Who We Serve: Fast Facts About Valley Children's
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Valley Children’s is one of the largest pediatric healthcare networks in the nation and the only healthcare network in the Central Valley dedicated exclusively to caring for the more than 1.3 million children in our service area. Our 330-bed main hospital campus in Madera is Central California's only designated Level II Pediatric Trauma Center and Level 4 Epilepsy Center.
Since our founding more than 70 years ago, Valley Children's has grown from a 42-bed hospital in 1952 to the 358-bed, nationally respected pediatric healthcare network we are today. Valley Children's was ranked among the nation’s best children’s hospitals in three pediatric specialties in 2024-2025 by U.S. News & World Report: Pediatric Orthopedics, Pediatric Pulmonology and Pediatric Urology.
More about California's Central Valley
Central California children and their families face many challenges in striving to live healthy, productive lives. The implications of these challenges are significant, often resulting in unnecessary and preventable illnesses, frequent visits to hospital emergency rooms and missed days at school and at work.
In the Central Valley, persistent poverty and air pollution levels combine to produce the highest rates of emergency room visits for childhood asthma across the state of California.
Nearly half of U.S. children have experienced at least one adverse childhood event (such as child abuse, exposure to violence, family alcohol or drug abuse, and poverty can have negative, long-term impacts on health and well-being), and 16.4% of California children, ages 0 to 17, have experienced two or more adverse events. Service area county children have experienced higher rates of two or more adverse events than have children statewide, ranging from 16.9% in Stanislaus County to 18.1% in Tulare County.
Valley Children’s is uniquely positioned to address many of these challenges and to help ensure a positive future for our region’s children.
(*Data from 2007-2013, **Fresno/Madera Counties)