Children's Hospital Los Angeles Recognizes the 5-year Anniversary of the Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Five years ago in July, the $636-million Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion at Children's Hospital Los Angeles opened its doors, ushering in a new era of health care for children in Southern California and transforming the practice of pediatric medicine to benefit patients, families and hospital caregivers for generations to come. The seven-story, 460,000-square-foot structure, named in honor of philanthropists Marion and John E. Anderson, was designed to further expand services as well as increase the ability to provide family-centered care for young patients.

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"On this five-year anniversary of the opening of the Marion and John E. Anderson Pavilion, I'd like to thank Marion for the amazing gift that she and her late husband John have given to the children of Los Angeles," says Paul S. Viviano, president and chief executive officer of CHLA. "Their generosity is unparalleled in the history of our hospital and we owe them a deep debt of gratitude."

"Our growth over the past five years as a result of the opening of this new facility has been impressive," Viviano observes. "The Anderson Pavilion's helipad has supported 3,500 emergency landings, helping the most vulnerable patients in our care get to and from the hospital safely. In June 2011, the daily inpatient census hovered around 225-230 children. Now, CHLA's daily census averages 285 patients, and often much higher depending on the season. Inpatient discharges increased from 11,470 in 2011 to 16,298 in 2016. In five years, we've discharged 73,022 inpatients and triaged more than half a million patient visits, including visits to our emergency department and outpatient clinics for care," Viviano says.

The hospital marked the occasion by serving ice cream sundaes to hospital staff and recognizing Marion Anderson and her late husband during a recent meeting of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles Board of Trustees. The hospital was visited by Viviana Flores, now 11, a leukemia survivor who was just 6 at the time of the move to the new facility and one of 200 critically-ill patients who were transferred from CHLA's previous hospital facility into the new Anderson Pavilion in July 2011. These patients included a great number of children with very acute health issues—neonates too small to be treated at any other area hospital, patients undergoing bone marrow or other transplant care, children recovering from acute cardiac conditions and more. "Many of these patients could not leave their beds for the journey to the new facility and some required comprehensive teams of clinicians to surround them on their journey from start to finish," Viviano says.

Flores and her family reunited with the nursing team who cared for her while being treated at CHLA. "It was emotional for all of us to see them again," says her mom, Diana Hernandez, of Port Hueneme, Calif. "Viviana was treated here for 8 months and it was tough. But today she had a big smile on her face and she was so happy to see everyone. Walking down the hall, we saw so many familiar faces. For us, we always had a calming feeling at CHLA because you knew everything was going to be OK."

It was for families like Viviana's that the Anderson Pavilion was designed.

"The majority of our inpatient rooms are single rooms with private bathrooms and overnight accommodations for families, so the Anderson Pavilion was built with family-centered care in mind," says Philippe Friedlich, MD, interim chief of the Division of Neonatology at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, one of the units which saw the greatest expansion with the opening of the Anderson Pavilion. "Not only have we been able to help more patients, but the building is specially designed to handle the latest advances in technology, complex medical surgeries and emergency care and our numerous clinical trials to find cures for pediatric diseases and conditions."

About Children's Hospital Los Angeles

Children's Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children's hospital in California and among the top 10 in the nation for clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Children's Hospital is home to The Saban Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States. Children's Hospital is also one of America's premier teaching hospitals through its affiliation since 1932 with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

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