In honor of our 100th anniversary, throughout 2024 we’ve shared stories and images from the Children’s Minnesota archives, with each month featuring a different decade. Here we come to the last decade of our 100-year retrospective: 2010 to 2019.
Jump back in time and read about Children’s Minnesota in the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s and the 1920s.
The 2010s
The “new Children’s”
The 2010s kicked off with the unveiling of part of the largest expansion in our history. Inside our renovated Minneapolis hospital, “natural light, bright colors and larger spaces are hallmarks of the new Children’s,” according to the 2010 annual report.
The hospital had a new cardiovascular care center, “the only one of its kind in the Upper Midwest” as well as the “largest in-hospital Ronald McDonald House in the country.”
In 2011, our St. Paul hospital would “unveil the same child-inspired blend of architecture, landscaping, medicine and art.”
We reported that “once complete, both campuses will boast new surgery centers, with state of the science equipment and technologies to improve the overall experience for patients and families.”
In early 2013, the first baby was born in our new The Mother Baby Center, a partnership between Allina Health and Children’s Minnesota, in Minneapolis. More The Mother Baby Centers would soon open in St. Paul and Coon Rapids. This 2013 video shares how The Mother Baby Center makes a difference for families.
Telling our own story
By 2010, social media had come into prominence, and we had accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This allowed us to tell our own stories about the life-changing work we do and interact with our community in a new way.
In the mid-2010s, we started calling ourselves a new name. Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota was shortened to Children’s Minnesota, the name we have today.
Cause for celebration
By 2014, the seven-year-long transformation of Children’s Minnesota campuses and programs was finally complete. The initiative began in 2007 when our foundation started raising $150 million to “deliver next-generation care.” Our generous community helped us exceed that goal with more than 48,000 donors giving $168 million. This video shows off the “reimagined Children’s.”
Measles outbreak
In 2017, we helped manage and contain “the state’s largest measles outbreak in nearly three decades” according to that year’s Children’s Minnesota annual report. There were 22 children with severe cases, and all were treated at Children’s Minnesota. We received local and national media coverage for our response to the outbreak.
Major honors
Children’s Minnesota has received many awards for excellence over 100 years. One of the biggest was in 2018 when we were recognized as a Magnet® hospital, the gold standard for excellence in nursing care. Magnet is a status achieved by fewer than 10% of U.S. hospitals. In this 2018 video, our staff explain what Magnet status means.
In 2019, Children’s Minnesota was verified as a Level I Children’s Surgery Center by the American College of Surgeons. We were the first and only hospital in Minnesota to earn this distinction of meeting national quality and safety standards for children’s surgery. This 2019 video captures staff celebrating the verification.
An enormous transformation
Hopefully you have enjoyed our look at Children’s Minnesota history through the decades. It’s remarkable to see our enormous transformation over 100 years.
Our first hospital opened in 1924. It had just 16 beds. Today, Children’s Minnesota has more than 450 beds across two campuses, and we care for more than 160,000 kids a year.
It’s also remarkable that despite so much growth and change, we still embody the vision of our founder, Dr. Walter Ramsey. We remain “a model institution for the care…treatment and…study of all measures pertaining to the welfare of children.”
It hasn’t happened by coincidence. Children’s Minnesota is a “model institution” because so many people — staff, donors, community members, patients and their families — have come together around one goal: to help kids be as healthy as they can be.
Celebrating a century of care: Children’s Minnesota turns 100
Children’s Minnesota has been here for 100 years. And it’s all because of you: the people who bring their kids here, the ones who work here, the partners who refer their young patients for specialty treatment, the donors who support us, and the community who rallies around the families in our hospitals. Join us in celebrating a century of care — and a bright, healthy future for Minnesota kids.
