Public health informaticians are evaluating new data sources to optimize real-time surveillance for detecting disease outbreaks. Pediatric populations are often overlooked, but may provide important signals for many reportable and vaccine preventable diseases, as well as emerging infections. The ability of pediatric hospitals to contribute timely information to the identification of disease outbreaks has not been rigorously evaluated. We sought to determine the feasibility of leveraging data from pediatric hospitals to support national disease surveillance, by measuring: 1) the types of pediatric hospital records currently stored in electronic form and accessible to query; 2) the current automated reporting capabilities of pediatric hospitals; and 3) the attitudes of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) towards disease surveillance.