Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford Named One of Nation's Top Ten by U.S. News & World Report; Becomes Youngest Pediatric Hospital to Achieve Top Ten in Annual Survey; Highest Ranking Children's Hospital on West Coast.

STANFORD, Calif. -- For the first time in its brief fourteen-year history, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford has been named one of the ten best pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. In its annual "America's Best Hospitals" issue hitting newsstands July 11, the magazine's national survey of pediatricians places Lucile Packard Children's Hospital #10 among all pediatric hospitals nationwide, making it the highest-ranking children's hospital on the West Coast.

"This distinction by U.S. News and America's pediatricians is an incredible honor," said Christopher Dawes, president and chief executive officer of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "It's a very special recognition of what our faculty and staff have built and continue to build -- a nationally and internationally pre-eminent children's hospital."

Founded in 1991, the hospital is by far the youngest pediatric hospital to reach top ten status in U.S. News. "The word is out," said Dawes. "We take on some of the most challenging cases from around the corner and around the world. Having the nation's pediatricians recognize this through the U.S. News survey makes our entire staff extremely proud of what Packard Children's has accomplished in a very short time."

As the pediatric teaching hospital for the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital is nationally known for innovations in education, research and patient care. Highlights over the past year include:

--The first bariatric surgery at a pediatric hospital in California

--Our 500th pediatric bone marrow transplant 

--The first pediatric heterotopic heart transplant in California

--Life-saving surgery on the smallest baby to ever survive an open-heart arterial switch procedure

--The first hospital on the West Coast to use a Berlin Heart pump as a bridge to transplant for a child

--Successful completion of our 75th steroid-free kidney transplant, using a protocol developed by our physicians

--Publication and presentation of groundbreaking research in areas ranging from HIV-treatment for infected newborns to how Web sites promoting anorexia are used by adolescents with the condition

Highly regarded by the healthcare industry, the U.S. News survey compares hospitals on a national scale to help consumers with their decision making. The centers are ranked in 17 specialties from cancer to urology to pediatrics. For the 2005 rankings, 200 board-certified pediatric specialists were selected at random from the American Medical Association's database and asked to name up to five hospitals they consider best in pediatrics for difficult cases, without considering cost or location. Packard Children's standing in this survey has been on the rise during the past several years, culminating in the new top ten ranking. The hospital placed #12 in 2004 and #18 in 2003.

A complete listing of the 2005 "America's Best Hospitals" ranking tables from U.S. News & World Report can be found at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/health/hosptl/tophosp.htm.

About Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 264-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with Stanford School of Medicine, LPCH offers patients locally, regionally and nationally the full range of health-care programs and services -- from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. To learn more about Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, please visit our Web site at http://www.lpch.org.