University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and Columbus-based Nationwide Children's Hospital are expanding their pediatric partnership beyond heart surgery, announcing plans to jointly recruit specialists and build out ambulatory care access across Northeast Ohio. The move builds on a decade-long affiliation between the two systems that began with a congenital heart program in 2015 and is now growing into a broader shared pediatric model covering staffing, facilities, and services for families across the region.
As reported by Cleveland.com, UH CEO Dr. Cliff Megerian framed the expanded collaboration as a response to a shifting pediatric medicine landscape in the region. “Pediatric medicine in Northeast Ohio is in a period of transition and transformation,” Megerian said, adding that “our combined collective strength will bring the highest level of care to the children and their families across the region.” The expanded collaborative is meant to develop services and strengthen capacity for patients, families, and caregivers, according to the same report.
Marissa Kiefer, president of UH Rainbow and UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, will oversee day-to-day operations of the collaborative, per Cleveland.com's account. Nationwide Children's president and CEO Tim Robinson said the Columbus hospital is “pleased to expand our long-standing affiliation with University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children to enhance access to outstanding pediatric care close to home.” The two systems plan to jointly recruit talent and invest in facilities and services, with the stated goal of developing pediatric-specific ambulatory offerings that attract top specialists, the outlet reported.
A Decade of Shared Heart Care Already Shows Results
The roots of this partnership trace back to the Congenital Heart Collaborative, launched in 2015, the station's report notes. That program has already produced measurable results: pediatric congenital heart surgery patients at UH Rainbow achieved a 100% survival rate between July 2020 and June 2024, according to University Hospitals, compared to a national benchmark mortality rate of 2.69 percent across accredited U.S. centers tracked by the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
The two hospitals are expanding their pediatric collaboration beyond cardiac care.
Two Systems With National Rankings on the Line
Both hospitals bring substantial national standing to the table. Nationwide Children's Hospital was named to U.S. News & World Report's Top 10 Honor Roll for Best Children's Hospitals for the 2025–26 ranking period, according to PedJobs. The Columbus hospital, affiliated with The Ohio State University College of Medicine, employs more than 16,000 healthcare staff members as of 2025, per Wikipedia and an AAP employer profile.
UH Rainbow, meanwhile, ranked among the top 50 pediatric hospitals nationwide across all 11 evaluated specialties in the 2024–25 U.S. News rankings, placing third overall in Ohio, according to PracticeMatch. The Cleveland hospital operates a 244-bed pediatric academic medical center and runs northern Ohio's only verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center, a status it has maintained for more than 30 years, as Hoodline previously reported.
Local Competition Looms Large
The expanded partnership arrives amid intensifying competition in the Northeast Ohio pediatric market. In the U.S. News 2026–27 pediatric rankings, rival Cleveland Clinic Children's ranked 18th nationally in pediatric cardiology and heart surgery and 13th in neonatology, according to WKYC, making the Cleveland Clinic system UH Rainbow's primary local rival. Nationwide Children's has also been pushing hard into ambulatory infrastructure on its own turf, announcing plans in September for a 215,000-square-foot outpatient campus in New Albany, Ohio, Hoodline reported.
The two systems already collaborate well beyond cardiac care. In September, both UH Rainbow and Nationwide Children's joined the Preventing Youth Suicide Global Collaborative, an international initiative spanning children's hospitals in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. aimed at standardizing risk screening and behavioral health care, according to the Children's Hospital Association. Youth suicide and self-injury accounted for 34 percent of children's hospital emergency department visits in 2024, per the same source.
A History of Cross-System Cooperation in Ohio
UH Rainbow and Nationwide Children's also sit among the founding members of the Children's Hospitals' Solutions for Patient Safety, a collaborative launched in 2009 by eight Ohio pediatric health systems. State officials announced in May 2025 that the effort has spared more than 30,000 children from serious harm and saved an estimated $668.4 million in healthcare costs, according to the Ohio House of Representatives. What started with eight Ohio hospitals has since grown into a network of more than 150 pediatric hospitals across North America.
The expansion announcement comes weeks after former UH Rainbow surgeon-in-chief Dr. Edward Barksdale Jr. filed a federal lawsuit against University Hospitals alleging racial discrimination, harassment, and retaliation during his tenure, as Hoodline reported in a prior report on the lawsuit. Details on how the expanded collaboration's finances and governance will be structured, including specific site selections for the new ambulatory facilities, have not yet been disclosed.
