Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, located in Norfolk, is Virginia’s only freestanding children’s hospital and one of only 43 freestanding children’s hospitals in the nation.
Each year, families make thousands of visits to CHKD’s Norfolk hospital for care they can’t find anywhere else in Southeastern Virginia.
As the regional pediatric referral center, CHKD is home to the region’s only Level One Pediatric Trauma Center and the region’s largest and most sophisticated Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units. CHKD’s surgical program is one of the few programs in the nation designated by the American College of Surgeons as a Level One pediatric surgery center.
CHKD is more than a hospital, though.
It is a comprehensive pediatric health system, employing the majority of the region’s pediatricians and all of its pediatric surgical specialists offering care in more than 40 locations from Williamsburg to Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
CHKD Health System also contracts with all of the region’s pediatric medical subspecialists, who provide care in 26 pediatric subspecialties exclusively through CHKD.
The hospital’s history dates back over 120 years to 1896, when The King’s Daughters established a visiting nurse service to care for children of impoverished families.
Over the years, they added services and clinics. And in 1961, The King’s Daughters Children’s Hospital opened its doors in its current location, with 88 beds.
By 1994, two major expansions had occurred, creating a 206-bed inpatient/outpatient facility now called Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters.
CHKD has always honored the charitable mission of its founders, by providing care to every child who needs it regardless of any family’s ability to pay. Approximately 60 percent of CHKD’s inpatient days are covered by Medicaid, and the hospital’s benefit to the community tops $100 million annually.
CHKD recently embarked on the first major expansion of its mission in its history, adding facilities, providers and services to address our region’s pediatric mental health needs. The hub for these new services will be a new 224-million mental health hospital and treatment center located on CHKD’s Norfolk Campus. A groundbreaking is scheduled for September, 2019.
