Hahnemann Hospital Firsts
Chelsey Webber-Brandis
1848 Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital opens in Philadelphia. Named after Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, Hahnemann University Hospital is the first homeopathic medical college and hospital in the US.
professor Rufus B. Weaver 1888 Hahnemann performs the world’s first complete nervous system dissection.
1920
Hahnemann opens the country’s first school of X-ray technology.
1928 A new Hahnemann Hospital building is built at 230 North Broad Street. Consisting of 20 stories and 735 beds, it is the first “skyscraper” teaching hospital in the US.
Hahnemann Medical College admits its first female students.
1941 1948
The Cardiovascular Research Institute (CVI) organizes at Hahnemann, resulting in the world’s first successful closed-heart valvular surgery performed by Dr. Charles P. Bailey.
1957
Dr. Charles P. Bailey is featured on the cover of Time magazine for his pioneering cardiac work.
1963
Hahnemann University Hospital performs the region’s first kidney transplant.
1967 Creative Arts Therapy programs begin at Hahnemann, the world’s first graduate level art therapy education program.
1970
Hahnemann establishes the first major outpatient dialysis unit in Pennsylvania.
1971
The Physician Assistant program is established by Hahnemann Medical College graduates and Hospital faculty members. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest, and the first of its kind in Pennsylvania.
1976
Physicians at Hahnemann perform one of the region’s first bone marrow transplants to treat a 19-year old with leukemia.
1986
Hahnemann’s freshly constructed Charles C. Wolferth Trauma Center becomes Philadelphia’s first designated-Level 1 Trauma Center for adults. The University MedEvac became the region’s first air medical program.
1998
Hahnemann is one of eight area hospitals (operated under Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation at the time) to declare bankruptcy, the nation’s largest bankruptcy case involving nonprofit health-care. Hahnemann is later bought out by Tenet Healthcare Corp., a for-profit firm.
2001
Hahnemann performs the regions first and only artificial heart implant.
Hahnemann becomes the first hospital in the region to offer HOPE Act organ transplantation services.
2016
The hospital becomes the first academic medical center in the region to offer a transgender surgical program.
2017
Hahnemann becomes the first academic medical center in the region and the second in the US to offer a transgender surgery fellowship.
Philadelphia Academic Health System, LLC, Hahnemann’s parent company, files for bankruptcy in Delaware Federal Bankruptcy court case # 19-1146.
2019
The hospital discharges its last patient by September 6th and closes its doors permanently. A yearly patient roster of 40,000+ patients, 2,500+ staff, and 575 physicians training as residents or fellows are displaced- the largest displacement in United States History.
Front photo by Elizabeth Robertson, Back photo unkown photographer
Chelsey.Brandis