Background:The government has designated the public specialized medical centers for children to support children's hospitals. It announced that it will introduce a new payment system from 2023 to help the centers overcome financial difficulties. However, evidence on the medical capacities of the centers has been lacking. We aimed to investigate the medical capacities of the centers, comparing them with tertiary hospitals. Methods: We used data for 2021 of the National Medical Center and Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The medical capacities of nine centers were compared with 35 tertiary hospitals that were not designated as the centers. We checked the pediatric medical capacities in terms of two aspects: medical resources (facility, medical personnel) and services (case, spending, quality).Descriptive statistics and t-test were used for analyses.Results: All the centers met the criteria for the designation. There were several centers that did not have the specialists in the subspecialties of pediatrics or surgery. Compared with the hospitals not designated as the centers, the centers had a higher operating rate of pediatric intensive care units and more than twice as many pediatricians. And their medical cases and costs were more than double those of hospitals not designated as centers. The ratio of patients with complex chronic diseases was higher in centers. Conclusion:The government support for children's hospitals has been focused on investment in facilities until now. Additional government supports will be needed to help centers to continue to provide professional medical services.

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