The Hospital for Sick Children

For the hospital in London formerly known as the Hospital for Sick Children, see Great Ormond Street Hospital. For the hospitals in Scotland formerly known as the Hospital for Sick Children, see Royal Hospital for Sick Children.

"Sick Kids" redirects here. For the hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland, see Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh.

The Hospital for Sick Children
The Hospital for Sick Children from University Avenue
Location in Toronto
Geography
Location	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates
Organization
Care system	Public Medicare (Canada) (OHIP)
Funding	Public hospital
Hospital type	Specialist
Affiliated university	University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Level I trauma center
Helipad	TC LID: CNW8
Beds	370
Speciality	Children's Hospital
History
Founded	1875
Links
Website	www.sickkids.ca
Lists	Hospitals in Canada

The Hospital for Sick Children, also known as Sick Kids Hospital, is a children's hospital located on University Avenue in the Discovery District of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is the world's second-largest hospital-based paediatric research facility following Boston Children's Hospital. Founded in 1875, the hospital was inspired by the example of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, England.

Funding

Atrium of the Hospital for Sick Children, designed by Eberhard Zeidler.

Medical treatments at the hospital are covered by publicly funded health insurance, as is the case in all Canadian hospitals. Philanthropy is a critical source of funding for Sick Kids Hospital that is separate and distinct from government and granting agencies. In 2006/07, financial support from Sick Kids Foundation to the hospital totalled $72.1 million. The support went towards infrastructure and support for physicians, researchers and scientists who compete for national and international research grants. Next to government, Sick Kids Foundation is the largest funding agency in child health research, education and care in Canada. The Foundation maintains a fund, called the Herbie Fund, for patients not covered by Canadian health insurance. The fund was established in 1979 to provide for the treatment of Herbie Quiñones, a seven-month-old patient from Brooklyn, New York.

History

Victoria Hospital for Sick Children building (now housing Canadian Blood Services)

Hospital for Sick Children, c. 1915

During the spring of 1875 a group of Toronto women led by Elizabeth McMaster rented an 11-room house for $320 a year. They set up six iron cots and "declared open a hospital 'for the admission and treatment of all sick children.'" Their first patient, a scalding victim named Maggie, came in on April 3. Forty-four patients were admitted to the Hospital in its first year of operation and sixty-seven others were treated in outpatient clinics.

In 1876 the hospital moved to larger facilities. In 1891 the hospital moved from rented premises to a building constructed for it at College and Elizabeth streets where it would remain for sixty years. This old building, known as the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children, is now the Toronto area headquarters of Canadian Blood Services. In 1951 the hospital moved to its present University Avenue location, on the grounds where Canadian-born movie star Mary Pickford's childhood home once stood.

In 1972, the hospital was equipped with a rooftop helipad (CNW8). Today, it is one of two downtown Toronto hospitals with a helipad (the other being St. Michael's Hospital) and one of three in Toronto (the third being at Sunnybrook Hospital).

Sick Kids Hospital underwent a major expansion in 1993 with the construction of a glass-roofed atrium on the east side of the main building. In late 2008, the hospital underwent a major renovation in the emergency wing.

Contributions to medicine

The hospital was an early leader in the fields of food safety and nutrition. In 1908 a pasteurization facility for milk was established at the hospital, the first in Toronto, and 30 years before milk pasteurization became mandatory. Researchers at the hospital invented the infant cereal, Pablum. The research that led to the discovery of insulin took place nearby at the University of Toronto and was soon applied at the hospital. Doctor Frederick Banting, one of the researchers, had served his internship at Sick Kids Hospital and went on to become an attending physician there. In 1963 William Thornton Mustard developed the Mustard surgical procedure used to help correct heart problems in blue baby syndrome. In 1989, a team of researchers at the hospital discovered the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis.

See also

• Motherisk

External links

• The Hospital for Sick Children website
• Sick Kids Foundation website