A children's hospital is a hospital

Hospital

A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

 which offers its services exclusively to child

Child

Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...

ren (including teenagers). The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th century, as pediatric medical and surgical specialties separated from internal medicine

Internal medicine

Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

 and adult surgical specialties. Children's hospitals are characterized by greater attention to the psychosocial support of children and their families.

In addition to the psychosocial

Psychosocial

For a concept to be psychosocial means it relates to one's psychological development in, and interaction with, a social environment. The individual needs not be fully aware of this relationship with his or her environment. It was first commonly used by psychologist Erik Erikson in his stages of...

 support of children and families, Children's hospitals have the added benefit of being staffed by professionals who are trained in treating children. While many normal hospitals can treat children adequately, pediatric specialists may be a better choice when it comes to treating rare afflictions that may prove fatal or severely detrimental to young children, in some cases before birth. Also, many children's hospitals will continue to see children with rare illnesses into adulthood, allowing for a continuity of care.

Ranking

Every year US News & World Report ranks the top children's hospitals and pediatric specialties in the United States. For the year 2010-2011, eight hospitals ranked in all 10 pediatric specialties. These hospitals make up the 2010-11 Best Children's Hospitals Honor Roll and are listed in alphabetical order as follows:

• Children's Hospital Boston
  Children's Hospital Boston
  Children's Hospital Boston is a 396-licensed bed children's hospital in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston, Massachusetts.At 300 Longwood Avenue, Children's is adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical School, and to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute...
  
  
• Children's Hospital of Michigan
  Children's Hospital of Michigan
  Children’s Hospital of Michigan is a hospital located in Detroit, Michigan. It is part of the Detroit Medical Center. It is an international provider of pediatric neurology, neurosurgery, cardiology, oncology and diagnostic services including Positron Emission Tomography and MRI...
  
  
• Children's Hospital Los Angeles
  Children's Hospital Los Angeles
  Children's Hospital Los Angeles, formerly Childrens Hospital Society, is a private, non-profit teaching hospital in Los Angeles. The hospital provides multidisciplinary care to over 93,000 children each year, with physician expertise in over 100 pediatric specialties and subspecialties.The hospital...
  
  
• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the largest and oldest children's hospitals in the world. CHOP has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and Parents Magazine in recent years. As of 2008, it was ranked #1 in the nation for...
  
  
• Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
  Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
  Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, a hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is the only hospital in southwestern Pennsylvania dedicated solely to the care of infants, children and young adults. Care is provided by more than 700 board-certified pediatricians and pediatric...
  
  
• Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
  Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a 523-bed pediatric hospital located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is currently ranked the third-best pediatric medical center in the United States by US News and World Report...
  
  
• Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
  Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
  Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian is a leading pediatric hospital in New York City. It is part of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center and is located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan...
  
   of New York-Presbyterian
• St. Louis Children's Hospital-Washington University
  St. Louis Children's Hospital
  St. Louis Children's Hospital is an academic pediatric hospital providing tertiary level care in St. Louis, Missouri. SLCH is the pediatric teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine. It is the seventh oldest children's hospital in the United States and the first children's...
  
  

The ranking system used by US News & World Report depends on a variety of factors. In past years (2007 is the 18th year of Pediatric Ranking), ranking of hospitals has been done solely on the basis of reputation, gauged by random sampling and surveying of pediatricians and pediatric specialists throughout the country.

In the 2007 Best Hospitals edition, the first phase of a planned 3-5 year process of reworking the Pediatric Ranking process was introduced. While reputation still does count for a sizeable (two thirds) amount of overall score, components such as death rate in key procedures and care related factors (one third of total score each) are now being included for the first time. Key procedures used in terms of quantifying death rate were tetralogy of Fallot repair, bone marrow transplantation, and cancerous brain tumor removal. Care related factors measured included whether or not a hosptial had attained Nursing Magnet Status, the level of cutting edge technologies used at the institution, and the presence of an established Palliative Care

Palliative care

Palliative care is a specialized area of healthcare that focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering of patients...

Program.