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About SickKids
The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), affiliated with the University of Toronto, is Canada's most research-intensive hospital and the largest centre dedicated to improving children's health in the country.
With passionate and dedicated staff, SickKids is much more than a hospital. We work each day to provide the best in child and family-centred care, pioneer ground-breaking clinical and scientific advancements, and train the next generation of experts in child health.
Together, we are advancing Precision Child Health, a movement to individualize care for every child based on what makes them unique - from their genetic code to their postal code.
This is SickKids 2030
Let's break barriers, rewrite the rules
Child and youth health care has long been limited by boundaries, traditions and old ways of doing things… but that’s about to change. Read more about our plan to redefine paediatric health care.
What we do
Child & family-centred care
SickKids’ approach for delivering health care is centred on the needs of patients and their families, covering a wide range of clinical departments. To support the patient and family experience, our Family Spaces offer opportunities for family recreation and programming, while Interpreter and Spiritual & Religious Care services make our environment accessible to the unique needs of your family.
We also partner with families to help shape our services and care through the Family Advisory Network. Learn more about our other patient and family-centred care services.
Innovation in child health research
The SickKids Research Institute is Canada’s largest, hospital-based child health research institute dedicated to improving the health of children. Our research programs range from basic discovery research all the way to clinical care and are supported by state-of-the-art expertise, technologies and facilities.
SickKids is ranked as one of Canada’s top 40 research hospitals, where every child has the opportunity to participate in clinical research.
Teaching the next generation of health-care professionals
The SickKids Learning Institute (LI) aims to improve child health outcomes and systems of care through education. We’ve developed collaborative and innovative partnerships and programming to support faculty development, educate patients and families, and inspire learners from all backgrounds. From dynamic simulations and hands-on training to our International Learner Program, we help advance knowledge and skills locally, nationally and throughout the world.
Worldwide activities
SickKids engages in a variety of initiatives to improve child health around the world. These include the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health, SickKids International, our International Patient Program, and more.
As leaders in child health, we partner locally and globally to improve the health of children through the integration of care, research and education.
- Compassion
- Integrity
- Collaboration
- Inclusion
- Innovation
- Excellence
Improving the health of children is the focus for all that we do. That was the promise made by Elizabeth McMaster in March 1875 when she and a group of Toronto women rented an 11-room house on Avenue Street in downtown Toronto and declared open a hospital "for the admission and treatment of all sick children." On April 3, Maggie, a three-year-old scald victim, became SickKids’ first patient.
Since then, SickKids has led in child health and research innovation in Canada.
To keep up with demand for its services, in 1891, under the leadership of John Ross Robertson, newspaper publisher and chairman of the hospital's Board of Trustees, SickKids moved to a four-story, 320-bed facility at the corner of Elizabeth and College Streets.
In 1909, the hospital installed the first milk pasteurization plant in Canada, 30 years before it became mandatory. In 1918, the Nutritional Research Laboratory was established, leading to the development of a baby cereal called Pablum, co-invented by SickKids Drs. Alan Brown, Theodore Drake and Frederick Tisdall in 1930. Between 1942 and 1952, Dr. Tisdall led nutritional experiments on malnourished populations in Indigenous communities and residential schools. As an organization, SickKids bears responsibility for having allowed this unethical research to occur, and is committed to truth telling as part of the path to reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Read our statement on the Indigenous Health Strategy page.
With the rise of the polio epidemic in the late 1930s, SickKids manufactured more than 30 iron lungs for use. Medical and nursing staff organized temporary treatment centres that cared for more than 300 children.
In 1951, SickKids moved to its current location at 555 University Avenue and in 1954, established the SickKids Research Institute. Leading our pioneering efforts in paediatric care, both the Salter operation to repair dislocation of the hip, and the Mustard operation to correct fatal heart defects were developed at SickKids. In 1968, SickKids opened one of the first intensive care units in North America devoted exclusively to the care of critically-ill newborn and premature babies.
Throughout the 1980s, advances in genetics have led to the identification and cloning of a number of genes responsible for causing hereditary diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis.
Our campus has continued to evolve its physical footprint to provide the best in care and research. In 1993, SickKids opened a new patient care wing, the Atrium, and in 2013, the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning brought together SickKids researchers into one 21-storey tower on Bay Street that has sparked collaborations and fueled innovation.
Today, our Project Horizon campus redevelopment project is building the hospital of the future, and transforming the way we deliver care as we enter the next chapter of SickKids’ exceptional story.
An inspired hospital of the future
Project Horizon, our campus redevelopment project, aims to build an inspired hospital of the future, transform how we deliver care, and empower patients and families to be partners in their care.
Accreditation with Exemplary Standing
SickKids has been awarded Accreditation with Exemplary Standing, the highest standing possible from Accreditation Canada! Every four years, SickKids undergoes an accreditation process by Accreditation Canada, an independent, not-for-profit organization that works with health-care organizations to help them evaluate and improve quality, safety and efficiency so they can offer the best possible care and service.
HIMSS Stage 7: recognizing digital excellence in quality health care
Working together, SickKids and CHEO have both achieved HIMSS Stage 7, the world’s highest designation for using an electronic medical record (EMR) to improve patient outcomes and engagement — which makes this achievement about safety and quality of care for children and youth; not only about technology. SickKids and CHEO are the only health-care organizations in Canada to achieve HIMSS Stage 7 for both inpatient and outpatient care.
