Le Bonheur Children's Hospital is a 255-bed, tertiary care

children's hospital A children's hospital is a hospital that offers its services exclusively to infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In certain special cases, they may also treat adults. The number of children's hospitals proliferated in the 20th ...

located in

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. Le Bonheur has more than 700 medical staff representing 40 pediatric specialties. Approximately 170 patients per day are admitted, mostly from

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and nearby states but also from around the world, mainly due to its nationally recognized

brain tumor A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and seconda ...

program, affiliation with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and for being the home of the Children's Foundation Research Center. The hospital treats infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21. Le Bonheur functions as the region's primary level 1 pediatric trauma center. The hospital cares for 14,000 patients every year, including about 81,000 visits to the emergency department a year and 8,800 surgeries per year. Le Bonheur also serves as a teaching hospital affiliated with the

University of Tennessee Health Science Center The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is a public medical school in Memphis, Tennessee. It includes the Colleges of Health Professions, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy. Since 1911, the ...

and offers training in general

pediatrics 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 th ...

and pediatric subspecialties.

History

Le Bonheur was founded on June 15, 1952, by the Le Bonheur Club, originally a women's

sewing circle The term sewing circle usually refers to a group of people who meet regularly for the purpose of sewing, often for charitable causes while chatting, gossiping, and/or discussing. Application to sewing Sewing circle participants, usually women, t ...

, and was originally an

orphanage An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...

dedicated to caring for poor children. The Le Bonheur Club members raised all of the money for the initial investment for the hospital. When the doors opened, the Le Bonheur Club President, Mrs. Howard Pritchard, stated: "The doors of Le Bonheur will never be found closed and will forever hereafter be open to those who come in need, seeking its help." The medical center has gone through two major expansion projects. When

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

first hit

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

in August 2005, Le Bonheur (along with other hospitals) sent helicopters to

Tulane Medical Center The Tulane Medical Center is a hospital located in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Tulane Medical Center has centers covering nearly all major specialties of medicine, and is the primary teaching hospital for the Tulane University School of Medicine. ...

, Ochsner, and CHNOLA in order to help evacuate pediatric patients from the hospital. In February 2008, ground was broken on the new expansion by Le Bonheur executives. In December 2010, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital opened the emergency department in its newly renovated 12-story patient care tower. Le Bonheur maintains two ambulances equipped for critical care transport.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare

In 1995, Le Bonheur became a part of the Methodist Healthcare System, which is supported by the Memphis, Mississippi and Arkansas conferences of The

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

. While it is primarily located in Memphis, the system also owns the Methodist Olive Branch hospital in Mississippi. The healthcare system began in 1918 with a farmer named John Sherard.

Collection practices

Like the other 2 major systems in the region, the parent company filed collections actions against patients who have difficulty paying, with 8,300 lawsuits between 2014 and 2018. This practice ended soon after and was reversed by erasing millions in patient debt.

Education

Le Bonheur is affiliated with the

and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. It offers training in general pediatrics and several subspecialty areas of pediatrics. Le Bonheur Children's Hospital has been ranked among the nation's best by U.S. News & World Report in different specialties.

References

External links

Le Bonheur Children's Hospital

Children's Foundation Research Center

University of Tennessee Health Science Center

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1952 Children's hospitals in the United States Hospitals in Memphis, Tennessee Teaching hospitals in Tennessee Pediatric trauma centers Hospitals established in 1952