A number of U.S. hospitals have noteworthy or interesting histories, but the following hospitals made great achievements in healthcare. All of these achievements have helped transform the industry in one way or another.
Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (Dallas) was founded in 1903, when it opened as Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium in a 14-room renovated house with 25 beds. The hospital was established with the help of a $50,000 gift from Colonel C.C. Slaughter, a wealthy cattleman and devout Baptist who gave an estimated $200,000 to the hospital throughout his lifetime. The hospital was renamed Baylor Hospital in 1921, then Baylor University Hospital in 1936. Today, nonprofit teaching hospital has 1,079 licensed beds, 1,146 physicians and is home to more than 20 specialty centers. It is also a national leader for organ transplants.
Charity Hospital (New Orleans) opened in 1736. At the time, it was called L’Hôpital des Pauvres de la Charité, according to The Times-Picayune. The hospital was the vision of former Louisiana governor and U.S. Senator Huey Long. The governor’s board, a legislative-chartered healthcare body and the Louisiana State University system controlled the hospital at one point or another. Charity Hospital closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Geisinger Medical Center (Danville, Pa.) is named after Abigail Geisinger, a wagon-maker’s daughter who built the hospital in the early 1900s at age 85. She told Harold Foss, MD, the hospital’s first surgeon and director, to “Make my hospital right; make it the best.” Dr. Foss helped grow the hospital from its original 70 beds to more than 300 beds, more than 500 employees and more than 11,000 patient admissions per year. Dr. Foss is now considered a prototype of the 20th century healthcare executive, as he balanced the roles of surgeon and chief of staff. Today, Geisinger Health System is one of the nation’s largest rural health services organizations.
Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center (Portland, Ore.) was founded in 1875 as Good Samaritan Hospital by the Rev. B. Wistar Morris, who came from Philadelphia to become the Episcopal Bishop of Oregon. He believed caring for he sick was “eminently Christian work” and raised money to build the hospital, which was established with 25 beds but no electricity nor elevators. Cows in a pasture behind the hospital provided milk for patients and staff.
Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) was founded in 1811 with the mission “to make state-of-the-art medical care available to the physically or mentally ill while affording improved opportunities for practical medical education.” Rev. John Bartlett, chaplain of the Almshouse in Boston, along with physicians and leading residents, organized a fundraising campaign. Donations ranged from 25 cents to $20,000, and one unique gift was a 273-pound sow. The first building opened in 1821, and the first patient was a saddler who had contracted syphilis in New York. In its first year of operation, the hospital became the first teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Highlights over the years include: the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia by William T.G. Morton and John Collins Warren (1846), the identification of appendicitis by Reginald Fitz (1886), the establishment of the first medical social service by Richard Cabot and Ida Cannon (1905) and the first replantation of a severed arm by a surgical team led by Ronald Malt (1962).
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (New York), an integrated academic health center, was created when The New York Hospital merged with The Presbyterian Hospital. Prior to the merger, The New York Hospital and The Presbyterian Hospital served residents in the New York metropolitan area. The New York Hospital’s roots date back to the late 1700s, when it was founded by a royal charter granted by King George III of England. British soldiers used the hospital as barracks while they occupied New York. It was the first hospital to use the Pap test to detect cervical cancer and the first in the tri-state area to operate a bloodless surgery program. Additionally, the hospital established the largest and busiest U.S. burn center, along with a world-renowned in-vitro fertilization program. The Presbyterian Hospital was founded in 1868. It was home to the Babies & Children’s Hospital, where the first pediatric heart transplant surgery was performed, as well as the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the few comprehensive cancer centers in the metropolitan area as designated by the National Cancer Institute.
Pennsylvania Hospital (Philadelphia) was founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond, MD. Its original intent was to care for the “sick-poor and insane of Philadelphia.” It cared for both Continental and British soldiers during the American Revolution. Today, the hospital, which has more than 500 beds, offers an array of diagnostic and therapeutic medical services and is known for its general and specialty surgical services. It is self-described as “an innovator in patient care, treatment techniques and medical research.”
St. Joseph‘s/Candler Health System (Savannah, Ga.), a faith-based, nonprofit health institution, is the result of a joint operating agreement, formed in 1997, between St. Joseph’s and Candler hospitals. But the hospitals have their own unique histories. St. Joseph’s Hospital, a 305-bed general acute-care facility, was founded in 1875 when the Sisters of Mercy took over the operations of the Forest City Marine Hospital. Candler Hospital, first chartered in 1804, is hailed as Georgia’s first hospital and the second oldest continuously operating U.S. hospital. Its beginnings are associated with the history of medicine in the earliest days of the colony of Georgia. It houses the Mary Telfair Women’s Hospital and the Nancy N. and J.C. Lewis Cancer and Research Pavilion.
