Gillette Children's is a

non-profit hospital A non-profit hospital is a hospital that does not make profits for owners of the hospital from the funds collected for patient services. The owners of non-profit hospitals are often a charitable organization or non-profit corporations. Fees for ...

located in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. Through its hospital, clinics and greater Minnesota locations, Gillette treats patients with brain, bone and movement conditions needing specialized expertise.

History

Gillette Children's focuses on

pediatric Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...

medical treatment and research. It was founded by Arthur Gillette and Jessie Haskins in 1897. It took on Arthur Gillette's name as the hospital's first chief surgeon, an appointment given by the regents of the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. Originally, it was situated in a ward inside City and County Hospital of St. Paul, but in 1911 it outgrew that limited space and moved into its own facilities in Phalen Park. In 1977, it moved again, this time to space in Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. Currently, it operates a system of clinics around the state of Minnesota, including Twin Cities locations in Burnsville, Maple Grove, and St. Paul; and greater Minnesota sites in Alexandria, Baxter, Bemidji, Brainerd, Duluth, Mankato, St. Cloud and Willmar.

Services

Gillette Children's treats patients who have some of the rarest and most complex conditions in pediatric medicine, including

cerebral palsy Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...

scoliosis Scoliosis is a condition in which a person's spine has a sideways curve. The curve is usually "S"- or "C"-shaped over three dimensions. In some, the degree of curve is stable, while in others, it increases over time. Mild scoliosis does not t ...

, plagiocephaly, brain and spinal cord injury,

epilepsy Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

and seizures,

torticollis Torticollis, also known as wry neck, is a dystonic condition defined by an abnormal, asymmetrical head or neck position, which may be due to a variety of causes. The term ''torticollis'' is derived from the Latin words ''tortus, meaning "twisted ...

hydrocephalus Hydrocephalus is a condition in which an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) occurs within the brain. This typically causes increased intracranial pressure, pressure inside the skull. Older people may have headaches, double vision, poor ...

craniosynostosis Craniosynostosis is a condition in which one or more of the fibrous sutures in a young infant's skull prematurely fuses by turning into bone (ossification), thereby changing the growth pattern of the skull. Because the skull cannot expand perpe ...

spina bifida Spina bifida (Latin for 'split spine'; SB) is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, me ...

muscular dystrophy Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...

cleft lip and palate A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The ...

, limb-length discrepancy,

spinal muscular atrophy Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare neuromuscular disorder that results in the loss of motor neurons and progressive muscle wasting. It is usually diagnosed in infancy or early childhood and if left untreated it is the most common genetic ...

and

osteogenesis imperfecta Osteogenesis imperfecta (; OI), colloquially known as brittle bone disease, is a group of genetic disorders that all result in bones that break easily. The range of symptoms—on the skeleton as well as on the body's other organs—may be mi ...

. Gillette provides inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation therapy to help patients mitigate the effects of disabilities and to return function following serious injury or complex surgery. Gillette uses advanced technology to diagnose and treat these conditions. It operates the James R. Gage Center for Gait and Motion Analysis, one of the nation's busiest clinical motion analysis centers. Since 1985, the James R. Gage Center for Gait and Motion Analysis has used motion capture technology to diagnose and plan treatments for children who have complex conditions affecting their musculoskeletal and neurological systems. Physicians use gait and motion analysis data to determine the best way to maintain or improve children's mobility. Gillette Children's is a specialty medical center, meaning that it treats only patients who are considered "outliers" in the medical community. Gillette doesn't treat common childhood illnesses or cancer. Children who have disabilities often need a more advanced level of medical care than the average pediatric patient. Gillette operates using an integrated care model. To help make it easier for families to coordinate multiple appointments, Gillette organizes care around the child's condition. Experts from all of the areas a child needs work together in highly coordinated teams. This integrated model of care provides better outcomes for patients and helps lower the overall cost of care. Patients and families often can see all of their providers on the same day, which results in less stress and a better patient experience. But, this model of care is also highly efficient. By working together at every point of a child's care, providers eliminate the potential for duplicating tests and procedures, save staff time by consulting with one another immediately, and create care plans more quickly than they otherwise could.

References

* {{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1911 Children's hospitals in the United States Hospitals in Minnesota 1897 establishments in Minnesota Hospitals established in 1897