Growing Up San Diego
From polio outbreak to pediatric powerhouse: inside Rady Children’s 70-year journey with San Diego. This summer, Rady Children’s turns 70. Read below to see how we’ve been dedicated to generations of pediatric care for the past 70 years.
1951: Plans are made to construct a new children’s hospital in San Diego.
San Diego. 1954. A polio outbreak casts a long shadow. But amidst the uncertainty, a ray of hope: Rady Children’s Hospital welcomes its first patients. This wasn’t just any opening; it was the beginning of a 70-year legacy of caring for San Diego’s children, a story of growth, groundbreaking advancements, and a constant pursuit of excellence.
“Caring for children and families is in our DNA,” says president and CEO Patrick Frias, MD. “While much has changed in Rady Children’s evolution from a small community hospital to a national leader in pediatric health care, our mission endures.”
Meaningful Milestones
Plans for the construction of a new children’s hospital in San Diego began in 1951 and officials broke ground two years later. On August 19, 1954, Rady Children’s officially opened and admitted its first 12 patients. In the 70 years since, the Hospital has grown from a single 59-bed facility into a world-class healthcare network that attracts patients from around the globe for its innovation and research.
Rady Children’s rise has been filled with firsts and milestones. In 1963, the Child Development Clinic opened, followed by the Speech and Hearing Clinic two years later and what’s now called the Helen Bernardy Center for Medically Fragile Children in 1972. In 1973, Children’s Hospital Emergency Transport (CHET) expanded the Hospital’s reach, and in 1985, the Chadwick Center for Children and Families became a valuable resource for kids who may have experienced or witnessed maltreatment, abuse, or violence. In 1993, the Hospital opened the Rose Pavilion and the Sam S. and Rose Stein Emergency Center, the only level 1 pediatric trauma center in San Diego County.
“Health care is always evolving,” says Gail Knight, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer. “Continuing to improve how we deliver care is something that we are very cognizant of and have to always be thinking about.”
Expanding Services
1973: Children’s Hospital Emergency Transport (CHET) begins.
As Rady Children’s grew over the years, the Hospital became better able to meet the needs of specific patient populations, says Chris Abe, RN, vice president of operations at Rady Children’s. During Abe’s 38-year tenure, the Hospital has made significant advances in serving oncology patients, kids and young adults facing mental and behavioral health challenges, critically ill cardiovascular patients and many others. And as the care became more specialized, so did the staff. “We make sure we hire the right physicians, then on the clinical side, we’re so good at getting specially trained nurses,” she says. “It’s one of our biggest focuses because it improves the quality of care for the populations we have.” The Hospital has also expanded its presence in Southern California, opening satellite locations throughout San Diego and Riverside counties. Rady Children’s also partners with other local healthcare systems to bring its nationally recognized neonatology care to hospitals across San Diego County. That means more babies can be cared for closer to home, and in some cases, in the same hospital as their parent.
Rady Children’s has big plans for the future, too. The Hospital is reimagining its entire campus, starting with the construction of a new hospital tower that will double the size of the emergency department and house 140 pediatric, neonatal and cardiothoracic intensive care unit beds. The seven-story, 500,000-square-foot Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services Pavilion is set to open in 2027.
“This is a generational transformation,” says Dr. Frias. “We not only need to be sized and scaled appropriately to serve our community today, we need to be built for the future to meet the complex needs of families in the decades ahead.”
Beyond Hospital Walls
Looking out for the community has become a big part of Rady Children’s mission. Community programs have covered bike helmets and car seat safety, diabetes education, childhood immunizations, social detriments to health and hearing tests in schools, among other topics. As San Diego becomes more diverse, Rady Children’s has also implemented new forms of communication, such as medical translation tablets, to make sure patients and families are kept informed.
“We invest in that,” says Abe. “In order for the child to get the care that they need, we need to make sure that they understand it and that the child’s family has the right information.”
Organizations around the country also look to Rady Children’s for guidance. “We are key collaborators,” says Dr. Knight. “One of the things that’s allowed us to advance in the way we have is that we don’t compete when it comes to safety or quality. Collective knowledge is what advances pediatric health care.” Despite all the changes at Rady Children’s over the years, patients and families remain the focus. They’re at the center of every decision Rady Children’s makes, no matter how large or small. As Dr. Frias puts it, “Mission first, people always.”
Dr. Knight agrees and says that at its core, Rady Children’s is still the same hospital as it was when her now-adult children were patients many years ago.
“Our core mission of taking care of the kids and our community, it’s never changed and that culture of being here for every kid is why I’m still here 30-something years later,” she says. “It’s amazing to be part of that.”
To learn how you can help support pediatric health care in San Diego, visit radyfoundation.org.
