Riley: 80 Years Old and Looking Ahead
Conventional wisdom tells you that when you turn eighty, maybe
it’s time to slow down. Just don’t count on Riley Hospital
for Children to always follow convention.
Indiana’s only children’s hospital, and perhaps its
best-known medical facility, celebrated its 80th birthday last October
with a celebration that included medical and administrative staff
and patients and their families. They shared in cake-cutting and
other activities in the hospital’s colorful main atrium.
Among the celebrants was Dorothy Barton, who was treated for chronic
ear infections in 1924, the year the hospital opened; she was four
years old. Her association with Riley and the IU School of Medicine
didn’t end when she was discharged as a youngster. She retired
from a career at the medical center in the 1960s and continues to
volunteer at Riley’s Community Education and Child Advocacy
Departments.
“During the next 80 years, our goal as a children’s
hospital is to build on our accomplishments as pioneers and leaders
in pediatric research, education and advocacy,” says Richard
Schreiner, MD, Riley’s physician-in-chief and chairman of
IUSM’s Department of Pediatrics.
Riley was established in honor of Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley
eight years after his death. More than one million youngsters and
families have received care there. Currently, it serves nearly 8,000
inpatients and 180,000 outpatients annually.
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