St. Christopher's Hospital for Children

Description

Mission
Our primary mission is essential and clearcut

To provide a full range of highquality health care services to all children
and youth up to the age of 21 who seek our care or who are referred to us

To complement that mission we manage teaching and research programs that
achieve excellence and support our ability to be a worldclass childrens
hospital We strive at all times to provide exceptional care while operating
in an efficient costeffective manner that serves the best interests of our
patients their families and the community

Values
Everything we do here is grounded in values including

Reverence for life health and independence

Integrity sensitivity fairness and justice

Respect for all and recognition of diversity as a source of strength

Collegiality and compassion

Accessibility to health care with dignity for all especially for those who
are unable to pay

Pursuit of excellence and continuous improvement

Vision
Our longterm vision is to be the best childrens medical center by attaining excellence in patient care education and research We are committed to providing highquality familycentered care in a collaborative nurturing and culturally diverse environment We will continue to value attract and retain the best people while satisfying our mission through the use of stateoftheart technological advances in research and constant innovation

History

St Christophers Hospital for Children was founded in 1875 when it opened as a oneroom dispensary for the mill workers children of the Kensington area of Philadelphia Today St Christophers provides cuttingedge medical services to children across the Greater Philadelphia area and has been at the forefront of many areas of pediatric medicine

St Christophers continues to advance new pediatric treatments through research and innovation Through affiliations with Drexel University College of Medicine and Temple University School of Medicine St Christophers Hospital is a premier academic medical center that helps train the next generation of pediatricians

The 189bed Hospital provides routine pediatric care as well as care for many children with complex conditions It is also a regional center for extremely specialized care In order to make firstclass pediatric care easily accessible St Christophers has opened three pediatric primary care practices and five multispecialty care centers in the Philadelphia suburbs and throughout the Delaware Valley

In 2009 St Christophers achieved Magnetreg designation which is one of the nations highest forms of recognition for nursing excellence and the Hospital and its medical professionals have received numerous awards for medical excellence research and innovative practices in patient care

2008 Department of Health accreditation for the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Diagnostic Center for childrenSouth Jersey Magazine names 31 St Chris physicians to its quotTop Docsquot listingNeonatal staff hits perfection in twoyear project that identified source of ventilatorassociated pneumonia VAP infections

2007 Maria DelivoriaPapadopoulos MD Chief Division of NeonatalPerinatal Medicine received The Castle Connolly Medical Ltd National Physician of the Year Award for Lifetime AchievementGrand opening of the new 10bed continuing care nursery and the new minimally invasive surgical suite

2006 Grand Opening of the Starlight Starbright Childrens Foundation and Hollywood Video Home Theater for patientsGroundbreaking for the newest Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House at St Christophers Hospital for Children

2005 St Christophers Hospital for Children celebrated 130 years of service and the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program created five panels of history
The Department of Radiology received accreditation for the Fellowship Program in Pediatric RadiologyThe Respiratory Care Department was renewed and recognized as a quotQuality Care Hospitalquot for the second year in a rowThe Pathology Department received the Department of Laboratory Accreditation by the College of American Pathologists CAP for Anatomical Pathology Immunohistochemistry Electron Microscopy Cytogenetics Virology Microbiology Molecular Pathology Hematology Blood Banking and Point of Care Testing The laboratory is the only pediatric hospital between Boston and Washington DC to perform ciliary Ultrastructural EM evaluation for the Immotile Cilia Syndrome

St Christophers Hospital for Children achieved continued accreditation with JCAHO following a successful site visit which took place in August 2005
A 12 million grant established the hospitals Grow Clinic

2004 In the year since St Christophers began to collaborate with The Eagles Youth Partnership on the Eagles Eye Mobile approximately 1200 children were screened and close to 800 of them required glasses

2003 The hospital received Regional Level 1 Pediatric Trauma center designationThe hospital was named for a third year in a row as one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation by US News amp World Report

2002 The hospital was named for a second year in a row as one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation by US News amp World Report

2001 The hospital was named one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation according to US News amp World Report
The ECMO Spasticity and Blood Conservation programs were established

2000
The hospital celebrated its 125th anniversary and implemented the Gift of Life program St Christophers Pediatric Associates is also formed
1998 St Christophers Hospital for Children became part of Tenet Health System and the primary pediatric teaching facility for Drexel University College of Medicine