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By BETH CHAPMAN | Guest Columnist

The one word we in Alabama want and need to hear when a child needs serious medical attention is “Children’s.”

At Children’s Hospital of Alabama, we know a child will receive the absolute best healthcare and most up-to-date medical treatment available.

U.S. News & World Report has again recognized that fact and named Children’s of Alabama in a three-way tie for the best pediatric hospital in the southeast. Children’s tied with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Monroe Carell, Jr. Children’s Hospital of Vanderbilt.

This is the 13th consecutive year Children’s of Alabama has participated in the U.S. News & World Report rankings program, and it is the 13th consecutive year it has been included in the rankings among the best children’s hospitals in the Southeast.

This comes as no surprise to any of us who have ever taken a child there for medical care and received world-class treatment.

When I worked for the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Foundation for 10 years, all the children we worked with were patients at Children’s. There’s no question these young patients received some of the best healthcare care in the world.

As I traveled to conferences across the country, it was Children’s Hospital of Alabama that scientists referenced for its ground-breaking research and state-of-the-art treatment centers – not just for CF, but for multiple illnesses and diagnoses.

Children’s Hospital of Alabama scored in the top 50 nationally on all 10 of the following services which are considered in the ranking: cancer; cardiology and heart surgery; diabetes and endocrinology; gastroenterology and gastrointestinal surgery; neonatology; nephrology; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; pulmonology; and urology.

Children’s is a clinical and educational arm of the UAB School of Medicine. The hospital has provided specialized care for children via inpatient and outpatient medical services since 1911 throughout central Alabama.

Children’s Hospital of Alabama is a private, non-profit 501 (c) (3) medical center. It is the teaching hospital for UAB Medical School’s pediatric medicine, surgery, psychiatry, research and residency programs. The medical staff consists of Children’s full-time physicians, faculty members of UAB and private practicing physicians in the community.

I hope you never have a sick or injured child, but if you do and you hear a doctor say, “Go to Children’s,” just go there. You’ll be glad you did because your child will get the best medical care available.