Children's Hospital Los Angeles Opens in Valencia
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 Boulevard, Suite 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.

"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."

"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."

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."

The outpatient center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. 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 362-1240.The new center will be staffed by board-certified and board-eligible pediatric clinicians for initial evaluation and follow-up care.