About

Primary Children’s Hospital ranks among the best children’s hospitals in the United States. Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, our hospital is focused on providing the best care for more than 1 million children living in a 400,000 square-mile service area.

Our 289-bed facility is a Level I pediatric trauma center and cares for children with complex illness and injury, including organ transplants and complex birth defects. Our hospital is part of Intermountain Healthcare, a not-for-profit health care system, and the pediatric teaching hospital for the University of Utah, School of Medicine.

Ranked among the Best Children's Hospitals in the Nation

Primary Children's is ranked as one of the nation's best children's hospitals in 8 out of 10 pediatric specialties in the 2019 - 20 Best Children's Hospital survey by U.S. News & World Report.

Comprehensive Specialty Pediatric Care

As a free-standing children's hospital, we provide more than 60 medical and surgical pediatric specialties. We have more than 800 pediatric providers, supported by a staff of more than 3,000 - all specializing in pediatrics. We also provide outpatient care at clinics in four states.

Level I Pediatric Trauma Center

Our hospital is the only Level I Pediatric Trauma center serving a five-state region. Originally certified in 2002, we have been a pediatric trauma center for 15 consecutive years. We have one of the busiest trauma programs in the country. Our hospital has a 32-bed PICU, 16-bed CICU, 28-bed Neuro Trauma Unit, and 50-bed Level IV NICU. We have a dedicated pediatric and neonatal team that transports more than 1,500 patients each year.

Research and Evidence-Based Care

Research plays a vital role in offering innovative and cutting-edge care. As the pediatric teaching hospital for the University of Utah School of Medicine, we help train 80 residents and 45 fellows. Additionally, clinicians published more than 50 research papers and participate in basic science, translational and clinical research.

Building a Network to Keep Kids Close to Home

Our philosophy is to provide safe, high-quality care as close to home as possible. We provide multiple clinic locations for specialty pediatric care across the west. We also partner with community hospitals to improve pediatric care. Our partnerships include:

Alaska Native Medical Center, Alaska
St. Vincent Healthcare, Montana
Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, Nevada
Layton Hospital, Utah
Riverton Hospital, Utah
Utah Valley Hospital, Utah

Central Location in the Western United States

Our hospital is located in Salt Lake City, Utah and serves one of the largest geographic areas of any children's hospital, including Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Wyoming, and Alaska. Short direct flights, with easy access from airport to hospital, bring patients from across the United States. Robust family support services have been designed especially for out-of-area patients.

Family-Centered Care

Our hospital has robust family support services staffed by a multidisciplinary team of physicians, therapists, specialists and volunteers. They work as a team to engage patients and families with therapeutic activities, positive distractions, and social support. Our hospital also partners with Ronald McDonald House Charities. Our hospital has the largest Ronald McDonald Family Room in the world, along with a newly opened second room, specifically for critical care services.

Specialty Pediatric Care

Primary Children’s provides care in more than 60 medical and surgical pediatric specialties.

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Wellness & Prevention

We are committed to keeping our community informed, safe, and out of the hospital.

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Patient & Family Support

We offer a variety of programs, resources, and services we provide to support our patients and their families.

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Your Visit

Everything you need at the hospital, such as places to eat and other amenities.

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Our History

Primary Children's Hospital began in the early years of the twentieth century as a church-sponsored institution. The Primary Association (the children's program) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened a children's ward at Salt Lake's LDS Hospital in 1911. This action was taken after association officers Louie B. Felt and May Anderson were touched by the sight of a child on crutches struggling along a city street, and they realized the need for special medical help for children.

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The Early Years

On May 12, 1922, the Primary Association opened its own 35-bed facility in a large old home at 40 West North Temple, across from Salt Lake City's Temple Square. Surgeries were performed at LDS Hospital, and then children convalesced in the Primary facility.

Children with mostly orthopedic and chronic diseases were hospitalized an average of six months. Parents had limited visiting privileges because of the threat of communicable diseases in those pre-antibiotic days.

The hospital was supported by donations of birthday pennies by LDS Primary children, and by an annual Penny Parade held in hundreds of Intermountain area towns and farming districts.

A Second Home

The hospital moved to a new 70-bed building at 320 Twelfth Avenue on February 12, 1952. Efforts to build that expanded, modern facility had begun in the late 1930s, but the war years with associated shortages of materials and manpower delayed the project. Following the end of World War II, the Primary Association began a fund-raising drive under the dynamic direction of Frances Grant Bennett, mother of Utah's Senator Robert F. Bennett. One of the initiatives was a "Dimes for Bricks" drive, in which donors contributing ten cents had the satisfaction of knowing they had purchased one red brick for the new hospital. From their collective efforts, the Primary Association was able to pay half of the $1.25 million price tag, with general LDS Church funds paying the other half.

During the late 1950s, the medical community recognized the need for additional children's services. On January 1, 1961, the hospital officially expanded its services to include acute care. Building expansion brought the number of beds to 84, and the first pediatric specialty departments in the Intermountain West were established. Surgeries began to be performed at the hospital in the mid-1960s, although complex surgeries were still performed at LDS Hospital. In 1966, a new wing was completed, doubling the number of beds.

Change of Ownership

The hospital flourished under the dedicated direction of the Primary Association, but change was coming. In 1975, the LDS Church created an independent, nonprofit corporation, Intermountain Healthcare, into which all the church's hospital holdings were transferred. Primary Children's Medical Center was included in that donation to the community by the LDS Church, and remains part of the Intermountain Healthcare system today.

Affiliation with the University of Utah

Another important chapter for the hospital occurred with the 1977 signing of an affiliation agreement for educational purposes between Primary Children's and the University of Utah School of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics. The agreement formalized an arrangement that began in 1962, when pediatric resident rotations were established at the hospital. Primary Children's became an official teaching hospital, and the formal agreement opened the way for many additional medical specialties to be offered.

The hospital on Twelfth Avenue eventually grew to 170 beds. As demands on the hospital increased, discussions began regarding further growth. Many options were considered, but finally the decision was made to build a new facility on land leased from the University of Utah, adjacent to the School of Medicine.

A Third Home

On April 23, 1990, a fleet of ambulances moved 114 patients to the University of Utah campus. The hospital opened in a beautiful new building with 186 beds. Since that day, the facility has expanded to 289 licensed inpatient beds, with more on the drawing boards. As physical space becomes an increasing premium, administrators are looking outside the hospital walls for solutions. Behavioral health patients are treated at three off-campus locations. Rehabilitation therapy is offered to outpatients at four off-site locations. A new facility in Riverton, Utah, 25 miles to the south, provides additional capacity for outpatient surgery, radiology, pediatric sub-specialty clinics, and other services.

Present Day

Each year brings continuing change and progress to the hospital. During the years at the university campus, the medical staff has grown from 450 to more than 750. Heart, liver, and bone marrow transplants are routinely performed. Helicopters come and go several times a day, bringing the region’s sickest and most fragile children to the Intermountain West's only pediatric Trauma I center. The latest technological equipment provides physicians with diagnostic information undreamed of by earlier generations.

Thousands of individual children receive extraordinary care each year at Primary Children’s, provided in an atmosphere of love and concern.