Rady Children’s Named Among Nation’s Ten Best Children’s Hospitals in U.S. News & World Report’s Annual Survey For Third Year in A Row (2025-26)
For the third year in a row, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego has been named by U.S. News & World Report to its 2025-2026 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll, a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals in the United States, and named by U.S. News as tied for the No. 1 pediatric hospital in California and the Pacific Region. Learn more.
Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego has been named by U.S. News & World Report to its Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll (2024-2025)
For the second year in a row, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego has been named by U.S. News & World Report to its Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll, a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals nationwide. Rady Children’s has also been named by U.S. News as tied for the No. 1 pediatric hospital in California and the Pacific Region. Rady Children’s had five specialties rank among the top 10 in the nation (Cardiology & Heart Surgery #3; Orthopedics #5; Neurology & Neurosurgery #8; Diabetes & Endocrinology #9 and Urology #10) and maintained its eight-year streak of achieving rankings in all specialties surveyed. Learn more.
Rady Children’s Achieves Its Best-Ever Rankings in Survey of Nation’s Top Children’s Hospitals (2023-24)
For the first time in its history, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego has been named by U.S. News & World Report to its 2023-2024 Best Children’s Hospitals Honor Roll, a distinction awarded to only 10 children’s hospitals nationwide. Rady Children’s had five specialties rank among the top 10 in the nation (Pediatric Cardiology & Heart Surgery #3; Orthopedics #6; Neonatology #7; Neurology & Neurosurgery #8; Diabetes & Endocrine Disorders #8) and maintained its seven-year streak of achieving rankings in all 10 specialties surveyed. Only 23 hospitals nationwide were ranked in all 10 specialties. Learn more.
Rady Children’s Influential Leaders Recognized in San Diego Business Journal
Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Assets Trust Ernest Rady; Rady Children’s President & Chief Executive Officer Patrick Frias, MD; and Rady Children’s Senior Vice President & Chief External Affairs Officer Stephen Jennings were named to San Diego Business Journal’s SD500 Most Influential Business Leaders.
Rady Children’s Named 2022 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired
Rady Children’s once again been named a CHIME Digital Health Most Wired organization. The survey and recognition program serves as a “Digital Health Check-Up” for health care organizations across the world. This year, the Hospital earned “Acute-Level 8” and “Ambulatory-Level 9” designations, a level up in both categories from 2021. As success in digital health increasingly determines the quality of patient care, the survey reflects the progress of leading health care providers as they reinvent health care for a new century. Learn more.
President and CEO Patrick Frias, M.D., Honored with Transformative CEO Award
Patrick Frias, M.D., Rady Children’s president & CEO, received The CEO Forum Group’s Transformative CEO Award for Top 10 Cultures in the category of Children’s Hospitals. This honor is bestowed for achieving a mission-first, people-always culture including powerful initiatives like cross-training. Learn more.
Researchers Receive $3.14 Million NIH Grant for Better Imaging During Pediatric Heart Procedures
Engineers and physicians from Rady Children’s and UC San Diego have received a $3.14 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to help make MRIs a viable option for imaging during heart procedures in children. The team includes Dr. Howaida El-Said, Francisco Contijoch, an assistant professor of bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, and Dr. Sanjeet Hegde. Learn more.
President and CEO Patrick Frias, M.D., Named CEO of the Year
Rady Children’s President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Frias, M.D., was among the community leaders awarded San Diego Business Journal’s 2022 CEO of the Year. Patrick often says, “Mission First. People Always.” And that is his true north when making any important decision. He considers the mission first – in our Hospital’s case, taking care of the kids – while remembering that it is the people who carry out that mission and determine the success of the organization. Patrick has helped guide Rady Children’s through the highs and lows of the past several years, and we are grateful for his unwavering support of our mission and staff.
Rady Children’s PICU Receives AACN Gold Designation (2022)
The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses has once again awarded our PICU the GOLD-level designation of the Beacon Award for Excellence! Only four PICUs in California and 12 nationwide have this designation. The Beacon Award for Excellence is a testament to a team’s commitment to providing safe, patient-centered and evidence-based care to patients and families. Creating healthy and supportive work environments empowers nurses and other team members to make their optimal contribution.
Murrieta Facility Honored
The Menifee Valley Chamber of Commerce honored Rady Children’s Murrieta facility with the 2021 Board of Directors’ Spirit Award at its 43rd Annual Awards Gala. Cheryl Fuchigami-Bost, RN, SHRM-CP, CMPE, business development director of Rady Children’s Physician Management Services, accepted this award on Rady Children’s behalf.
James Uli Wins CFO of the Year Award
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer James Uli was awarded San Diego Business Journal’s 2022 Chief Financial Officer of the Year in the Nonprofit Organization category. Uli joined the Hospital in early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began. During turbulent economic times, he has demonstrated incredible perseverance and resiliency in maintaining the organization’s financial stability. The Hospital did not close any programs, lay off employees or delay a major campus expansion project. Instead, Uli looked thoughtfully at strategic resource allocation over the next 10 years, carefully considering how the Hospital could achieve post-pandemic longevity. Learn more.
Gail Knight, Nicholas Holmes Honored as Black Leaders of Influence
Rady Children’s Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Gail Knight, M.D., M.M.M., and Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Nicholas Holmes, M.D., M.B.A. were both selected among San Diego Business Journal’s 2022 Black Leaders of Influence Top 50. Dr. Knight was the first Black woman named the organization’s chief of staff and clinical director for the Division of Neonatology. In nearly 28 years of working in health care, she has cared for newborns, providing critical care at San Diego’s only Level 4 neonatal intensive care unit. Dr. Holmes has been senior vice president and chief operating officer at Rady Children’s since October 2014. In 2017, he was among the first cohort of physicians to become board certified in administrative medicine by the American Board of Physician Specialties. Learn more.
Rady Children’s Recognized as “Great Place to Work”
Thanks to our Rady Children’s family, Rady Children’s Hospital has earned Great Place to Work® Certification™. This is a badge of honor that validates the employee experience and the great workplace culture we’ve built. To be an employer of choice, it’s important that we are always improving to attract and retain top talent. We are so proud of our amazing team!
Rady Children’s Hospital Voted Best Hospital in San Diego
Rady Children’s has been voted as the Best Hospital in San Diego for 2021 by the San Diego Reader. Each year, the Reader holds voting for their “Best of” awards, where top businesses spanning all industries are chosen by San Diego residents There are over 1 million visits to the voting platform.
Rady Children’s Named 2021 Digital Health “Most Wired”
Rady Children’s has earned 2021 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired recognition as a certified level 7 acute hospital by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how effectively health care organizations apply core and advanced technologies into their clinical and business programs to improve health and care in their communities.
Rady Children’s Named Among World’s Best Specialized Hospitals
Rady Children’s has been recognized as one of the World’s Best Specialized Hospitals of 2022 by Newsweek magazine. Newsweek partnered with global research firm Statista and invited more than 40,000 medical experts—including doctors, hospital managers and health care professionals—to participate in online surveys that allowed them to recommend and assess various hospitals within their respective specializations. The results of the survey were then validated by a global board of renowned medical experts. Rady Children’s was ranked in the pediatric specialty. Learn more.
Hospital Honored for Emergency Care
Rady Children’s is among 33 hospitals nationwide to receive the ENA Lantern Award from the Emergency Nurses Association. The award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate excellent practice and innovative performance through leadership, education, advocacy and research. This year’s recipients were recognized for many accomplishments, including efforts to improve patient mortality from severe sepsis and septic shock; better clinical outcomes and quality of life for stroke patients; and developing efficiencies for the triage process during high patient volume times.
Dr. Cannavino Honored with Distinguished Teaching Award
Congratulations to Chris Cannavino, M.D., on receiving the 2021 Barbara and Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award, which is given to up to five members of the Academic Senate, three non-Senate faculty members and three graduate students at UC San Diego each year. The UC San Diego Committee on Distinguished Teaching seeks to select award recipients who exhibit creativity, innovative teaching methods and the ability to motivate students, and who actively seek out knowledge and demonstrate an extraordinary level of teaching commitment.
Hospital Earns National Asthma Award
To mark Asthma Awareness Month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has honored Rady Children’s Hospital–San Diego and the Central California Asthma Collaborative’s Asthma Impact Model Program with the 2021 National Environmental Leadership in Asthma Management Award. The award recognizes the organizations for their leadership in promoting environmental asthma management as part of comprehensive asthma care in the communities they serve. Learn more.