership with St. Louis Children's Hospital, opens a new Ronald McDonald Family Room on the hospital’s fifth floor. Families coping with the challenges of a child’s hospitalization can relax in a “home away from home” atmosphere.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital jumps to #7 on Child magazine’s 10 Best Pediatric Hospitals survey.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is also the only children’s hospital in Missouri and the Midwest region to be ranked among the nation’s best children’s hospitals byUS News & World Report.
  • The hospital launches 454-TEEN, a parent helpline providing useful resources, referrals and answers to questions parents have about their teen.
  • The hospital offers pediatric services – including emergency care – at Progress West HealthCare Center in O’Fallon, Mo. The hospital also expands its pediatric emergency unit at Missouri Baptist Medical Center.
  • The Children’s Discovery Institute awards $2 million in its first research grants.
  • A fund-raising campaign, "Building for Care, Searching for Cures," concludes, raising $132 million to help fund the Children's Discovery Institute and to expand St. Louis Children's Hospital's facilities.
  • The hospital’s Newborn ICU treats its first set of quintuplets, which were delivered at neighboring Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

2008

  • A pediatric simulation center to educate health care workers debuts thanks to a $1 million gift from the Saigh Foundation. Features include a fully equipped OR, a patient room and a debriefing room.
  • The hospital dedicates the Joe Buck Imaging Center, which consists of 15,000 square feet of renovated space in which patients receive radiological procedures like CT scans and ultrasounds.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital celebrates its 500th pediatric cochlear implant, making its program the second largest in the nation. The implant device is an electronic replacement for damaged cells in the inner ear.
  • The hospital expands its Safety Stop program after receiving a grant from the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions. Among the programs offerings are car seat safety, bike helmet safety, and home safety products and information.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is recognized as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals in all of the seven specialties rated by U.S. News & World Report.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital opens and staffs a first aid station at the Saint Louis Zoo.

2009

  • St. Louis Children's Hospital receives a grant of nearly $1 million from the Department of Health and Human Services. The hospital uses the funds to find and enroll children who are uninsured but eligible for either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), improving their access to health care services.
  • A survey completed by Soliant Health names St. Louis Children's Hospital one of the 20 most beautiful hospitals in the United States. St. Louis Children's Hospital is the only pediatric hospital to receive this ranking.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital provides $376,000 worth of charity care to eight international patients and $3.4 million of charity care overall.
  • The Healthy Kids Express mobile health van fleet grows to three with the addition of an asthma mobile unit.
  • The hospital adds an interventional radiology suite that uses image-guided, minimally invasive procedures that often are alternatives to conventional surgery. X-rays, ultrasound and other medical images are used to guide small instruments such as catheters through the blood vessels or other pathways to treat or diagnose disease.
  • A Parents magazine Best Children’s Hospitals survey ranks St. Louis Children’s Hospital #5 in the nation and also cites five specialties in the top 10.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is also named among the nation’s elite pediatric hospitals on the Honor Roll of US News & World Report’s 2009 listing of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals.

2010

  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is redesignated with the Magnet honor for nursing excellence. At the time just 2 percent of hospitals nationwide have been redesignated.
  • The hospital reaches 15,616 inpatient admissions and 12,189 operating room cases, the largest in its history.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is the first children’s hospital to launch an iPhone app -- KidCare.
  • The hospital opens its 14th Operating Room.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital establishes a clinic for patients with Spina Bifida.
  • The hospital launches an adolescent bariatric surgery program.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital is the first hospital in Missouri to use a new heart valve that can eliminate the need for open-heart surgery.
  • A St. Louis Children's Hospital patient is the youngest in the world to benefit from artificial lung technology called the Novalung.
  • St. Louis Children's Hospital makes US News & World Report’s Honor Roll of the Best Children’s Hospitals as the only hospital in Missouri and Illinois to rank in all survey categories.
  • St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine launch the Fetal Care Center to treat high-risk mothers and infants.