Shriners Hospitals for Children (SHC), previously Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children, from the beginning in 1922, has provided care to over 1.4 million children.
Shriners help support our philanthropy, Shriners Hospitals for Children, by participating in fundraising activities, and by referring children who may benefit from specialized medical care provided by the health care system. Members assist by raising funds, providing transportation for patients and their families, volunteering on hospital boards, and much more.
The scope of our pediatric orthopedic programs has change over almost 100 years of the existence of SHC. Certain conditions such as poliomyelitis and osteomyelitis are no longer dominant diagnoses due to the development of immunizations and antibiotics. Orthopedic research continues to change our scope of practice. Today spinal deformities, neuromuscular disorders, limb length inequalities, hip and foot deformities, and other diagnoses predominate. Our changes mirror what has occurred in our specialty in North America and other developed nations worldwide. Other less fortunate countries have a different distribution of diagnoses. This has led to the development of our outreach programs to assist these children and to provide educational programs for their care providers.
The expansion of the orthopedic work was not enough for Shriners. By early 1960, it was determined that the treatment of seriously burned children was inadequate and limited. In 1962 the Imperial Session in Toronto, ON decide to construct, establish, and operate one or more hospitals for the care and treatment of curable crippled children afflicted with acutely dangerous burns, research, activities, and training programs related thereto.
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 non-profit medical facilities across North America. Children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, cleft lip, cleft palate, craniofacial anomalies and recently added any sport related injury, which are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients