UnityPoint Health - Blank Children's Hospital

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Information

Number of patients waiting reflects the current number of patients waiting to be seen. This number changes frequently and is not exact.

About Us

Blank Children's Hospital, a service of UnityPoint Health – Des Moines, is completely dedicated to meeting the unique health care needs of children. Blank Children's creates an environment that embraces and encourages families to be a part of their child's healing and recovery. Everything from equipment to decor is designed specifically for children.

Committed to Family-Centered Healing, Caring and Teaching

At Blank Children's Hospital, we embrace a family-centered care philosophy where families are recognized as the most important part of a child's healing process and are encouraged to be actively involved in patient care as the constant in children's lives. From spending the night in their child's room to family space and play areas, Blank Children's Hospital is full of amenities to make family involvement easy and comfortable. Our care philosophy has shown that children are less anxious, require less medication and recover faster.

Key Features

  • Medical equipment just the right size for kids.
  • Décor that's designed to be soothing to children and families.
  • Private, spacious inpatient rooms, which comfortably accommodate overnight stays by a family member.
  • Variety Neonatal Intensive Care Nursery - one of the first Level IIIB neonatal intensive care units anywhere to offer private rooms, enabling neonatal specialists to maximize each newborn’s growth and development potential while giving families the amenities necessary to stay and bond with their newborn.
  • Pediatric intensive care unit featuring the latest in pediatric critical care technology and treatment.
  • Hematology/Oncology unit where children in need of cancer treatment or hematology care are admitted.
  • Private conference rooms where families can meet with staff and make important decisions.

Hours & Location Details

Hours of Operation

  • Monday: Open 24 hours
  • Tuesday: Open 24 hours
  • Wednesday: Open 24 hours
  • Thursday: Open 24 hours
  • Friday: Open 24 hours
  • Saturday: Open 24 hours
  • Sunday: Open 24 hours


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Going Beyond Our Walls

Through our Center for Advocacy and Outreach, we have created several programs to help encourage health and safety among children and parents. Our primary initiatives include safety and injury prevention, community health and medical outreach. Our Medical Outreach team travels across the state to provide education for health care professionals and emergency medical services personnel that care for children in the most critical moments. Our goal is to ensure that all children in Iowa get the highest level of care when they need it most.

Community Commitment

Pediatric Residency Program

We are one of two hospitals in the state training future pediatricians. In doing so, we help ensure children into the future have access to specialized pediatric care.

Medical Training

Our medical training is not limited to our residency program. We offer future nurses, pharmacists, radiology technicians and Child Life Specialists the opportunity to learn and develop their skills. In doing so, we help to ensure Iowans have access to the best in pediatric care for years to come.

Center for Advocacy & Outreach

We believe in caring for all kids - those within our hospital walls and beyond. Programs that reach across our state are targeted in the key areas of advocacy, injury prevention, community health and medical outreach.

Specialized Pediatric Care
We are committed to offering children access to specialized pediatric care. We are continually recruiting for new providers to join Blank Children's Hospital in areas of need for patients.
Quality Care
Our health care providers are delivering high-quality care to patients. Quality care means patients get better faster and need less hospitalization. We strive to provide the best outcomes for every patient, every time we see them.
Financial Assistance
No child is ever turned away. We will provide care to any child in need, regardless of ability to pay. We work with many insurance providers, state programs and those without insurance to ensure they get the care they need.
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LGBTQ+ Healthcare Equality Leader

Creating a welcoming experience and environment is at the core of our mission, vision and values. We believe healthcare equality is paramount in being a leader in our community and beyond. UnityPoint Health - Des Moines' Central Iowa hospitals, including Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Blank Children's Hospital, Iowa Lutheran Hospital and Methodist West Hospital and Grinnell Regional Medical Center, have been named leaders in LGBTQ+ healthcare equality.
Learn More
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Certified Safe Sleep Hospital

Blank Children's Hospital is a designated Gold Certified Safe Sleep Hospital by Cribs for Kids®. As a Nationally Certified Safe Sleep Hospital, we are committed to best practices, patient education and community outreach in supporting safe infant sleep.
Learn more about infant safe sleep

The History of Blank Children's Hospital

Blank Children's Hospital has the distinction of being the only civilian hospital built during World War II. At that time, Iowa had the highest rate of polio among children of any state, but was one of only a few states that did not have a children's hospital to care for them. The A.H. and Anna Blank family built the original hospital in 1944, in honor of their son Raymond who died at a young age, to address the health care needs of Iowa's ill and injured children - and that legacy has continued for more than 75 years.

A Legacy of Giving

The Blank Family

A Legacy of Giving

A.H. and Anna Blank created the Raymond Blank Memorial Hospital for Children in 1944 in honor of their son, Raymond, who died at the young age of 33. Raymond Blank was the youngest Eagle Scout in America. He participated in the Geneva Peace Conference as a young reporter and was appointed by President Roosevelt to head the State Polio Foundation. During that time, he helped open a polio ward at Iowa Methodist Hospital. For most of his life he shared a deep love and concern for the well-being of all children. When he died, his family honored his memory by building Iowa's first children's hospital in 1944 - the Raymond Blank Memorial Hospital for Children.

Blank Children's Hospital was the only civilian hospital built during WWII because polio was raging across the state of Iowa. Today, it remains a treasure for Iowa's ill and injured children.

Since the beginning, the Blanks were a fixture at Blank Children's Hospital. A.H. Blank was known for his generous holiday parties for patients. Because the Blank family was in the movie theater business, they had connections at Disney. When the hospital opened, Mr. Blank made a call to Walt Disney requesting that some of his artists come to the hospital and paint murals. Those murals adorned the play room, where children were able to play and have fun. Throughout the years, those murals have been moved and placed behind Plexiglas for protection. Today, murals greet patients and families in the NICU, play room and in a conference room.

Other major supporters at Blank Children's Hospital were Myron "Mike" and Jackie Blank, Raymond's brother. Mike and Jackie continued the family tradition of giving with love. They understood the special needs of children's hospitals and why they required community support. Mike and Jackie were the first two persons to step forward when the Governing Board of Blank Children's Hospital determined the need for a "new" expanded, family-centered children's hospital in 2001.

Their generosity spear-headed a successful $8.4 million capital campaign, the largest central Iowa hospital campaign ever. Their generosity continues to live on today and into the future. Because Myron and Jackie were such dedicated supporters, when Myron died in 2005 he left Blank Children's Hospital a $5 million estate gift from his will. That gift helped launch the Blank Children's Hospital Wishes Endowment Campaign. Their generosity is evidenced in every part of our city and state - the zoo, the art center, university programs for talented and gifted, to name a few. But nowhere is their leadership and love for giving more appreciated than at Blank Children's Hospital. The smiles on our young patients' faces each and every day are testimony to how grateful we are.

Legacy of Care

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