Distinctions and Designations for Stead Family Children's Hospital

University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the country’s “Best Children’s Hospitals.” 2024-25 rankings: 21 in neonatology, 25 in pediatric diabetes and endocrinology, 32 in pediatric nephrology, 34 i pediatric urology, 40 in pediatric neurology and neurosurgery, 41 i pediatric cancer, 47 i pediatric cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery, 50 in pediatric orthopedics, and top 50 in pediatric and adolescent behavioral health.

Stead Family Children’s Hospital has received this annual recognition for pediatric health care since 2009. Read October 8, 2024 press release.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), Aliso Viejo, Calif., recently conferred a gold-level Beacon Award for Excellence on University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Read December 2018 press release.

UI Health Care was the first hospital in Iowa to receive Magnet designation for nursing excellence, and one of only 55 nationally to be recognized four times. This designation is valid for a four-year period, and was first received in 2004, with renewals in 2008, 2013, 2018 and 2023.

Stead Family Children’s Hospital is home to Iowa’s Level IV NICU, the highest designation possible as defined by the American Academy of Pediatrics. This means we are equipped to care for the smallest and sickest infants. Our survival rates among all babies cared for in the NICU is more than 95 percent, which ranks among the best of any NICU in the country.

Stead Family Children’s Hospital is the first and only hospital in Iowa to earn designation as a Level 1 Trauma Center for pediatrics from the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons. This 2018 designation is valid for a three-year period and was first received in 2009-present.

Stead Family Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in Iowa recognized as a member of the Children’s Tumor Foundation Neurofibromatosis Clinic Network. Stead Family Children’s Hospital first became a member in 2010 and membership has been renewed annually since.

UI Health Care is home to the only burn treatment center in Iowa verified by the Committee on Trauma of the American College of Surgeons and the American Burn Association. This verification is valid for three years.

Stead Family Children's Hospital has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval^® for Palliative Care certification for the Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care program (2018). This two-year designation has been continued since it was first received in 2012. The Gold Seal of Approval is a symbol of quality for an organization’s commitment to providing safe and effective patient care.

OptumHealth Care Solutions designates our neonatal intensive care (2012) and pediatric bone marrow transplant (2008) services as “Centers of Excellence.” The pediatric heart transplant program received Transplant Access Program designation in 2008.

UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in Iowa accredited by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories for pediatric transthoracic, transesophageal, and fetal echocardiography. This accreditation is valid for a three-year period, and we have been continuously accredited since 2004. IAC accreditation is a means by which facilities can evaluate and demonstrate the level of patient care they provide. The common mission of IAC is: “Improving health care through accreditation”®

The federal Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities has designated the Center for Disabilities and Development as Iowa’s University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. This designation is valid for a five-year period, and was first received in 1972.