Health · Atlanta
Atlanta Medical Center’s roots stretch back to a five-bed church infirmary
The Atlanta hospital known as Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center began in 1901 as a small infirmary founded by physician and pastor Len G. Broughton at Tabernacle Baptist Church.
By KLGBT News Desk ·
Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, formerly Georgia Baptist Hospital, was an Atlanta hospital operated by the Wellstar Health System. The facility had 460 beds and more than 700 physicians. Its services included Level I trauma care, advanced primary stroke care, a neurointensive care unit and a Level III neonatal intensive care unit.
The institution’s beginnings were considerably smaller. On Thanksgiving Day in 1901, Len G. Broughton, a physician who served as pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, established the Tabernacle Infirmary as a church program. It opened in a rented house with five beds, and Broughton was its only doctor.
The infirmary expanded during its first decade. By 1910, it had grown to 75 beds and had assembled a staff of physicians and surgeons. It also moved into its own building on Luckie Street, next to the Tabernacle. Broughton created a nurse training school connected to the infirmary, adding an educational component to the developing medical institution.
Broughton’s departure for London in 1912 was followed by a period of difficulty for the hospital. In 1913, the Georgia Baptist Convention purchased the institution for $85,000. Under the convention, it became Georgia Baptist Hospital and was managed by the Rev. James Long.
The Baptist organization was initially hesitant about taking on hospital operations, according to the historical account. Long nevertheless guided the organization through that transition, and the hospital became self-sufficient.
That early history traces the Atlanta institution from a small, church-supported infirmary to a large hospital with specialized emergency, neurological, stroke and neonatal services. It also places nursing education alongside patient care as part of the organization’s development from its earliest years.
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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://web.archive.org/web/20060908153811/http://www.mercer.edu/advancement/news/2000/1122nursingfacts.htm - https://www.wellstar.org/locations/pages/wellstar-atlanta-medical-center.aspx - https://viaf.org/viaf/136332673 - https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54823129/work-continues-while-head-nurse-moves/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20200706140016/https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160401005338/en/Tenet-Completes-Sale-Atlanta-Area-Hospitals-Related-Operations - https://www.wellstar.org/amc Image rights Photograph description: Fulton County Aviation Community Cultural Center Creator: Thomson M. License: CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFulton_County_Aviation_Community_Cultural_Center_-_panoramio.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.