Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is a 628-bed flagship academic medical center, and the only locally based academic medical center in central Pennsylvania. The medical center was first ideated in 1963. The M.S. Hershey Foundation contributed a $50 million gift and the U.S. Public Health Service added $21.3 million to build Penn State College of Medicine and the medical center, which opened in 1970. Hershey Medical Center is home to the region’s only nationally verified level 1 trauma center for both children and adults, and shares its campus with the Penn State Cancer Institute, Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Health Golisano Children’s Hospital, the most comprehensive children’s hospital between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The medical center has a long history of innovation in artificial heart technology, dating back to the 1970s, when researchers created the Penn State heart-assist pump, used as a bridge to cardiac transplantation. In partnership with Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey Medical Center faculty continue to advance research in artificial organs, diagnostics, cancer treatments and the fundamental causes of disease. Hershey Medical Center has also been named to Newsweek‘s World’s Best Hospitals list for 2026.
