The best children’s hospital in the western United States can now be found in the Santa Clarita Valley. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles opened the doors of its new pediatric outpatient services center in Valencia in March, bringing the clinical expertise of its doctors, nurses and staff to area residents.

The outpatient center is known as Children’s Hospital Los Angeles – Valencia and is located at 23838 Valencia Blvd., Ste. 140. A variety of outpatient pediatric services are offered, including endocrinology, hematology/oncology, neurology, orthopaedic surgery, otolaryngology (head and neck surgery) and pediatric pulmonology and pediatric surgery. Walk-in laboratory and radiological services are currently available and more pediatric specialty services will be added in the near future, including gastroenterology, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, rheumatology and urology.

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“The Santa Clarita Valley community contributed to the building of our new hospital in Los Angeles, and now we have sent our pediatric specialists and nurses to Valencia to give Santa Clarita families and their children access to our outstanding outpatient clinical services,” says Richard Cordova, FACHE, President and CEO of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Our philosophy is to provide pediatric services to complement, not compete, with the primary care physicians in the community. The local pediatricians have welcomed our specialists and sub-specialists. That’s gratifying.”

The same expert physicians caring for children at the nationally renowned Children’s Hospital Los Angeles are now seeing patients in its outpatient location in Valencia.

“In 2011, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles was the only California children’s hospital listed on the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll, including recognition for all of our pediatric specialties,” said Brent Polk, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and vice president of Academic Affairs at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “We look forward to bringing these world class physicians, providing the most comprehensive and diverse outpatient pediatric clinical services available on the West Coast, to families and their children in Santa Clarita Valley, and the nearby communities of Bakersfield and the Antelope Valley.”

Henri Ford, MD, vice president and chief of surgery, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, said that children and infants requiring surgical services provided by the hospital’s Division of Pediatric Surgery now have “the convenience of scheduling pre-operative planning appointments or post-operative follow-up visits in Valencia. We’re grateful for the warm welcome we have received in the Santa Clarita Valley and are glad to be part of the community.”

The outpatient center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. To find out more about the center, go to www.CHLA.org/Valencia, or contact the center directly at
(661) 362-1240. The new center will be staffed by Board-Certified and Board-Eligible pediatric clinicians for initial evaluation and follow-up care.

“We feel fortunate to have a specialist available within a reasonable distance from home,” says Anne Wadsworth of Lancaster, whose son Tyler, 2, is being treated for asthma by a Children’s Hospital Los Angeles pediatric pulmonology specialist at the hospital’s Valencia outpatient center. “We were going to drive to Los Angeles but when I found out my son could get the same great treatment in Valencia, we were pleasantly surprised.”

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is L.A.’s first and largest hospital dedicated specifically to treating children throughout Southern California. The hospital has been named to the U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of children’s hospitals – among the top 10 in the country – and is the only children’s hospital in California ranked nationally in all 10 pediatric specialties.

The hospital’s physicians are faculty members at the Keck School of medicine of the University of Southern California. They are trained in treating childhood illnesses and injuries and provide family-centered care, treating parents as an integral part of the healthcare team. In addition, the center’s lab technicians and X-Ray staff are experienced at providing compassionate care to children.

The opening of the Valencia location continues the transformation of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which opened its $636 million, 317-bed state-of-the-art facility in July 2011. The hospital will further expand services and capabilities at its main campus on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, as well as increase the ability to provide family-centered care to residents throughout the region.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles serves more than 96,000 patients each year with physicians specializing in more than 100 subspecialties. The hospital offers care from some of the world’s most prestigious physicians and surgeons, and is designated as a Magnet Hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, an honor held by only five percent of all hospitals nationwide.

Children’s Hospital is home of The Saban Research Institute at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States. The hospital is also one of America’s premier teaching hospitals, affiliated with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California since 1932. In addition, it is a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center in L.A. County approved by the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons; and it maintains one of the largest pediatric transport programs in the nation.