Emory University Hospital: An Atlanta Medical Institution With More Than a Century of History

Emory University Hospital is an 853-bed hospital in Atlanta that provides care for acutely ill adults. Its physicians are members of the Emory University School of Medicine faculty and also practice through The Emory Clinic, linking the hospital’s clinical work with the university’s medical faculty.

The hospital is especially associated with several highly specialized areas of medicine. Those areas include cardiology and cardiac surgery, oncology, transplantation, ophthalmology and the neurosciences. Together, they place the institution among Atlanta’s prominent centers for complex adult care and specialized treatment.

The hospital’s institutional history reaches back more than a century. Its predecessor, Wesley Memorial Hospital, received its charter in March 1904 with 50 beds. At the time, the hospital operated from a mansion in downtown Atlanta. The building had survived the destruction associated with General Sherman’s army during the Civil War, giving the institution an early connection to the city’s long and often complicated physical history.

As the hospital expanded, its original quarters could no longer accommodate its operations. In November 1922, it relocated to the site it occupies today on the Emory University campus in DeKalb County. The new facility had 275 beds and was funded as a gift from Asa G. Candler, a philanthropist who founded The Coca-Cola Company.

The institution later adopted its current name. In the mid-1930s, Wesley Memorial Hospital became Emory University Hospital. Both the hospital and the university take their name from Bishop John Emory, who led a meeting of the Georgia Methodist Conference in 1834 at which delegates decided to establish the institution that would become Emory University.

For Atlanta residents, the hospital’s story reflects several stages of regional growth: an early downtown facility, a move to a university campus as demand increased, and the development of a large hospital centered on specialty care for adults. Its current structure also illustrates the close relationship between Emory University Hospital, Emory University School of Medicine and The Emory Clinic.

The available historical account does not describe the hospital’s services through an LGBTQ-specific lens. It does, however, provide a foundation for understanding one of the major medical institutions serving the Atlanta area, including the hospital’s capacity, academic staffing model, specialty focus and evolution from a small 1904 facility into a large university-affiliated hospital.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://news.yahoo.com/hospital-discuss-discharge-ebola-patients-100148319.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20110723201151/http://shared.web.emory.edu/emory/news/releases/2011/07/us-news-world-report-ranks-emory-among-nations-best-hospitals.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20140826223723/http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/special-hospital-unit-readies-ebola-patient-n169951 - https://web.archive.org/web/20140826223801/http://news.msn.com/us/atlanta-hospital-deemed-1-of-safest-for-ebola-care - https://news.yahoo.com/nurse-amber-vinson-free-of-ebola-virus-family-says-001502702.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20140821123100/http://news.yahoo.com/hospital-discuss-discharge-ebola-patients-100148319.html Image rights Photograph description: Emory University Hospital Midtown Atlanta, Georgia at 550 Peachtree Street Creator: Harrison Keely. License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEmory_University_Hospital_Midtown_Atlanta%2C_Georgia.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.