[3] The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21[4][5][6] throughout Ohio and surrounding regions.

[19][20] On March 16, 2002, 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil was struck in the head by a deflected puck during a Columbus Blue Jackets' game against the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena.

[21] The family sued the Blue Jackets, the NHL, and the Nationwide Children's Hospital for failing to detect a torn artery.

[22] In 2003, Children's began an $80 million, 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) clinical expansion and started renovating 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of existing space.

The transplant was performed successfully, by the Children's Hospital Heart Center team led by Dr. Mark Galantowicz.

The hospital system has 125 specialties within its main downtown campus and its 34 outpatient care centers throughout the central Ohio area.

[28] Six Close To Home Centers in Canal Winchester, Dublin, Downtown, East Columbus, Marysville and Westerville offer urgent care services.

The system also has an urgent care center that offers immediate treatment for illnesses and injuries that do not require hospital emergency department attention.

[31] Organized research began after World War II with the recognition of E. coli III as a source and cause of epidemic diarrhea, and the development of a treatment for histoplasmosis.

[33] Nationwide Children's Hospital houses the Department of Pediatrics for The Ohio State University College of Medicine.

It is a teaching hospital offering nationally recognized pediatric residencies and fellowships in medical and surgical specialties.

Dr. Bruce Graham became chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at OSU and the medical director of the hospital in 1964 and was the first to combine the two positions.

Nationwide Children's Hospital is home to the International Symposium on the Hybrid Approach to Congenital Heart Disease (ISHAC).

[36] As of 2023, Nationwide Children's Hospital has placed nationally in all 10 ranked pediatric specialties on U.S. News & World Report for 10 years in a row.

In 2008, Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus planned to rename its emergency department the Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department and Trauma Center in exchange for a $10 million donation from Abercrombie & Fitch, a locally based retail clothing corporation.

[38] A letter written by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and signed by over 100 doctors and children's advocacy groups urged the hospital not to go ahead with the renaming, arguing that, "Given this company's appalling history of targeting children with sexualized marketing and clothing, no public health institution should be advertising Abercrombie & Fitch.

"[39][40] People all over the United States questioned the ethics of allowing a pediatric emergency room to be named after a clothing company.