Shriners Children's Chicago

Great care and best medical help for children who qualify, regardless of ability to pay.

Shriners really understands what it means to be the best children's hospital. I only heard about them during one of their outreaches at a local fall festival and I'm so glad, but also honestly so shocked. Luries is a hospital everyone hears about, but while Luries loves to tout itself as the best, I would argue that they love to brag, but Shriners is the quiet, consistent, humble, money-where-your-mouth-is hospital that you, as a parent reading this review, actually wants. First, they actually understand children and their fears and how to not manhandle a scared child into submission but to get their buy-in, so their bedside manner with kids is stellar, unlike the other top names (Luries, Shirley Ryan, U of C, Rush, Loyola. Loyola's handling of our child for an MRI actually had us deal with PTSD for our kid and fear of doctors for another 9 months of doctors- about 20 appointments of anxiety because of that; an additional 6 months from Luries'). Kids have far fewer fears about procedures with gentle and kind para staff who are willing to take the extra minute to assuage a child's fears. Shriners had my daughter laughing for radiographs where U of C held my daughter's arms down as she was screaming, crying, and trying to get away because she didn't feel safe. Additionally, it seems there is always something magical happening at this hospital. Want to pet a pony or meet a superhero? It's happening when you're there! This is enough for practically any younger child to forget to be nervous and become genuinely excited to be at this hospital. Of greater importance is their medicine. They have some of the top names in the specialty fields and they are excellent in their respective specialties.The services and diagnostic workup they offer in these fields fields are bar none. If that wasn't enough, they even understand parents and their needs! I feel like this is the unicorn of hospitals, no kidding. Originally when I began this medical journey with my child, I had to scale down my work to part time to fit in all the doctor appointments (because I didn't know about Shriners back then), which took 9 months to schedule each, were in separate Luries/Rush/Northwestern/Shirley Ryan offices (each of these places had many offices and it was no exaggeration that I was spending more than an hour on the road to many of them), and each appointment was a separate day. God forbid there be an accident on the highway, or you've spent hours on the road and no doctor appointment to show for it with a fee because you couldn't make it on time due to the road conditions (*cough Luries cough*). I couldn't believe Shriners could/does get multiple doctors on the schedule and synced up all for one day of appointments. I'm now able to go back to working more thanks to this, and that helps our situation significantly, and our daughter thinks this hospital is like Disney World, which for a kid with multiple MRIs and blood draws and tests galore, that says something!!! If you have not been to Shriners yet, I cannot recommend it highly enough. From a parent who has been around the medical block and can tell you the ins and outs, pros and cons of each... You really need to go to Shriners. Nothing I have seen can compare to this hospital... It is really one of a kind.

Amazing children's hospital. Most friendly doctors and staff. Very affordable for children. Gorgeous facility. So clean and tidy. So may things for the children to do. If you have a child who needs medical help call a shriners hospital to see if they can get the help needed.

Amazing staff. Verry helpful and kind.