Penn State Health Children's Hospital (PSCH) is a nationally ranked women's and pediatric acute care
teaching hospital
A teaching hospital or university hospital is a hospital or medical center that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities a ...
located in
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to the Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey ...
. The hospital has 134 pediatric beds. PSCH is affiliated with the
Penn State College of Medicine and is located at the
Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout central Pennsylvania and surrounding regions. Penn State Health Children's Hospital also sometimes treats adults that require pediatric care. PSCH also maintains one of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
's four
Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Centers.
Penn State Health Children's Hospital maintains the region's only Level IV (highest level), state-of-the-art
neonatal intensive care unit
A neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), also known as an intensive care nursery (ICN), is an intensive care unit (ICU) specializing in the care of ill or premature newborn infants. The NICU is divided into several areas, including a critical c ...
(NICU) and Level I (highest level) pediatric trauma center.
It is staffed by 200 pediatric medical and surgical specialists.
History
Penn State Health Children's Hospital is the sole beneficiary of charity, Four Diamonds which started in 1972 to provide monetary support to childhood cancer patients at PSCH. Four Diamonds is the sole beneficiary of the annual Penn State IFC/Panhellenic
Dance Marathon (THON) event at
Penn State University's University Park campus. It is the largest student run charity in the world. Since 1977, THON has raised more than $219 million.
In October 2006, Penn State Health Children's Hospital's trauma center was one of the receiving hospitals' for victims of the
West Nickel Mines School shooting in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County (; ), sometimes nicknamed the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States ...
, treating three of the pediatric victims from the shooting.
Originally, Penn State Health Children's Hospital was housed in a five-story building opened in 2013.
In Spring, 2018 Penn State began a $148 million, 126,000-square-foot vertical expansion to the building. In fall 2020 a vertical expansion on the building was completed adding three floors and moving the Women and Babies Center, a 56-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the state's only Small Baby Unit from the former location in the main hospital.
In July 2020, grocery store company,
GIANT
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''gia ...
donated $1 million to the hospital to help support the three-floor expansion, expand the pediatric trauma and injury prevention program, and to expand the "Penn State PRO Wellness Healthy Champions program."
See also
*
Penn State College of Medicine
*
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
References
External links
*
{{Pennsylvania State University
Children's hospitals in the United States
Hospital buildings completed in 2012
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Teaching hospitals in Pennsylvania
Pediatric trauma centers
Women's hospitals in the United States
Hospital buildings completed in 2020