University of Maryland Children’s Hospital Celebrates 75 Years in 2023

Black and white photo from 1968 of a woman opening a hospital van door for another woman and two children — In 1967, the state's first community medical and preventative care center for children and infants was established by the UM Department of Pediatrics.*

University of Maryland Children's Hospital has roots going all the way back to the 1800s when University of Maryland Medical Center was established, but it wasn't until 1948 that the Department of Pediatrics separated from the Department of Medicine, forming its own autonomous department.

"At the Children's Hospital, it is our privilege to care for children with critical illnesses and complex, chronic conditions," says Steven J. Czinn, MD, the Drs. Rouben and Violet Jiji Endowed Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and director of the University of Maryland Children's Hospital.

"What distinguishes us—then and now—is our ability to integrate clinical excellence with compassionate, family-centered care and a broad range of support services. With the leadership of our exceptional physicians and our multidisciplinary care teams, we continue to improve the health of countless children across the city, region and nation," says Dr. Czinn.

Through the Years

Over the past 75-plus years, University of Maryland Children's Hospital has led the way in many innovations. Some highlights:

2022 – The Children's Hospital celebrates 5 years in a row on the U.S. News Best Children's Hospitals list for cardiology and heart surgery.
2019 – The Children's Hospital is ranked for the first time as a Best Children's Hospital for cardiology and heart surgery by U.S. New & World Report
2019 – The first heart and lung transplant is performed in a pediatric patient in Maryland
2016 – The Proton Center sees its first pediatric patient
2016 – STEM cells are used in a pediatric patient for the first time in Maryland
2012 – The Children's Heart Program opens its doors

2011 – The Epilepsy Monitoring Unit is opened
2011 – The pediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, or ECMO, program is established. ECMO is a machine to remove carbon dioxide from the blood and circulate oxygen throughout the body when a person's lungs cannot function on their own.
1984 – The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit is established, with an emphasis on clinical research.
1977 – The state's first neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is created. Its remodel in 2015 makes it the largest level 4 NICU in Maryland.
1969 – The Children's Hospital's first neonatal transport program is established to provide air transport to critically ill newborns. In 1997, the Maryland Regional Neonatal Transport Program became a joint venture with The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
1956 – A study published by chief of pediatrics Edmund Bradley finds that children in low-income urban neighborhoods have abnormally high rates of lead poisoning, encouraging public health officials to test children living in these areas.
1948 – The same year Pediatrics gained independence from the Department of Medicine, the pediatrics wards are desegregated. It would be nearly 20 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal racial segregation in the United States.

^{*Some of these photographs are from Historical Collections, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland, Baltimore.}