James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children

The Riley Hospital for Children, formerly the James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children, is a children's hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana.

It is named for James Whitcomb Riley, a writer and poet who lived in Indiana. As of 2005 it is part of Indiana University School of Medicine and operated by Clarian Health Partners.

In 1916 a group of prominent citizens from Indianapolis who knew Riley started the Riley Memorial Association (later called Riley Children's Foundation) to build a children's hospital in memory of Riley. The hospital opened in 1924. In 1950, the foundation started Camp Riley, a camp in south central Indiana for children with disabilities.

Ranked eleventh overall out of about 250 children’s hospitals throughout the United States by Child magazine, Riley Hospital serves as Indiana’s only comprehensive children’s hospital. The hospital is a part of Clarian Health Partners, which includes Methodist Hospital and IU Hospital. Together, they help more than 57,000 patients annually. Not only do they treat patients, but Riley Hospital also continues to employ top physicians and researchers to improve the growth of life sciences in Central Indiana, to further its statewide partnerships, and inevitably boost the quality of care and service given to Hoosier families and children. Funded solely by donations, the intensity of their care extends to all. If a family is not able to pay for its child’s medical costs, Riley offers medical care to all Indiana children regardless. The hospital has 247 licensed beds, 11,105 admissions and observation cases, 162,466 outpatient visits, 15,000 emergency department visits, 2,028 full-time staff, and 235 medical staff.

History
Named for famous poet James Whitcomb Riley, who loved children and communicated this through his poems, Riley Hospital began treating children in 1924. In 1921, the Riley Memorial Association, today called the Riley Children’s Foundation, was founded with the intention of building a children’s hospital in memory of James. Then, in 1935, the hospital put in a hydrotherapeutic pool in which Franklin Delano Roosevelt attended the dedication. Today, Riley specializes in cardiovascular care along with many other things and beginning in 1951, the first pediatric cardiac catheterization laboratory in Indiana opened at Riley. After opening the laboratory, the hospital was the first in the nation to carry out percutaneous cardiac catheterization in children. Riley Hospital has been the first hospital to accomplish many great advances in medicine and pediatrics. In 1966, they became the first in Indiana to use echocardiography, a test that uses sound waves to create a moving picture of the heart which is more detailed than an x-ray image and involves no exposure to radiation, to detect congenital heart defects. Then, in 1971, Riley launched Indiana’s earliest and sole pediatric burn center along with Indiana’s first neonatal intensive care unit. That innovative year Riley also initiated a new model for family-centered care called the Parent Care Unit. This allowed for open visitation, for the participation of parents, and for parents to sleep in the room with their child. In 1975, the Fontan procedure, which separates oxygenated blood from deoxygenated blood during surgery, was first staged in Indiana at Riley. Riley also was the first in Indiana to offer to children outpatient surgical care. Next, in 1983, Riley inserts Indiana’s first cochlear implant into a deaf child. After helping children hear, the hospital was the first to achieve a successful heart-lung bypass surgery, also called an ECMO procedure, for critically ill infants and children. In 1988, Riley performed the first liver transplant in Indiana. After being the first in Indiana to transplant livers in children, Riley, a year later, executed the first infant and newborn heart transplants.

Beginning in the 1990s, Riley Hospital opened the Herman B. Wells Center for Pediatric Research, along with Indiana’s sole pediatric cancer center which contained a stem cell transplant unit. Later, in 1994, physicians performed Indiana’s initial pediatric cord blood transplant. In 1997, Riley Hospital for Children unites with Indiana University Hospital and Methodist Hospital to form Clarian Health Partners. Shortly after, US News and World Report magazine recognizes Clarian Health Partners as some of the finest hospitals in all of the United States from 1997 through 2005. The Riley Outpatient Center was launched in 2000 and has the biggest ambulatory care center for children. In 2001, the largest pediatric sleep lab in the entire world, called the Riley Sleep Disorders Center, began at Riley Hospital. Then, in 2002, a center exclusively created for children with heart defects, named the Riley Heart Center, opened. Also, in that year, the hospital is designated to proceed with Phase 1 of pediatric cancer research protocols. They also created the Christian Sarkine Autism Treatment Center in 2002 which is one of the most extensive autism centers in the United States. Then, in 2003, inaugural intestinal and multi-organ transplants for the state of Indiana were performed at Riley. Riley also received special authorization for the usage of the Berlin Heart in this year. The Berlin Heart is a ventricular assist device which is an innovative way to treat difficult cardiac problems. That year Riley surgeons started using Repiphysis, a prosthetic that is implanted in limbs and started performing pulmonary autograft mitral valve replacement, a new way for restoring the mitral valve.[4] In 2004, the Clarian Health Partners were the first to receive the dignified Magnet designation. Riley received high ranking on Child Magazine’s America’s best children’s hospitals list. Finally, in 2005, Riley commenced its $500 million, ten year plan and its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was ranked in the top five in the nation according to Child Magazine.

The Riley Children’s Foundation
In 1921, the Riley Children’s Foundation was formed in remembrance of James Whitcomb Riley with the intentions of constructing a children’s hospital. The Foundations outstanding fundraising efforts have allowed for the hospital to flourish and for Hoosier families to receive the benefits of free medical care. Not only does the Foundation financially support Riley Hospital, but it also funds Camp Riley and the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home. Camp Riley, located in Bradford Woods, which began in 1955, is a camp for disabled children. At the camp, the children get to make friends with the other campers and experience independence in a fun and safe environment. The camp staff undergoes rigorous training in order to give proper emotional, medical, and physical support to its campers. Medical practitioners and nurses are at the camp twenty-four hours to ensure maximum safety.

The Riley Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Pediatric Pulmonary Program
Established in 1970, Riley’s NICU now staffs thirty plus neonatologists, 180 neonatal nurses, and twenty neonatal respiratory therapists, along with social workers and dieticians. The Pediatric Pulmonary Program was created in 1976 and currently treats more than 14,000 patients annually. Its department includes twenty-four physicians, nineteen nurses, ten respiratory therapists, and social workers and dieticians. This program leads Indiana in diagnosing and treating infants, children, and adolescents who have acute and chronic respiratory disease.