Lurie Children's Hospital

Founded in 1882 as the Maurice Porter Memorial Hospital, nurse and mother Julia Foster Porter established a 8-bed cottage at the corner of Chicago’s Halsted and Belden streets after the death of her 13-year-old son.[10][11] It was the first hospital in Chicago focused solely on the care of children and pediatrics.[12] The hospital expanded, was renamed Children’s Memorial Hospital in 1904, and moved to the corner of Fullerton and Lincoln avenues. It remained in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood for 130 years.[13][14]

In the 1940s, the hospital established one of the earliest pediatric surgery programs in the nation. Surgeons Willis J. Potts and Sidney Smith invented a number of surgical tools used to operate on blood vessels and they devised a new surgery to treat blue baby syndrome.[15]

The main hospital was built in the 1960s and located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood on the north side of the city (41°55′28″N 87°38′51″W).[16]

The rooftop helipad of Lurie Children's Hospital.

The former hospital site (Children's Memorial Hospital) in 2016

The former site being demolished

In 2008, the hospital administration and CEO were victims of extortion by then-governor Rod Blagojevich for $8 million of state funding in exchange for a $25,000 fundraiser.[17][18][19]

On June 9, 2012, the hospital moved to its current location, 225 East Chicago Avenue, and changed its name to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.[20] The new name recognized philanthropist Ann Lurie, and her late husband, in honor of the $100 million gift she made in 2007 to help create the new hospital and to enhance its pediatric research initiatives.[21] More than just a donation, Ann Lurie secured funding from other philanthropists and gave tours of the hospital.[22] She also served on the board of the hospital. The donation was the largest that the hospital had ever received.[23] The staff moved 170 patients and their parents, traveling by ambulance and escorted by the Chicago Police Department and Chicago Fire Department.[24] The move was designed to allow the hospital to be closer to its academic partner Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, attract and retain the best staff, foster stronger, collaboration with adult researchers and clinicians, improve transition of patients into adult care, and provide even faster transport for critically ill newborns from Prentice Women’s Hospital.[25][26]

The new 1.25 million square foot[27] building cost $605 million (excluding land) and was completed in June 2012. The building featured 23 floors and was envisioned by ZGF Architects, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and Anderson Mikos Architects.[28] Structural engineering services for the new building was provided by Magnusson Klemencic Associates.[29] Construction of the building was managed by a joint venture of Mortenson Construction and Power Construction.[30][31]

The unique design of the hospital included many firsts in hospital design that included the emergency room being on the second floor.[32] The hospital included almost double the space of the previous hospital and include much needed amenities including outdoor spaces for patients and families, playrooms, and private patient rooms.[33] Design of the hospital has been industry praised and featured in many prominent publications.[34][35][36]

The new hospital also includes multiple terraces with plants and trees to help calm patients and families with a new helipad on top for transport of critically ill pediatric patients.[37]

In October 2014, the hospital inaugurated its first annual Hope and Courage awards, recognizing "leaders who have demonstrated exceptional commitments to improving the health and well-being of children".[38] The 2014 honorees were Jamarielle Ransom-Marks, who runs the Jam's Blood and Bone Marrow Drive, child product safety advocates Linda E. Ginzel and Boaz Keysar, and Senator Richard J. Durbin.[39]

As the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine,[40] the hospital offers a pediatrics residency program. The Feinberg School is ranked 17th for research and 17th for primary care in the 2016-17 U.S. News & World Report rankings of top research-oriented medical schools in the country.[41]

• In the U.S News & World Report's 2011 edition of "America’s Best Children’s Hospitals" calls out ten clinical programs, with Urology ranking sixth nationally.[42]
• Ranked #6 among only 11 children’s hospitals nationwide to qualify for the Honor Roll in the 2016-17 U.S. News & World Report Best Children’s Hospitals rankings.[43]
• As the first free-standing children's hospital in the country and the first hospital in Illinois, the hospital was granted in 2001 the first of its four Magnet designations which it received again in 2005, 2010 and 2015. Less than one percent of all hospitals have achieved this accomplishment of redesignation three or more times.[44]
• The hospital is one of only 10 children's hospitals nationwide, and the only one in Illinois, to be named a "Top Hospital" for patient safety by The Leapfrog Group, a national consortium of healthcare payers that promotes "leaps" in patient safety.[45]
• The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in America, named the hospital as one of three of the nation’s top performers on key quality measures. Children’s hospitals were ranked in one area – children’s asthma.[46]
• The hospital was recognized as a "great place to work" by Becker's Hospital Review.[47]
• In July 2016, the hospital became the first children's hospital in Illinois to be designated as a level 1 pediatric surgery center by the American College of Surgeons.[48] The hospital is 1 of 24 nationwide that have received this designation.

As of 2021 Lurie Children's has placed nationally in all 10 ranked pediatric specialties on U.S. News and World Report.

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  The full hospital.
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  Tetris-inspired architecture. Kind of interesting, as far as hospitals go.
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  Original Children's Memorial Hospital building on former site.
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  Clearing of the land to make way for the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital replacing the old Children's Memorial Hospital.

• List of children's hospitals in the United States
• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital
• Advocate Children's Hospital

• Lurie Children's home page
• Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute home page
• U.S News Best Children's Hospitals 2016-17
• Children's Memorial Research Center homepage
• U.S News Best Children's Hospitals 2011-12