Los Angeles Children’s Hospital Gets $25 Million Donation from Anonymous Donor

Spirits were high today at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital when news spread that the facility would be receiving a $25 million donation from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. The money will go towards the facility’s Neurological Institute and Interventional Radiology. This marks one of the largest donations the hospital has ever received, but there’s no word on who deserves credit.

We spoke to Martha Reynes, a registered nurse at Children’s Hospital LA, about how the donation will benefit children throughout the Los Angeles area.

Speaking with Martha Reynes, BSN, RN

A BSN, RN at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and Cherokee Uniforms Ambassador, Martha Reynes describes how donations can be lifesaving. “We received a $20 million dollar donation to our ED last year and we’ve been able to treat a lot more patients since then. Our census is always full, and we’ve been able to open two other general pediatric units in order to admit more patients if and when need be.”

Martha has been with CHLA for almost five years, and these are the largest donations she’s witnessed. “I think it’s great, our hospital being the number-one pediatric hospital on the west coast and being a nonprofit hospital, we definitely benefit from these donations and in turn are able to care for more patients.”

Caring for the Youngest Patients

According to a recent study by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), children aged 17 years and younger, the majority of whom were infants, including newborns, accounted for nearly one out of every six discharges from U.S. hospitals in 2012. Children aged 17 years and younger had 5.9 million hospital stays, while adults aged 18-44 years had 9.0 million stays.

Caring for younger patients can be expensive. That same year, across all hospitalizations, children had lower mean hospital costs ($6,415) compared with adults aged 18-44 years ($7,612). But, if you exclude neonatal and maternal stays, children had higher mean hospital costs ($11,143) than those of adults ($10,214). In 2014, children accounted for about 11% of all private healthcare spending in the U.S. The leading causes of child hospitalizations include diseases of the respiratory system, including asthma and pneumonia, mental disorders, injuries, and poisoning.

The Los Angeles Children’s Hospital is projected to care for more than 31,000 patients annually by 2022. Thanks to the anonymous donor, the hospital will be able to create a new multidisciplinary Neurological Institute Outpatient Center. According to hospital officials, it will be one of only a handful of facilities nationwide where those treating neurological conditions can work in one location.

Ultimately, this donation will help the hospital serve more children throughout the Los Angeles area and beyond. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit institution, the facility relies on donations from the private sector. CHLA provides more than $316.2 million in community benefits annually to children and families across more than 350 pediatric specialty programs and services.

The facility has been ranked as one of the top healthcare facilities for children by U.S. News & World Report magazine every year since the magazine first began ranking pediatric hospitals in 1990. In the magazine’s most recent rankings, it was ranked the No. 1 hospital in California for caring for children. The facility has also been recognized for its excellence in nursing. CHLA recently received Magnet Recognition® by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, which is used as a national benchmark of the quality of care provided by a hospital’s patient care services staff members.

Scrubs Magazine and Strategic Partners (parent company to Cherokee Uniforms) proudly support the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and sends a big thanks to all its sponsors and supporters.