Akron Children's Hospital

The Akron Children's Hospital is a children's hospital located in Akron, Ohio.

It was established in 1890 and is the largest pediatric care provider in the northeastern part of the state. It cares for more than 400,000 patients each year and performs more pediatric surgeries than any other hospital in the region.

Akron Children’s Hospital operates as a full-service, 253-bed pediatric hospital and houses a regional burn trauma center for both adults and children, as well as a pediatric trauma center. Akron Children's Hospital has one of the busiest pediatric emergency rooms, averaging 60,000 visits each year. It also offers more than 100 advocacy, education, outreach and research programs.

Akron Children's Hospital is among the largest employers in Summit County with more than 3,000 employees. From the latest practices in specialized pediatric medicine to the smallest details of physical and emotional support, Akron Children's Hospital professionals pride themselves in their dedication to helping children heal.

Quick facts about Akron Children's Hospital:

 * The first hospital in the world to grow human skin to treat burn victims. This discovery revolutionized the treatment of burn patients.
 * The first pediatric hospital in the world to have an intraoperative MRI for safer and more effective removal of brain tumors.
 * In 1991, Children's became one of the earliest pediatric hospitals in the world to perform a laparoscopic procedure on a child.
 * In 2004, Akron Children's Hospital's doctors and nurses cared for Ohio's first sextuplets.
 * Akron Children's Hospital did the first pediatric surgical webcasts in Ohio.
 * Approved as a "Pediatric Teaching Cancer Program" by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.
 * Verified as a "Burn Trauma Center" by the American College of Surgeons – one of only two pediatric hospitals in the nation with a burn center that treats both adults and children, and one of a handful to receive this verification for three consecutive cycles.
 * Verified as a "Pediatric Trauma Center" by the American College of Surgeons.
 * Outpatient Diabetes Center is certified by the American Diabetes Association for quality self-management education. The ADA recognizes this education service as meeting the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education.
 * Akron Children's Hospital's Hemodialysis program is recognized as a Sustaining Member of The Renal Network Inc.'s Quality Award. Its program is one of 24 in the Network's 4-state area (471 facilities) that maintained a high standard in patient outcomes for at least three consecutive years.
 * The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine is accredited by the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation of the College of American Pathologists. The CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program is recognized as being equal to or more stringent than the government's own inspection program.
 * The Lewis H. Walker Cystic Fibrosis Center is one of 10 CF centers nationwide to participate in the Learning and Leadership Collaborative, a multi-faceted CF Foundation quality improvement initiative: "Accelerating the Rate of Improvement in CF Care."
 * Regional Skeletal Dysplasia Center is one of only a few in existence that treats adults and children.
 * Akron Children's Hospital cares for the largest Hemophilia B population in the world.
 * Akron Children's Hospital is one of only two academic pediatric palliative care programs in the nation.
 * Akron Children's Hospital is one of about a dozen hospitals in the U.S. to have a dedicated suture program.
 * Pathologists at Akron Children's Hospital discovered a new hemoglobin, which the Mayo Clinic dubbed "Hemoglobin Akron."
 * The only pediatric hospital in the country to teach a pathology course.
 * First hospital to conduct a long-term study on the effect of music therapy on neonatal intensive care unit patients.
 * First hospital in Ohio to establish a pediatric sports medicine program.
 * Doctors from Akron Children's Hospital authored the first pediatric program designed specifically for handheld computers – "Treatment Strategies in Pediatrics."
 * Orthopedic surgeon from Akron Children's Hospital developed a procedure called "Akron Dome" to correct clubfoot.
 * Established one of the first dog visitation programs: The Doggie Brigade.
 * First and only hospital to have a pony visitation program. "Petie the Pony," a miniature horse, visits patient floors and lobbies.
 * Performed the first surgery to improve congenital nystagmus, an eye disorder characterized by rapid, uncontrollable eye movement.
 * One of the first hospitals in the U.S. to have both the equipment and trained personnel to use evoked audiometry to test hearing in infants and developmentally disabled and autistic children.
 * The only hospital in Northeast Ohio to offer a cancer support group for teens.
 * One of the first pediatric hospitals to utilize cryoablation to treat arrhythmias.
 * Akron Children's Hospital is also a clinical training site for undergraduate and graduate RN students and LPN students from 12 affiliated nursing schools.


 * Akron Children's Hospital is affiliated with Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine (NEOUCOM), a community-based, public institution that provides interdisciplinary training of health professionals, offering both a doctor of medicine and a doctor of pharmacy degree. The NEOUCOM educational consortium includes the Rootstown, Ohio, campus, eight teaching hospitals, 10 associated hospitals and two health departments. Akron Children's Hospital also offers several pediatric subspecialty fellowship programs.  They include:
 * Pediatric Emergency Medicine
 * Pediatric Radiology
 * Pediatric Sports Medicine
 * Pediatric Pathology
 * Pediatric Psychiatry
 * Pediatric Palliative Care
 * Developmental Pediatrics
 * Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (July 2008)
 * The Radiography School at Akron Children's Hospital is a two-year program teaching the art and science of general diagnostic radiography (formerly called X-ray technology).
 * Housed at Akron Children's Hospital, the Cooperative Medical Technology Program of Akron is a joint educational effort among the three major hospitals in Akron.
 * Akron Children's Hospital's American Heart Association (AHA) Community Training Center is one of the largest in Ohio. It offers advanced cardiac life support, pediatric advanced life support, CPR, AED and first aid courses.