Rajah News - October 2022

RAJAH SHRINERS
THE STORY OF A TRADITION, BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
The History of Shriners Hospitals for Children, Part 2
Ill. Sir
Greg Lewis, PP
The year of 2022 is very significant
in the history of Shriners International,
Shriners Children’s Hospitals and
Rajah Shrine. This is the fourth article
in a series published this year in an
effort to bring you a history of one
of the greatest fraternal organizations
that exists today.
In the articles published in previous
editions we looked at the history of
Shriners International and the history of
Rajah Shrine. A third article was the first of two parts dedicated
to the founding of the Shriners Hospitals for Children. Now
we present Part 2, which addresses the history of the Shriners
Children’s Network of Health Facilities.
Breaking New Ground When Shriners Children’s was
established in 1922, it was among the first specialized orthopedic
hospitals in North
In 1966 Shriners open first Burn
Institute in Galveston, TX
We Are All In This Together Every one of the more than one-half million
Shriners from around the globe are all committed to the preservation and
growth of this, “The World’s Greatest Philanthropy.” Each year, through their
hospital dues assessment and the hundreds of fund-raising events, full support
of this great cause is on display, exhibiting that “No man ever stands so tall as
when he stoops to help a child in need.”
Shriner's hospitals were pioneers in child
orthopedic care
America. Its pioneering effort in this field soon established them as authoritative figures
in the medical world. Many orthopedic surgeons had part of their training at a Shriners
Hospital and the same educational opportunity is still available to this day. As general
orthopedic medicine advanced and infections and polio were virtually eliminated,
Shriners Hospitals found themselves treating the more complicated, specialized cases
that could not be adequately treated by many local hospital facilities.
In the early 1960’s, Shriners entered two new fields. The collating of all Shrine
medical records, enabling the beginning of an orthopedic research program, additionally
the Shrine moved into the almost unexplored field of severe burn treatment for children,
by establishing their own Shriners Burns Institutes.
Today, Shriners Children’s continues its work on the causes and cures of crippling
diseases and the cause of and cures for scarring with their extensive burn research.
A New Name – A New Strategy Our Great Philanthropy finds itself in
an ever-changing landscape of healthcare. True to our aim of serving more
kids in more places, last year we saw more children than ever before, but
the majority did not receive in-patient care. As a result of the changing care
patterns in pediatric health care,
five of our facilities no longer
offer inpatient services, although the care they provide is still transformative in the lives
of these children and their families. We anticipate even more joining that number in the
near future. As a result, many states’ regulatory bodies will no longer allow us to use
our corporate name, Shriners Hospitals for Children, to describe the care we provide in
an outpatient setting. Shriners Hospitals for Children has traditionally had a very strong
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