Primary Children's Hospital
Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's teaching hospital located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The hospital has 289 pediatric beds and is affiliated the University of Utah School of Medicine. The hospital is a member of Intermountain Healthcare and is the only children's hospital in the network. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the Salt Lake City and outer region. Primary Children's Hospital also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. Intermountain Primary Children's Hospital is a ACS verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center and is one of the largest providers of pediatric health services in the state. The hospital serves the states of Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, yielding an enormous geographic catchment area of approximately 400,000 square miles.
History
Primary Children's Hospital had its beginnings in the efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to provide adequate medical care to citizens of the Western United States. An LDS organization and building, named "Deseret Hospital", was first founded in 1882 in Salt Lake City, but it closed for financial reasons in 1900. In 1905 another effort resulted in the "Dr. W. H. Groves Hospital" in Salt Lake City, funded largely by a bequest from an English dentist who had migrated to Utah. Its successor, LDS Hospital, also in Salt Lake City, continues today.In 1911, some LDS Church leaders, including May Anderson and Louie B. Felt, pushed for a separate facility geared to needs of infants and young patients. By 1913, a children's ward had been established at LDS Hospital and by 1922 a separate facility for children was established in a large Salt Lake City house. It was run by the Primary Association, thus the name. During those years, the LDS Church encouraged its members to donate to the hospital's fund by an annual fundraising effort, "Pennies By The Inch", in which members were asked to donate as many pennies as they were tall.
From 1934 to 1974, the hospital building was referred to as Primary Children's Hospital. On February 12, 1952 the hospital moved to a larger building located near the top of the Avenues area of Salt Lake. It was substantially enlarged in 1966, gaining nearly twice its original area.
In 1974 the LDS Church decided to divest itself of the ownership and operation of several of its non-church-related activities such as health-care facilities. Thus, in 1975 its hospitals were turned over to the not-for-profit Intermountain Health Care group, which still owns and operates Primary Children's Hospital. The Avenues facility was closed in 1990 and the hospital was moved to a larger facility on the medical campus of the University of Utah. University faculty provide care for patients at Primary Children's Hospital, and the University of Utah pediatric residency program and medical school use Primary Children's Hospital as their pediatric training site.
Of note, the facility was known as Primary Children's Medical Center from 1974 to 2013.
About
The hospital has a 32 bed pediatric intensive care unit to treat critically ill infants, children, teens, and young adults and a 50 bed AAP verified Level 4 neonatal intensive care unit to handle critically ill infants.Patient care units
- 35-bed Pediatric Emergency Department
- 32-bed PICU
- 16-bed CICU
- 28-bed Neuro Trauma Unit
- 50-bed Level IV NICU
Awards
| Specialty | Rank | Score |
| Neonatology | #32 | 68.3 |
| Pediatric Cancer | #30 | 76.9 |
| Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery | #41 | 61.1 |
| Pediatric Gastroenterology & GI Surgery | #33 | 69.8 |
| Pediatric Nephrology | #44 | 70.2 |
| Pediatric Neurology & Neurosurgery | #27 | 77.5 |
| Pediatric Orthopedics | #37 | 70.8 |
| Pediatric Urology | #42 | 65.9 |