Akron Children's Hospital
Akron Children's Hospital is a pediatric acute care hospital in Northeast Ohio that provides care to infants, children, adolescents, young adults, aged 0–21 and even some older adults. Akron Children's has hospital campuses in downtown Akron and Boardman, Ohio; 3 ERs, 5 urgent care facilities and more than 50 primary and specialty care offices. The health system has more than 7,000 employees and cares for more than half a million children and adults each year. Akron Children’s operates 8 regional health centers to provide convenient access to pediatric primary care, specialties and rehabilitative services. Locations include Beachwood, Boston Heights, Mansfield, Medina, North Canton, Portage, Warren and Wooster. Some health centers also offer urgent care, as well as radiology and laboratory services and walk-in orthopedics and sports injury services. Boardman, Mansfield and North Canton Behavioral Health Centers provide services in response to the increasing need for pediatric mental health.
History
Early years
Akron Children's Hospital began as a day nursery in 1890 for children of working women. The Akron Day Nursery, as it was called, was renamed the Mary Day Nursery in 1891 after Colonel George Tod Perkins’ granddaughter. Perkins donated a house to allow for the nursery’s expansion.In the early 1900s, the nursery worked with Akron City Hospital to operate a unit for children and quickly expanded to six units. The name was changed to Mary Day Nursery and Children’s Hospital.
The need for hospital space increased, so the nursery and hospital separated in 1917. The hospital added an eye clinic that same year, and Dr. Walter Hoyt Sr. was tapped to organize and lead the department of orthopedic surgery.
In 1918, a dedicated polio clinic opened at the hospital. Before that, a ward for crippled children opened in 1905 when polio started becoming prevalent in the Akron area.
The American Hospital Association accredited Children's Hospital for the first time in 1920.
The first approved residency program for pediatric specialists in Akron was with the hospital in 1927. It was also one of only 59 hospitals in the country to have American Medical Association approval for "Residencies in Specialties.”
The Women's Board launched Friends of Children's Hospital in 1955. The following year, the Women's Board opened a hospital gift shop, with proceeds benefiting the hospital. It is still in operation today.
In 1962, the hospital’s name changed to Children’s Hospital of Akron.
Children’s Hospital of Akron opened a neonatal intensive care unit in 1970 and established The Akron Children's Foundation the following year.
Akron Children's was the first to grow human skin in a lab, revolutionizing burn treatment.
Children's changed its name from Akron Children's Hospital to Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron to better reflect the broad scope of services offered. A new logo was designed by F. Eugene Smith and debuted in 1977. It was a stylized version of the della Robbia bambino.
In 1982, the Children’s Hospital Medical Center of Akron volunteer department launched the Holiday Tree Festival, where proceeds from the sale of fully decorated Christmas trees benefited the hospital. The Ronald McDonald House of Akron opened in 1985, providing a "home away from home" for patients and patient families.
The Doggie Brigade program launched in 1992 and was the country's second pet visitation program at a children's hospital.
Since 2000
The hospital expanded its cardiac services with the opening of its Heart Center, adding pediatric heart surgery, adult congenital heart disease and maternal-fetal cardiology services.In 2003, the hospital name changed to Akron Children’s Hospital. The following year, the Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders opened.
Akron Children's Hospital opened a second hospital in Boardman, Ohio in 2008, serving patients and families in Mahoning Valley.
In 2010, Akron Children’s became the largest pediatric health care provider in northeast Ohio.
In 2014 Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital entered into a collaboration with Akron Children's Hospital to open up a pediatric and adult congenital heart program.
On May 5, 2015, the Kay Jewelers Pavilion opened, featuring a neonatal intensive care unit, new ER, and expanded outpatient surgery center. In September 2015, the hospital celebrated its 125th anniversary.
In 2019, Akron Children’s Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic expanded the pediatric and adult congenital heart program that was started 2014. The expansion consisted of two new centers, located at Akron Children’s and Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. In addition, five-more-years was added to the agreement. The hospital opened a freestanding Behavioral Health Center on the Boardman campus.
Akron Children’s Hospital expanded its population health focus in 2021, launching Akron Children’s Health Collaborative, proactively identifying children’s health care needs, providing early intervention and care coordination.
Akron Children’s Hospital changed its name to Akron Children’s in 2023 to signify the organization is a regional health system, not just a hospital.
In 2024, Akron Children’s began a partnership with Cincinnati Children’s to provide complex care with world-class experts in several medical specialties including pediatric otolaryngology, hepatology and bone marrow transplant.
Akron Children's offers a full range of services to its 25-county region, including well visits and trauma and intensive care to treatment of rare and serious childhood disorders. Children's main campus in downtown Akron houses regional centers for genetics, fetal treatment, cancer and blood disorders, heart, palliative care, orthopedics, pediatric trauma, pediatric intensive care, and level III neonatal intensive care, among others. Children's is one of two pediatric hospitals in the country that operates a burn center for both adults and children. Akron Children's Paul and Carol David Foundation Burn Institute is among a few burn centers verified by both the American Burn Association and The Committee on Trauma of The American College of Surgeons.
Akron Children's Beeghly Campus in Boardman includes a 32-bed pediatric inpatient unit; a Level II pediatric trauma center; a center for childhood cancer and blood disorders; an infusion center, as well as EEG/ECHO/EKG, radiology, laboratory and rehabilitation services. Services based in the Mahoning Valley include a 33-bed neonatal special care nursery; child advocacy, community outreach and education center; and subspecialty practices for cardiology, orthopedics, nephrology, neurology, rheumatology, pulmonology and genetics. Children's provides additional pediatric services at Summa Akron City Hospital, Cleveland Clinic Akron General, MedCentral Health System in Mansfield, Aultman Hospital in Canton, Fisher-Titus Medical Center in Norwalk and University Hospitals Portage Medical Center in Ravenna, as well as offices in Beachwood and Hudson.
Akron Children's Hospital has earned the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission and Magnet Recognition Status from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
In January 2025, Akron Children’s launched “. Each episode addresses topics relevant to children’s health and well-being. “More childhood, please.™” is broadcast on WKYC with episodes later made available for streaming on WKYC+ and the Akron Children’s YouTube channel.
Akron Children’s PICU, Burn Center, and 7-Surgical Unit This national award recognizes patient care units for nursing excellence in patient outcomes, work environment and nursing workforce.
on its . provides free, fresh produce to income-eligible families in the Youngstown area. The program addresses food insecurity by offering . Akron Children’s
opened in April 2025 at the former Summa Health Medina Medical Center emergency department. The center includes .
In June 2025, in Warren, Ohio. This facility, as part of its ongoing partnership with the local school district to improve healthcare access.
. The mascot symbolizes the thoughts, actions, feelings and experiences that result when a child enjoys a moment of “more childhood.”
Controversy
In November 2013, the hospital went to court to prevent an 11-year-old Amish leukemia patient and her parents from making treatment decisions, when the patient chose to discontinue a second round of chemotherapy after it made her "extremely ill." An appeals court ruled that the state's duty to protect the child's well-being outweighed the parents' beliefs and convictions, and an attorney who was also a nurse, was given limited guardianship of the child. As a result of the hospital's actions, the patient's family went into hiding to avoid having their daughter "kidnapped." The girl's father told the Associated Press that the family does not oppose modern medicine nor did they make their decision based on religious beliefs. In 2014, the court-appointed guardian was allowed to stop her efforts to force the family to resume chemotherapy; the guardian stated that she didn't have access to the child, making it impossible for her to make medical decisions. In October 2015, the court formally ended the guardianship.Affiliations and programs
The hospital is a clinical training site for undergraduate and graduate registered nurse students and licensed practical nurse students from 35 affiliated nursing schools across Ohio and additional schools in West Virginia, Missouri, Illinois, and Colorado, and is also a clinical training site for the Radiologic Technology program from The University of Akron. Children's is affiliated with Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown as one of the school's nine major hospital associations.Akron Children's Hospital offers several pediatric sub-specialty fellowship programs.
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Pediatric Radiology
- Pediatric Sports Medicine
- Pediatric Pathology
- Pediatric Psychiatry
- Pediatric Palliative Care
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
The American Heart Association Community Training Center at Children's is one of the largest in Ohio. It offers advanced cardiac life support, pediatric advanced life support, CPR, AED and first aid courses.
The Showers Family Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders is recognized as a "Pediatric Teaching Cancer Program" by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.
In 2020, U.S. News & World Report ranked Children's in the top 50 children's hospitals in six pediatric specialties: urology, pulmonology, neonatology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, neurology, neurosurgery.