[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 79 (Friday, June 8, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6004-S6005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CHILDREN NEED CHILDREN'S HOSPITALS

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, the National Association of Children's 
Hospitals and Related Institutions recently released a new report 
titled ``All Children Need Children's Hospitals'' that explores how 
essential children's hospitals are to the health of all children. The 
report highlights the fact that--whether they ever enter a children's 
hospital or not--all children benefit from the far-reaching work of 
children's hospitals.
  In the clinical care area, freestanding children's hospitals--which 
make up less than 1 percent of all hospitals--treat a 
disproportionately large share of children with highly specialized or 
complex conditions. For example, 46 percent of children with cancer, 45 
percent of the children with cystic fibrosis, and 52 percent of 
children needing

[[Page S6005]]

heart or lung transplants are cared for by these hospitals. In their 
own communities, these percentages jump even higher.
  In addition to providing the most specialized and medically advanced 
care available, children's hospitals deliver preventive and primary 
care as well. They are the safety net hospital and community provider 
for low-income children. For example, across the Nation, more than 8 
million outpatient visits and 1.6 million emergency room visits are 
made to children's hospitals and their community clinics annually. At 
Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, over 200,000 outpatient 
visits and more than 70,000 emergency/urgent care visits occurred in 
2000. Medicaid accounts for more than 45 percent of the inpatient days 
at children's hospitals, which devote nearly half of their care to low-
income children. In fact, a children's hospital, on average, provides 
10 times as much inpatient care to low-income children as any other 
urban hospital.
  For all these children, the doctors, nurses and health professionals 
at children's hospitals take a family-centered approach to health care. 
Parents are considered partners in the care and treatment of their 
children. Children are made to feel comfortable and safe--feelings 
reinforced by in-room accommodations for families and age-appropriate 
patient rooms and playrooms. Doctors, pediatric nurses, occupational 
therapists, social workers, dentists, and child life specialists are 
among the health professionals taught by children's hospitals to put 
families first.
  Children's hospitals train a substantial number of our children's 
doctors. The freestanding children's hospitals--again, which comprise 
less than 1 percent of all hospitals--train 30 percent of all 
pediatricians, half of all pediatric specialists, and a substantial 
majority of pediatric researchers. Their teaching programs are 
essential to the future of the pediatric workforce and to the future of 
children's health care. The promise of biomedical research cannot be 
realized for children without researchers at the bench.
  The medical research and breakthrough discoveries conducted at 
children's hospitals benefit all children, preventing illnesses as well 
as advancing treatment. Children's hospitals have been the sites of 
many historic firsts, such as the discovery of polio vaccine. 
Children's hospitals have led the way in fetal surgery, transplants, 
advancements in cardiac treatment, and in the care of more common 
conditions such as asthma. Their contributions to cancer research have 
led to great progress in curing childhood cancers that were untreatable 
just a few decades ago.
  Together with pediatric departments of university medical centers, 
children's hospitals account for 30 percent of all NIH-funded pediatric 
research; and they train the great majority of future pediatric 
researchers. Virtually all children's hospitals participate in clinical 
trials or health services research. Research moves from bench to 
bedside rapidly at children's hospitals, allowing new discoveries to 
transform more children's lives for the better. And these discoveries 
not only benefit children, but adults as well. The answers to many 
costly and painful health problems that affect adults like diabetes and 
obesity, can often be found in childhood. And many of the principles 
discovered in the study and treatment of children diseases, such as 
cancer, have also been applicable to adults.
  Finally, children's hospitals' mission to improve the health of 
children throughout the nation doesn't stop at the hospital door. By 
developing innovative programs like ``SAFE KIDS,'' children's hospitals 
focus community attention on children's health issues, improving child 
health through prevention as well as cutting-edge care. They work with 
schools and communities to provide valuable services to children with 
special health care needs and children facing abuse.
  I understand that children's hospitals are for all children, perhaps 
better than most, because I have learned that from my children's 
hospitals at home. Missouri is blessed with top-notch children's 
hospitals. Their doors are open to any child in need of care. Their 
efforts in advocacy and community work are directed to the health care 
needs of all children. Their missions in education and research reach 
all children as well.
  Children are different. They are not small adults. And no institution 
knows this better than a children's hospital. They provide the highest 
quality medical care, day after day, to children from all parts of the 
country, from the most distant rural areas to the closest inner city 
neighborhoods. They are essential to the health and health care of 
children today and tomorrow.

                          ____________________