Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, known until 2012 as Children's Memorial Hospital, was founded by Julia Foster Porter in 1882 after her 13-year-old son died of acute rheumatic fever. The original hospital was a cottage that housed eight beds.
Lurie Children's is a 288-bed hospital with a medical staff of 1,245 physicians in 70 pediatric specialties, nearly five-times more pediatric specialists than the next largest pediatric health system in Chicago. Lurie's was the first children's hospital in the country to earn Magnet accreditation, and is the only pediatric hospital in Illinois to be ranked in all 10 specialties by U.S. News & World Report.
The opening of the new hospital was made possible by Chicago philanthropist Ann Lurie, who donated $100 million to Children's Memorial in 2007, marking one of the largest children's hospital gifts in U.S. history. Robert Lurie, her husband, died in 1990 of cancer at the age of 48. The facility is located in the Streeterville neighborhood, which is just down the street from its academic partner, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. The $915 million facility is twice the square footage of the old hospital, but energy costs are estimated to be only 20 percent higher.
In their own words:
"Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago is one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals ranked by U.S. News & World Report, the only pediatric hospital in Illinois to be ranked in all 10 specialties and the first children’s hospital in the country to earn Magnet accreditation. Lurie Children’s is a 288-bed hospital with a medical staff of 1,353 physicians and allied health professionals in 70 pediatric specialties. Last year, the hospital served more than 170,000 children from 50 states and 48 countries. The hospital is the pediatric academic and research partner of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Its research arm, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, attracted more than $30 million in external funding in 2014. Lurie Children’s mission is to enhance the health and well-being of children through patient care, research, education and advocacy. Formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital, the institution’s move to a new facility in June 2012 was a major milestone in its 130-year history."
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