History of Phoenix Children's Hospital
The idea for a Phoenix Children's Hospital was born in 1978 when members of the Maricopa Pediatric Society began discussing the need for a kids-only hospital. Phoenix was the ninth largest metropolitan area in the country with excellent health care facilities in some 23 hospitals. But while most of them offered some type of pediatric care, the pediatricians knew this was not good enough. A children's hospital was needed.
On July 31, 1980, Phoenix Children's Hospital was incorporated and Allen L. Rosenberg was elected president of the 12-member board of directors. They had no facility yet, but they had a strong conviction that it was time to do right by Arizona's children.
Then a bold idea was proposed: to locate the children's hospital on the campus of an existing hospital, thereby saving enormous sums of money and gaining an efficiency of resource use that was well ahead of its time. All the hospitals in the area were contacted and four expressed an interest in housing this new Hospital. Good Samaritan, St. Joseph's, Phoenix Memorial and Phoenix Baptist each submitted proposals -- and they were all excellent.
"We wanted the children's hospital to be totally independent, with its own board, medical staff, and administration," said Rosenberg. Good Samaritan offered just that and was selected to house Phoenix Children's Hospital. This unique "hospital within a hospital" allowed Arizona to benefit from a tertiary pediatric center without unnecessary duplication of services and costs.
Phoenix Children's Hospital opened within Good Samaritan in 1983 and operated as an independent hospital there for almost 20 years. Facing steady growth and an opportunity to establish its own campus, Phoenix Children's purchased a 22-acre site originally occupied by the Phoenix Regional Medical Center in 1999 to build a free-standing children's hospital. Construction and renovation of the old Phoenix Regional site began in 2000, and Phoenix Children's began operations as a freestanding, specialized pediatric hospital in May 2002.
Today, Phoenix Children's is the only free-standing pediatric hospital in Arizona and one of the 10 largest hospitals of its kind in the United States.
The main facility (Thomas campus) consists of a five-story, 265,000 square foot pediatric hospital (including an emergency department), one medical office building, one outpatient clinic, and two other service buildings.
Phoenix Children's main Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, still located at Good Samaritan (McDowell campus), continues to operate as one of the largest neonatal intensive care units in the country.
The Hospital has an Urgent and Specialty Care Center in Mesa and two other Specialty Care Centers – in Scottsdale and Glendale – to care for patients in their own neighborhoods.
Phoenix Children's Hospital currently contains 299 beds between its several locations, including 137 intensive care beds.
Through a major expansion, the Hospital will continue to provide world-class care for years to come.
