page_title: Children's Hospital at Erlanger
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Children's Hospital at Erlanger / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Chattanooga mayor T.C. Thompson.
context_page_description: Children's Hospital at Erlanger is a 118-bed, tertiary care children's hospital located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The hospital serves as the pediatric center of excellence for Erlanger Health System, the tenth largest public health system in the United States. It is located adjacent to Erlanger Baroness Hospital, just east of downtown Chattanooga.
context_section_description: The initiative to create a hospital in Chattanooga for children was spearheaded in the 1920s by the city's former mayor, T.C. Thompson, working closely with the local Civitan Club. Through a $250,000 bond issue, the original children's hospital was completed in 1929 in Chattanooga's Glenwood community. The facility had 89 beds for children and 16 beds for newborn babies. After several years, the children's hospital board merged with the Erlanger hospital board, and the facility was named T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital.
  During the 1940s, the hospital pioneered new polio treatments, including hydrotherapy, and opened the region's first unit for premature babies. In 1975, a move to Erlanger's downtown campus made way for the region's first pediatric intensive care unit and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The 2000s saw a tripling of the ER size, renovated surgical suites and expanded operating rooms. In 2011, the hospital was renamed Children's Hospital at Erlanger to better reflect its role in the region, and as part of Erlanger Health System. With this change, hospital would continue to honor its founder by naming its downtown pediatric location, the "T.C. Thompson Campus."
  In 2014, Erlanger leadership unveiled a 20-year plan for the largest expansion in the health system's history. The plans include a 100,000-foot children's and women's ambulatory center, and a new state-of-the-art children's and women's hospital.
  December 2018 marked the opening of a 90,000-square-foot pediatric outpatient facility, the Kennedy Outpatient Center. The center represents phase one of plans for a new Children's Hospital, part of a multi-year re-imagining of Erlanger's downtown campus.
caption: Former Chattanooga mayor T.C. Thompson.
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