Children’s Hospital Association: Pediatric Care & Info

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Pediatric Care Guide · Children’s Hospitals · Family & Hospital Resources

Children’s Hospital Association information for pediatric care, member hospitals, advocacy, patient safety, quality resources, and family navigation

Children’s Hospital Association, often called CHA, is not a children’s hospital emergency room or appointment clinic. It is a national association that works with children’s hospitals and health systems to improve pediatric care, policy, safety, quality, data, workforce support, and family-centered advocacy.

Use this guide to understand what CHA does, how families can use its hospital directory and public resources, when to contact CHA, when to contact a local children’s hospital instead, and how to find pediatric care safely.

Open CHA Website Find a Hospital Contact CHA Family Care Routing
Medical emergency? CHA does not provide emergency medical care, diagnosis, triage, referrals, appointments, or hospital admission. For a life-threatening child emergency in the United States, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. For suspected poisoning, call 1-800-222-1222.
Organization type National association

CHA represents and supports children’s hospitals and pediatric health systems; it is not a direct patient-care hospital.

Network size 200+ hospitals

CHA describes itself as the national voice of more than 200 children’s hospitals.

Best family tool Hospital directory

Use the CHA hospital directory to start finding member children’s hospitals by name, city, or state.

Main phone 913-262-1436

General Lenexa office and member-services routing.

DC office 202-753-5500

Washington, DC office for policy, advocacy, and national association contact routing.

Not for Appointments

Call the local children’s hospital, pediatrician, specialist clinic, emergency department, or insurance plan for patient care.

About Children’s Hospital Association

CHA is best understood as a national pediatric hospital association, not as a hospital where a parent can schedule a child’s appointment.

Children’s Hospital Association works with children’s hospitals and health systems to make children’s health a national priority. Its public materials focus on pediatric-specific policy, hospital quality, patient safety, research, data, workforce, Medicaid and CHIP, behavioral health, and family advocacy.

For families, the most useful CHA tools are the hospital directory, public education articles, advocacy information, and contact pages. For hospitals, CHA offers member programs, benchmarking, pediatric learning, quality networks, safety resources, research support, and peer collaboration.

Plain-English answer: Use CHA to learn about children’s hospitals and pediatric health system issues. Use a local children’s hospital, pediatrician, specialist, urgent care, emergency department, or insurance plan when you need actual medical care for a child.

Start here: what are you trying to do?

The correct next step depends on whether you are a parent, caregiver, patient family, hospital employee, journalist, policymaker, researcher, or job seeker.

Your goal Best starting point Important caution
Find pediatric care for a child Use CHA’s hospital directory, then contact the local children’s hospital directly. CHA does not schedule appointments, admit patients, or give medical advice.
Find the nearest children’s hospital Search by hospital name, city, or state in the hospital directory. Verify services, insurance, referrals, age limits, and appointment rules with the hospital.
Ask about CHA membership Use CHA membership, member services, or contact forms. Some content is member-only and requires a hospital-affiliated account.
Find pediatric quality or safety resources Use CHA’s Quality, Child Health Patient Safety Organization, and member-services pages. Some toolkits or communities may be restricted to members.
Learn about child health policy Use CHA advocacy and policy-priority pages. Policy materials are not medical instructions for an individual child.
Request media comment Use CHA media inquiry contacts. Do not send private patient information through public media forms.
Get your child’s medical records Contact the hospital or clinic where your child was treated. CHA does not hold patient charts for member hospitals.

Children’s Hospital Association contact information

Use CHA for association, membership, policy, media, and resource questions. Use a local hospital for patient-care questions.

Contact route Phone or address Best use
Lenexa office 16011 College Blvd., Suite 250, Lenexa, KS 66219. Phone: 913-262-1436. General association contact, member services routing, and office correspondence.
Washington, DC office 600 13th Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005. Phone: 202-753-5500. Federal advocacy, policy, and national association routing.
Member services memberservices@childrenshospitals.org or 913-262-1436. Membership, program access, website account help, member resources, and hospital participation questions.
Media inquiries Use the official media inquiry form or public relations contact listed by CHA. Reporter requests, press statements, interview routing, and public-relations questions.
Patient appointment Contact the local children’s hospital or clinic directly. Scheduling, referrals, insurance verification, specialist visits, second opinions, and discharge questions.
Medical records Contact the treating hospital’s Health Information Management or Medical Records office. Immunization record, discharge summary, imaging, lab reports, operative report, or portal access.
Do not send private medical details to the wrong place: CHA is an association. For a child’s diagnosis, appointment, bill, prescription, test result, discharge plan, or medical record, contact the treating hospital or clinician.

Family care routing: where parents and caregivers should go first

Parents often search CHA when they really need a local pediatric service. Use this routing table to avoid delays.

Family need Who to contact What to ask
Life-threatening emergency 911 or nearest emergency department Tell the dispatcher or ER the child’s age, symptoms, medications, allergies, and location.
Possible poisoning Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 Have the product, medication, dose, child’s age, weight, symptoms, and time of exposure ready.
Pediatric specialist appointment Local children’s hospital specialty clinic Referral rules, insurance accepted, records needed, age limits, wait time, telehealth options, and clinic location.
Urgent but not life-threatening illness Child’s pediatrician, nurse line, pediatric urgent care, or local children’s hospital Whether to come in today, go to urgent care, go to the ER, or monitor at home.
Second opinion Children’s hospital specialty department Required records, imaging transfer, referral process, insurance authorization, and virtual-review options.
Hospital bill or insurance problem Treating hospital billing office or financial assistance office Itemized bill, financial assistance, Medicaid/CHIP screening, payment plan, coding review, and appeal process.
Find a children’s hospital CHA hospital directory, then the hospital directly Whether the hospital provides the needed service for the child’s age and condition.

How to use the CHA hospital directory

The directory is a starting point for finding member children’s hospitals. Always confirm care details with the hospital itself.

Open the official hospital directory. Use the “Find a Hospital” page on the CHA website.
Search by city, state, or hospital name. Try nearby major cities if your local area does not have a freestanding children’s hospital.
Open the hospital’s own website. Look for departments such as emergency, primary care, cardiology, oncology, neurology, surgery, behavioral health, NICU, PICU, or specialty clinics.
Call before traveling. Confirm location, hours, referral requirements, insurance, age limits, parking, visitor rules, and whether the service is at the main campus or a satellite clinic.
Gather records before the visit. Ask what prior notes, labs, imaging, medication lists, growth charts, vaccination records, discharge summaries, or referral forms are needed.
Use emergency services for urgent danger signs. If the child has severe trouble breathing, blue lips, severe allergic reaction, seizure, major injury, altered mental status, or other emergency symptoms, call 911 or go to the nearest ER.
Directory search tip: A children’s hospital may have multiple campuses, outpatient clinics, emergency locations, and specialty centers. Verify the exact location before leaving home.

Pediatric care info: why children’s hospitals are different

Children’s hospitals are designed around children’s bodies, development, families, medications, equipment sizes, and specialty needs.

Pediatric specialists

Children’s hospitals often bring together pediatric-trained physicians, nurses, pharmacists, therapists, surgeons, anesthesiologists, child-life specialists, and social workers for child-specific care.

Child-sized care

Children need age-appropriate equipment, medication dosing, imaging protocols, anesthesia planning, communication support, and family-centered care environments.

Complex conditions

Many children’s hospitals treat rare diseases, congenital conditions, cancer, heart disease, neurologic disorders, transplant needs, trauma, NICU/PICU care, and complex chronic illness.

Family support

Families may need help with care coordination, school planning, travel, lodging, insurance, financial counseling, medical records, translation, and discharge planning.

Care-level note: Not every children’s hospital provides every pediatric subspecialty at every location. Always check the hospital’s department page or call the access center before scheduling or traveling.

CHA services and resources explained

Most CHA services are built for member hospitals, clinicians, executives, policy teams, researchers, and quality leaders, while some resources are public.

CHA area What it helps with Who benefits
Data Insights Benchmarking utilization, patient encounters, surgical services, financial performance, and workforce-related metrics. Children’s hospital leaders, analysts, operations teams, and quality teams.
Pediatric Learning Solutions Online courseware and competency-building for clinicians who care for pediatric patients. Hospitals, nurses, clinicians, educators, and training teams.
Health Care Quality Quality improvement, patient safety, learning events, best practices, and pediatric care delivery improvement. Hospital quality leaders, clinicians, patient-safety teams, and administrators.
Child Health Patient Safety Organization Confidential learning and collaboration around pediatric safety events and safer systems of care. Member hospitals, patient-safety leaders, risk teams, and pediatric clinicians.
Health Services Research Research support, coding tools, biostatistics, networks, and learning opportunities. Researchers, academic children’s hospitals, quality teams, and policy teams.
Pharmacy Services Pediatric pharmacy solutions, cost-management strategies, and medication access support. Children’s hospital pharmacy and operational leaders.
Advocacy Federal policy priorities around Medicaid/CHIP, pediatric workforce, mental health, children’s safety, and pediatric access. Children, families, hospitals, policymakers, and child-health advocates.
Member-content note: Some CHA dashboards, tools, communities, and documents may require login through a member hospital account. Public visitors can still use many news, advocacy, directory, and general information pages.

Quality, patient safety, and pediatric improvement resources

CHA’s pediatric quality and safety work is focused on helping children’s hospitals improve systems of care.

Quality resources
Use CHA’s Quality section for pediatric quality improvement topics, conferences, insights, care-delivery strategies, and hospital examples.
Patient safety
The Child Health Patient Safety Organization helps member hospitals work together on pediatric safety learning in a protected environment.
For families
Use quality content to understand hospital improvement themes, but ask your child’s clinical team how any information applies to your child’s care.
For clinicians
Look for resources on safety issues, diagnostic safety, emergency care improvement, sepsis, readmissions, near misses, and pediatric care processes.
For hospitals
Contact CHA member services if your hospital needs member-only program access, safety participation, learning resources, or quality collaboration.
Safety question families can ask: “Who is coordinating my child’s care plan, medication list, follow-up appointments, warning signs, and emergency instructions after discharge?”

Advocacy and pediatric policy topics

CHA’s public policy work focuses on issues that affect children’s hospitals and access to pediatric care nationwide.

Policy topic Why it matters for children Where users should go next
Medicaid and CHIP Many children rely on Medicaid or CHIP for coverage, and children’s hospitals treat large numbers of children with public coverage. Use CHA advocacy pages for policy context. Use your state Medicaid agency or hospital financial counselor for individual coverage questions.
Pediatric workforce Children need pediatric-trained clinicians, subspecialists, nurses, therapists, pharmacists, and behavioral-health professionals. Use CHA workforce resources for national context. Contact local hospitals for job, training, or appointment availability.
Behavioral and mental health Children’s hospitals often support youth mental-health care across emergency, inpatient, outpatient, and community settings. For crisis help, call 988 in the U.S. For ongoing care, contact the child’s pediatrician, local behavioral-health provider, or children’s hospital.
Pediatric research Children’s care often needs child-specific evidence, dosing, devices, prevention strategies, and long-term outcome research. Use CHA articles and children’s hospital research pages. Ask the treating physician about clinical trials or research suitability.
Family advocacy Patient and family stories can help policymakers understand real barriers to pediatric care. Use CHA Family Advocacy Day information or contact your local children’s hospital advocacy team.

Membership, website login, and member-only access

CHA membership and login features are mainly for children’s hospitals, health systems, employees, leaders, and participating organizations.

Check whether your hospital is a CHA member. Use the member or hospital directory and your hospital email address if you are trying to access member content.
Create or access your CHA account. CHA’s FAQ and account instructions explain that some content requires login for employees associated with member hospitals.
Use member services for access problems. Contact member services if your dashboard, communities, newsletters, resources, or member tools are not available.
Do not use member services for personal medical care. Patient appointments, test results, prescriptions, bills, referrals, and medical records must go through the treating hospital or clinic.

Media, public relations, and expert comment requests

Reporters should use CHA’s official media inquiry process instead of calling hospitals randomly for national policy questions.

Best for reporters

Use the official media inquiry option for press statements, national policy comment, interview routing, and information about children’s hospital issues.

Do not send patient details

Media forms are not appropriate for private patient records, diagnosis details, appointment requests, billing disputes, or emergency questions.

Use hospital media teams

If the question is about a specific hospital, contact that hospital’s media relations office directly.

Use current source pages

For policy stories, check CHA’s current advocacy, newsroom, and public-policy pages before quoting older materials.

Medical records, bills, appointments, and insurance: who actually handles them?

CHA does not hold patient records for children’s hospitals. The treating hospital or clinic controls those records.

Need Correct office Helpful details to have ready
Medical records Treating hospital’s Medical Records or Health Information Management department Child’s full legal name, date of birth, dates of service, parent/guardian ID, records requested, and delivery method.
Specialist appointment Hospital specialty clinic or access center Referral, diagnosis, symptoms, insurance card, imaging, labs, medication list, and previous clinic notes.
Hospital bill Hospital billing or patient financial services Account number, date of service, insurance explanation of benefits, itemized bill request, and financial-assistance question.
Insurance authorization Insurance plan and hospital referral office Member ID, plan name, specialist name, CPT or service type if available, referral requirement, and authorization number.
Portal access Treating hospital’s patient portal support Parent/guardian identity, child account, proxy access rules, email, phone, and verification documents.

Emergency and urgent pediatric care guidance

Use this section to avoid delaying care while searching for association information.

Call 911 now

Call 911 for severe breathing trouble, blue lips, unresponsiveness, seizure with emergency features, major trauma, severe allergic reaction, severe bleeding, suspected stroke, or any life-threatening concern.

Poison exposure

Call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222 for suspected poisoning, wrong medicine, too much medicine, chemical exposure, or swallowed household products.

Urgent but unclear

Call your child’s pediatrician, nurse advice line, local children’s hospital access center, or pediatric urgent care if symptoms are concerning but not clearly life-threatening.

Before travel

For specialty care, confirm the exact campus, department, parking, insurance, referral needs, and whether your child should go to emergency, urgent care, or scheduled clinic.

Do not wait for an email response from CHA during a medical problem. For urgent symptoms, use emergency medical services, Poison Help, your pediatrician, or the nearest appropriate emergency department.

Children’s Hospital Association office locations and maps

These are association office locations, not walk-in pediatric clinics or emergency rooms.

Lenexa office

Children’s Hospital Association
16011 College Blvd., Suite 250
Lenexa, KS 66219
Phone: 913-262-1436

Use for association office and member-service routing. Do not use this address for pediatric emergency care.

Washington, DC office

Children’s Hospital Association
600 13th Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-753-5500

Use for national association, public-policy, and advocacy routing. It is not a patient appointment location.

Official source checklist for this Children’s Hospital Association guide

Use these official or authoritative pages for final verification because contacts, programs, membership access, policy priorities, and public resources can change.

Source What it verifies When to use it
Children’s Hospital Association Main CHA website, navigation, current news, advocacy, resources, services, events, about page, and hospital directory link. Use first for current CHA information.
About Children’s Hospital Association CHA purpose, mission, vision, values, pediatric-specific role, and national association description. Use to explain what CHA does and what it does not do.
Contact Us Lenexa and Washington, DC office addresses, phone numbers, FAQ, hospital enrollment, media, and member-services contact routes. Use for official contact details.
Hospital Directory Official CHA hospital-search entry point. Use to start finding member children’s hospitals.
CHA FAQs General CHA answers, membership access, member dashboard, subscriptions, community search, member services, and media inquiry routing. Use for account, membership, and general association questions.
CHA Member Services Data Insights, Pediatric Learning Solutions, Health Care Quality, Child Health PSO, Health Services Research, benefits, and pharmacy services. Use for hospital-member resource context.
Quality Resources Pediatric quality improvement, safety, care-delivery learning, events, insights, and hospital quality topics. Use for quality and patient-safety research.
Child Health Patient Safety Organization Federally protected pediatric patient-safety collaboration and member-hospital safety improvement focus. Use for pediatric patient-safety-system information.
CHA Advocacy CHA policy and advocacy work with Congress and federal agencies on access to high-quality, cost-effective pediatric care. Use for national child-health policy context.
2026 Policy Priorities Current stated federal policy priorities, including Medicaid, pediatric workforce, youth mental health, and healthy kids. Use for current policy-priority language.
Poison Help National Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222. Use for suspected poisoning in the United States.
911.gov What to expect when calling 911 and what emergency details to provide. Use for emergency-call preparation, not for nonurgent questions.
Independent guide notice: This website is not Children’s Hospital Association, a children’s hospital, an emergency department, an insurance plan, a medical-records office, or a medical provider. Use CHA for association information and use local hospitals, clinicians, emergency services, poison centers, and insurers for child-specific medical care.

Children’s Hospital Association FAQs

These questions focus on CHA’s role, pediatric-care navigation, member hospitals, contacts, hospital directory, quality resources, advocacy, records, emergencies, and membership access.

1. What is Children’s Hospital Association?
Children’s Hospital Association, or CHA, is a national association that represents and supports children’s hospitals and health systems. It works on pediatric care improvement, policy, data, quality, safety, research, workforce issues, advocacy, and collaboration.
2. Is Children’s Hospital Association a hospital?
No. CHA is not a children’s hospital, emergency department, clinic, appointment center, or medical provider. It is an association. Families should contact a local children’s hospital or pediatric provider for patient care.
3. How can I find a children’s hospital through CHA?
Use the official CHA hospital directory and search by hospital name, city, or state. After you find a hospital, open that hospital’s own website or call it directly to confirm services, referrals, insurance, appointments, and location.
4. Can CHA schedule a pediatric appointment for my child?
No. CHA does not schedule patient appointments. Contact the children’s hospital, specialty clinic, pediatrician, urgent care, or insurance plan directly for appointments, referrals, and care access.
5. What phone number should I use for Children’s Hospital Association?
CHA lists a Lenexa office phone number at 913-262-1436 and a Washington, DC office phone number at 202-753-5500. Use these for association, membership, policy, or contact routing, not emergency care.
6. Does CHA provide medical advice or diagnosis?
No. CHA provides association resources and information about children’s hospitals and pediatric health issues. A child’s diagnosis, medication, treatment plan, test result, referral, or emergency question should be handled by a licensed medical professional.
7. How do I get my child’s medical records from a children’s hospital?
Contact the hospital or clinic where your child received care. Ask for the Health Information Management or Medical Records department and provide your child’s name, date of birth, dates of service, records requested, and parent or guardian verification.
8. What CHA resources are useful for hospitals and clinicians?
CHA member resources include data insights, pediatric learning solutions, health care quality resources, the Child Health Patient Safety Organization, health services research support, pharmacy services, and advocacy resources. Some resources may require member login.
9. What should I do if my child has a medical emergency?
Do not contact CHA for emergency triage. In the United States, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department for life-threatening symptoms. For suspected poisoning, call Poison Help at 1-800-222-1222.
10. Who should contact CHA member services?
Member services is mainly for children’s hospital members, hospital staff, membership questions, account access, member resources, program support, and feedback. Families with care, billing, insurance, portal, or medical-record questions should contact the treating hospital directly.