Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia got its start in 1855, when Francis West Lewis, MD, T. Hewson Bache, MD, and R.A.F. Penrose, MD, decided to open the nation's first hospital focused exclusively on treating children. It opened with 12 beds and served 67 inpatients. Now, CHOP has more than 50 locations where providers treat more than 1 million children annually.
CHOP, a 535-bed hospital, got the top spot on U.S. News & World Report's Best Children's Hospitals 2013-14 Honor Roll. It was ranked first in pediatric urology and pulmonology and ranked in the top four for all 10 pediatric specialties surveyed. Additionally, the hospital has received Magnet designation for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
CHOP is also home to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, one of the largest pediatric research programs in the U.S. with more than $138 million in total federal awards and an annual budget topping $329 million for fiscal year 2014. In 2002, the hospital also established the Pediatric Research Consortium, a primary care practice-based research network. CHOP lays claim to many pediatric firsts, including the creation of the closed incubator for newborns, the discovery of the cause of infectious mononucleosis and the development of vaccines for mumps, whooping cough and influenza.
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