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Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital

Photo Credit: Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital

Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital was founded in 1922 as a convalescent home for children in a colonial-style house in a bucolic 23-acre setting in northwest Baltimore. Many of the children suffered from scarlet fever and tuberculosis. Today, Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital is a thriving state-of-the-art center of hope and healing for infants and children with the most complex medical needs.

Rehabilitation and specialty medical care at Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital are provided through comprehensive inpatient, outpatient, and day-treatment programs. The hospital has 56 pediatric specialty beds and 46 rehabilitation beds. The nurturing environment allows the finest doctors, nurses, therapists, and clinicians in pediatric medicine to help children reach the highest quality of life with their families. Most patients are from Baltimore City and County and stay at the facility for about 30 days.

When specialized medical and rehabilitative care is not available for children in other parts of the United States and abroad, they come to Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital. For example, the staff has provided rehabilitation services to more children after hemispherectomy surgery than any other facility in the world. This radical procedure removes half of the brain to treat Rasmussen's Encephalitis, a rare disorder that causes constant seizures, partial paralysis, and mental deterioration. After weeks or months of intensive rehabilitation, patients generally regain speech, mobility, and independence.

The highly specialized Feeding Program helps children who have difficulty swallowing, refuse to eat, or do not eat enough. Often such problems are behavioral in nature or a result of having been fed by tube for a long time. The hospital's interdisciplinary teams work with children and parents to foster normal eating.

The Pediatric Chronic Illness Program treats children with diabetes, Down syndrome, drug withdrawal, sickle cell anemia, HIV, feeding disorders, seizures, and other medical conditions.
The Small Infant Program serves premature and low birth weight infants to give them the strength to feed on their own. Nurses teach family members how to feed and nurture them at home.
The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program treats patients with chronic lung disease, asthma, and other breathing conditions, including those with ventilator needs.
The Physical Rehabilitation Program helps children recover from brain and spinal cord injuries, burns, and other debilitating conditions. After such traumatic injuries, children learn mobility, self-care, and communication.
The Neuropsychology Programs offer unique specialty services for neurological disorders that affect the way a child thinks, behaves, and learns. In 2000, the hospital opened the Jack and Mae Rosenberg Center for Pediatric Respiratory Medicine. It is among the few outpatient centers in the mid-Atlantic region to offer treatment, research, and education for children with asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

The 14,000-square-foot facility meets the needs of children with a range of medical problems, including feeding and developmental disorders, diabetes, lead poisoning, nutrition, and asthma. The center won first place honors for healthcare design from the American Society of Interior Designers for its bright and friendly look — child-high windows, a frog pond play area, decorative flower gardens, and giant bumblebees.