Primary Children's Hospital

PCH had its beginnings in the efforts of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to provide adequate medical care to citizens of the Western United States. An LDS organization and building, named "Deseret Hospital", was first founded in 1882 in Salt Lake City, but it closed for financial reasons in 1900.[10]

In 1911, some LDS Church leaders, including May Anderson and Louie B. Felt, pushed for a separate facility geared to needs of infants and young patients.[11] By 1913, a children's ward had been established at LDS Hospital and by 1922 a separate facility for children was established in a large Salt Lake City house. It was run by the Primary Association (the LDS Church's organization for children), thus the name. During those years, the LDS Church encouraged its members to donate to the hospital's fund by an annual fundraising effort, "Pennies By The Inch", in which members were asked to donate as many pennies as they were tall (in inches).

From 1934 to 1974, the hospital building was referred to as PCH.[12] On February 12, 1952, the hospital moved to a larger building located near the top of the Avenues area of Salt Lake[11] (the hilly portion of northeast Salt Lake City). It was substantially enlarged in 1966, gaining nearly twice its original area.

In 1974, the LDS Church decided to divest itself of the ownership and operation of several of its non-church-related activities such as health-care facilities. As a result, in 1975 its hospitals were turned over to the not-for-profit IHC group, which still owns and operates PCH. The Avenues facility was closed in 1990 and the hospital was moved to a larger facility on the medical campus of the University of Utah. University faculty provide care for patients at PCH, and the University of Utah pediatric residency program and medical school use it as their pediatric training site.[13] The facility was known as Primary Children's Medical Center from 1974 to 2013 until the hospital was renamed to Primary Children's Hospital.[12]

In January, 2020 PCH announced that they are going to build a second hospital in the Lehi region of Utah. The hospital is expected to cost $500 million and provide pediatric emergency care, intensive care, and behavioral health services.[14]

In July 2020 Primary Children's Hospital rolled out a new service for parents and families of babies that were in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The service run by company, AngelEye is able to provide video 24/7 to parents and families when they can't be in the NICU with their child.[15]

On July 4, 2020, members of the Salt Lake City Police Department and surrounding departments brought their police cars to the hospital to perform a light show, "Good Night Lights." The show took place because the children in the hospital would not be able to enjoy the Independence Day firework celebrations.[16]

In 2017 Primary Children's Hospital was a semifinalist in the clinical care category of the Children's Hospital Association's annual Pediatric Quality Award.[22]

In 2020–21, PCH has placed nationally in 8 ranked pediatric specialties on U.S. News & World Report.[23][24] In addition, PCH is ranked as the best children's hospital in Utah.

• Intermountain Healthcare
• University of Utah School of Medicine
• List of children's hospitals in the United States

• Jones, William N. (1992), "Hospitals", in Ludlow, Daniel H (ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism, New York: Macmillan Publishing, pp. 659–661, ISBN 0-02-879602-0, OCLC 24502140

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Primary Children's Hospital.

• Official website