Alberta Children's Hospital (ACH) is the largest public hospital for sick children in the prairie provinces, and is located in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is operated by Alberta Health Services - Calgary Health Region

Calgary Health Region

Calgary Health Region was formerly the governing body for healthcare regulation in an area of the Canadian province of Alberta. It was amalgamated with other regional health authorities in 2008 to become part of Alberta Health Services...

. The new facility opened on September 27, 2006 and is the first free-standing pediatric

Pediatrics

Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...

 facility to be built in Canada in more than 20 years. It is located west of the University of Calgary

University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...

 campus grounds and just across from the site of the Foothills Medical Centre

Foothills Medical Centre

Foothills Medical Centre is the largest hospital in Alberta, Canada and is located in the City of Calgary. It is one of Canada's most recognized medical facilities and is one of the leading hospitals in Alberta, providing advanced healthcare services to over two million people from Calgary,...

.

Design

The Alberta Children's Hospital was designed with substantial input from young patients, as well as families, physicians and staff of the hospital. In 2002, architects created renderings of how the hospital could look; a multi-storey brick building. These drawings were brought to the hospital's Teen Advisory Group (TAG) and changed substantially into a colourful building closely resembling toy building blocks.

The idea for the Alberta Children's Hospital was to create a building that would reduce stress and promote healing. The interior of the hospital has been designed to enable the delivery of family centred care. The hospital includes supports for families such as sleeping facilities for parents in each patient room, a babysitting service for siblings of patients, a sacred space for spiritual activities, a pet visitation room and the Healing Gardens that surround the new hospital, giving parents and their children areas to heal, to have fun and to spend private time.

The Alberta Children's Hospital is used by patients from birth to age 18 from southern Alberta

Southern Alberta

Southern Alberta is a region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of the year 2004, the region's population was approximately 272,017. The primary cities are Lethbridge and Medicine Hat...

, southeastern British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

 and southwestern Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

. It is an accredited tertiary pediatric trauma centre

Trauma center

A trauma center is a hospital equipped to provide comprehensive emergency medical services to patients suffering traumatic injuries. Trauma centers grew into existence out of the realization that traumatic injury is a disease process unto itself requiring specialized and experienced...

 by the Trauma Association of Canada. Additionally,the ACH is the provincial expert and referral centre for bone marrow transplantation, and is the leader in Western Canada

Western Canada

Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces and commonly as the West, is a region of Canada that includes the four provinces west of the province of Ontario.- Provinces :...

 (which is rapidly establishing itself as the national leader), for pediatric neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

s. It also is the only pediatric hospital in Canada to have a comprehensive Behavioral Unit, is the world leader in congenital cataracts surgery, and has the largest pediatric vision clinic in all of Western Canada.

The Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health (ACHRI) is the Alberta Children's Hospital's affiliated research institute, and has a team of over 150 members dedicated to research and teaching excellence in the study of human development from embryo to adulthood.

Clinics

The facility operates 34 clinic

Clinic

A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...

s:

• Asthma Clinic
• Burns Clinic
• Cardiology Clinic
• Cystic Fibrosis Clinic
• Dental Clinic
• Developmental Clinic
• Down Syndrome Clinic
• Diabetes Clinic
• Endocrine Clinic
• Eye Clinic
• Feeding Consultation Service
• Gastro-Intestinal Clinic
• Haematology Clinic
• Haemophilia Clinic
• Infectious Disease Clinic
• Inherited Metabolic Disorders
• Myelomeningcele Clinic
• Nephrology and Urology Clinic
• Neurology Clinic
• Neuromotor Clinic
• Neuromuscular Clinic
• Neuropsychological Service
• Neuroscience Services
• Neurosurgery Clinic
• Orthopaedic Clinic
• Perinatal Clinic
• Plastics Clinic
• Pulmonary Clinic
• Refractory Epilepsy Clinic
• Regional School Health
• Respiratory Home Care Clinic
• Rheumatology Clinic
• Sleep Service Clinic
• Vascular Malformation Clinic

See also

• Health care in Calgary
  Health care in Calgary
  Calgary currently has three major adult acute care hospitals; the Foothills Medical Centre, the Rockyview General Hospital and the Peter Lougheed Centre, and a children's acute care hospital; Alberta Children's Hospital, all running under the auspices of the Calgary Health Region...
  
  
• Health care in Canada
  Health care in Canada
  Health care in Canada is delivered through a publicly-funded health care system, which is mostly free at the point of use and has most services provided by private entities. It is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act. The government assures the quality of care through federal standards...
  
  
• Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta
  Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta
  The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta is a partnership between the Calgary Health Region and the University of Calgary. Its mandate comprises all cardiovascular research, education and service delivery, with a service area extending from Saskatchewan, Southern Alberta and Eastern British...
  
  
• List of hospitals in Canada

External links

• Alberta Health Services
• Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health