UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (CHP), popularly known simply as Children's, is part of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the only hospital in Greater Pittsburgh dedicated solely to the care of infants, children, teens and young adults through around age 26. UPMC Children's also sometimes treats older adults that require pediatric care. The hospital is affiliated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and features a state-verified level 1 pediatric trauma center, one of four in the state. CHP also has a rooftop helipad for urgent transport of pediatric patients. UPMC Children's Hospital is a nationally and regionally ranked Children's Hospital.
Care is provided by more than 700 board-certified pediatricians and pediatric specialists. Children's also provides primary care, specialty care, and urgent care at over 40 locations throughout the Pittsburgh region, as well as clinical specialty services throughout western Pennsylvania at regional health care facilities.Children's Milestones Retrieved July 13, 2007
History
Origins The history of the hospital goes back to 1883 when 11-year-old Kirk LeMoyne wanted to start a hospital dedicated to babies and children. Through fundraising, he managed to create a bed for children at Western Pennsylvania Hospital. With the extra money, LeMoyne started a fund for a dedicated children's hospital. In 1887, local philanthropist Jane Holmes donated $40,000 to the hospital, with the condition that the hospital be built within one year.
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh was founded by a charter on March 18, 1887, and the first patients were admitted on June 5, 1890.
In 1909, the hospital's name was officially changed from Pittsburgh Children's Hospital to the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
The original hospital was housed in a donated mansion refurbished for medical use. The facility was quickly outgrown and two additions were added within ten years. After a small fire at the mansion, fundraising began for a much larger facility, which was established in 1926 at the DeSoto Street location in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh.
Former Oakland neighborhood facility The oldest of the Children's Hospital buildings, dating to the 1930s, included an eight-story building, later called the DeSoto Wing, that included a cafe, gift shop and chapel. North and south additions to the original building were added in 1950 and 1957, respectively.
In 1947, doctor Jonas Salk took a job at Children's and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine as an associate professor of bacteriology and the head of the Virus Research Lab. While at Pitt, he began research on polio and the process of developing a vaccination. In 1952 Salk had created the first Polio vaccination. Salk went on CBS radio to report a successful test on a small group of adults and children on March 26, 1953, and two days later, the results were published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
In 1971 hospital physician Dr. Richard Moriarty created the campaign, logo, and sticker for Mr. Yuk at the hospital. Moriarty noticed an uptick in children's poisonings and wanted to develop a label to warn children that poisons were dangerous. The design for Mr. Yuk came from interviews from children under the age of five and recording their facial expressions when asked about poison. The hospital still owns the copyright to the Mr. Yuk sticker. The Pittsburgh Poison Control Center was housed inside of CHP.
In 1981 pioneering surgeon and "Father of Transplantation" Dr. Thomas E. Starzl came to the hospital, on condition that he would be free of administrative tasks and able to focus on medicine. In a matter of a few years he launched the country's first pediatric and adult liver transplant program. On February 14, 1984, under the direction of Starzl, Drs. Byers W. Shaw Jr. and Henry T. Bahnson successfully completed the world's' first simultaneous heart and liver organ transplant on six-year-old Stormie Jones at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.New York Times. February 20, 1990. New Liver for Stormie Jones . Retrieved on July 2, 2007. During his tenure, Starzl also pioneered the use of a new anti-rejection drug called tacrolimus. Starzl was the head of transplantation at the hospital until 1991 when he stepped down from clinical and surgical duties and shifted all of his focus to research.
Ground was broken in 1982, and in January 1986 a new tower called the "Main Tower" was opened at the hospital. Opening was delayed after a slight issue led to a leaking pipe. The addition consisted of twelve floors (two underground parking), 210 patient beds, and cost $92 million. The Main Tower had a rooftop heliport and was the location of the emergency department and was connected to the older buildings with connections to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital that were accessed through multiple floors. The new tower also included an underground parking garage, new lobby, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, operating rooms, and a radiology department shared with the neighboring Presbyterian Hospital. The new building opened up with an open house and tours for the public.
On April 5, 2001, CHP and UPMC announced a merger. As a part of the agreement, UPMC would provide CHP with $250 million in research support over 10 years, including funds for new faculty and facilities and also contribute $250 million toward a new hospital to replace Children's aging Oakland facilities. Originally, Highmark was also in the running to merge with Children's, but they only wanted to put $100 million towards a new hospital, $400 million less than UPMC.
A few months later insurance company Highmark filed suit to block Children's planned merger with UPMC, claiming that UPMC could use the region's only pediatric hospital as part of a plan to build its own insurance business by blocking access to CHP for patients with other coverage. By October 19, 2001, Highmark dropped the lawsuit against CHP when they were able to reach an agreement with UPMC. The merger was complete by October 31, 2001.
The old Children's Hospital location was closed on May 2, 2009, when the hospital moved to the Lawrenceville location. After the closure, the structure served as overflow space for patients from neighboring Presbyterian Hospital.
On December 18, 2009, UPMC announced plans to demolish a large section of the former Children's Hospital, including the building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and DeSoto Street. However the blue banded main tower which was constructed in 1986 remained as part of UPMC Presbyterian partially because UPMC Presbyterian used the rooftop helipad and CHP also contained offices for UPMC Presbyterian.
The demolition took place in July 2010, and though it was scheduled to be finished in October that year, the removal of asbestos and other factors delayed the progress until the demolition was complete in May 2011. Later that month it was landscaped as park, although UPMC has plans to build the UPMC Heart and Transplant Hospital on its footprint. In 2016, the former main tower of the Children's Hospital was also demolished.
Talks of a new hospital Ideas were floating around as early as 2000 when CHP conducted a study to determine the cost of renovating the original hospital on Fifth Avenue and DeSoto Street in Oakland, contracting RossBianco Architect to create a master plan. Throughout the years the additions created an environment that was confusing to navigate. They determined it would cost about $185 million to upgrade electrical systems and rooms, but wouldn't address problems with the outdated hospital design itself. In addition, there was no room for expansion and patient volumes were straining the 263-bed hospital.
Hospital administration instead refocused on building a brand new hospital or finding another building onto which a new children's hospital could be attached. A few sites were considered including a lot next to UPMC Magee-Women's Hospital, which was ultimately not chosen due to the lack of expansion potential. A lot at LTV Steel site along the Monongahela River was also considered and turned down due to the potential cost of environmental cleanup that option entailed. Also, the area behind UPMC Montefiore was inquired upon but faced the same expansion problems as the Magee-Women's proposal.
As plans were being drawn up, leaders from the St. Francis Medical Center in Lawrenceville announced that they would be closing due to long-term financial struggles and were looking for a buyer. After financial donations from Highmark, UPMC officials decided to purchase the St. Francis Medical Center, providing large amounts of land and expansion potential.
New hospital campus After acquiring the land, UPMC officials drew up plans for the site that included the demolition of a few buildings, but kept about four buildings from the old hospital, choosing to renovate them instead. The decision reduced overall construction costs for the project as not as many buildings were required to be constructed. Buildings still existing from St. Francis days include the Plaza Building, Faculty Building, Administrative Office Building, and the back half of the main hospital. Construction workers are blending the old and new buildings by matching floor and ceiling heights.
Throughout the construction of the project, costs increased and UPMC continuously disputed the additions, trying to save money. After a few trimmings from the original design UPMC and Children's agreed and UPMC paid for most of the project. The architect for the new hospital building was Louis D. Astorino.
Early demolition of buildings not required started soon after the deal and construction and renovations for CHP started in 2006 completed in April 2009, originally opening to outpatients, the hospital fully opened on May 2, 2009. Transport of patients from the Oakland campus to Lawrenceville consisted of a convoy of 34 ambulances to transport about 150 patients over a 10-hour window. Medical equipment was transferred over the next day, May 3.
Patient rooms at the new hospital were much larger consisting of 300 square feet per room, 1.5 times larger than the rooms at the old campus in Oakland. In addition, rooms at the new hospital are completely private featuring an overnight couch with pull out bed for caregivers. The new hospital has 315 beds, with a 45-bed emergency department, a 36-bed pediatric intensive care unit, and a 12-bed cardiac intensive care unit.Children's Hospital final steel beams placed, as ex-CEO looks on – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved June 21, 2007. A ten-story research center is also on the campus, with seven out of the ten floors dedicated for pediatric medical research. The complex is environmentally friendlyNew Hospital Campus – Environmentally Friendly Retrieved March 20, 2009 and "quiet".New Hospital Campus – Quiet Building Retrieved March 20, 2009 The hospital also includes a Weight Management and Wellness Center to offer help to obese children. The Center assists children in the area with maintaining and achieving a healthy weight, while also treating weight related health issues.Management and Wellness Center Retrieved March 18, 2011 Along with the physical upgrades, CHP implemented an advanced new electronic health record system (EHR) as a part of the new hospital.
In January 2010, UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh received 53 orphan children from Haiti after the earthquake. CHP treated the children and then turned them over to the Allegheny County Children and Youth Services to find permanent homes.
When the hospital first opened, residents in Lawrenceville complained about the loud noises that the rooftop ventilation fans made and CHP officials were quick to hire acoustic engineers, spending around $250,000 to find a solution to the noise issues.