Shriners Hospitals For Children
The Shrine's charitable arm is the Shriners Hospitals for Children, a network of twenty-two hospitals in the United States, Mexico and Canada. In June 1920, the Imperial Council Session voted to establish a "Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children." The goal of this hospital was to treat orthopedic injuries, diseases, and birth defects in children. After lots of research and debate, the committee chosen to determine the site of the hospital decided there should be not just one hospital but a network of hospitals spread across North America. The first hospital was opened in 1922 in Shreveport, LA and by the end of the decade thirteen more hospitals were in operation. They now deal with orthopedic care, burn treatment, cleft lip and palate care and spinal cord injury rehabilitation. The rules for all of the Shriners Hospitals are simple and to the point: Any child can be admitted to the hospital if, in the opinion of the surgeons, the child can be treated and is under the age of 18. Until June 2012, all treatment offered at Shriner's Hospitals for Children was offered without any financial obligation to patients and their families. At that time, because the size of their endowment had decreased due to losses in the stock market, the Shriners started billing patient's insurance companies, but still offered free care to those that didn't have insurance. There is no requirement for religion, race, or relationship to a Shriner. Patients must be under the age of eighteen and treatable.
In 2008, Shriners Hospitals had a total budget of $826 million and in 2007 they approved 39,454 new patient applications, attended to the needs of 125,125 patients.
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