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Organization Milestones
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History
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Daily Bread
I will praise the LORD all my life. Psalm 146:2 |
What started as a 150-bed medical center in the heart of Memphis has grown into a multi-state health care organization serving the heart of the Mid-South. About 13,000 people work within the Baptist system providing quality health care to patients and their families. Here are some of the highlights of Baptist's 90-plus years of service:
 1906: A proposed Baptist hospital in Memphis is first mentioned. 1908: A board of trustees comprising representatives from Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi is organized on March 11. Its main concern is raising money to open the hospital. 1912: The 150-bed Baptist Memorial Hospital opens. Opened on July 22, the seven-story building was built at a cost of $235,000. 1918: A 100-bed south wing is erected at a cost of $273,000, increasing the hospital capacity to 250 beds. 1920: A new east wing is completed at a cost of about $270,000. 1922: Baptist is the largest privately owned hospital in the South. 1935: Baptist is the first hospital in the Mid-South to offer physical therapy. 1937: An eight-story pavilion is added on the south side of Baptist, providing space for hospital offices on the first floor and increasing bed capacity to 500. 1947: Baptist is one of the first hospitals in the country to install automatic elevators. 1950: In August, Baptist records an all-time high for hospital occupancy. Daily average occupancy is 514, 98 percent for the 525-bed facility. A record 23,223 patients are cared for during this year, and of those, 7,231 received free treatment at a cost of $298,199. 1953: Baptist breaks ground on the Madison East hospital addition. 1955: Baptist is the first in the region to install air conditioning when the Madison East Building is completed. 1955: On July 20, a record 613 patients are cared for at Baptist. 1956: The much-anticipated new 13-story Madison East addition opens, bringing the hospital bed capacity to 800. 1958: The Baptist Medical Building, a 10-story office building for doctors at the corner of Dudley and Monroe streets in downtown Memphis, opens. 1959: Baptist is the first Mid-South hospital, and among the first 10 in the nation, to establish a satellite unit, the Regional Rehabilitation Center. 1960: Baptist opens a 22-bed intensive care unit. 1960: Baptist is the first hospital in the nation to install a computer for accounts billing. 1964: The Medical Center Plaza Building opens, which includes new hotel facilities for patient families. 1967: An 18-story addition to the Union East Unit opens, bringing the hospital's bed capacity to 1,825. 1969: The American Hospital Association releases statistics that show Baptist is the third-largest hospital in the nation in terms of patient admissions. 1971: Baptist opens a newborn intensive care unit. 1974: Baptist is the first hospital in Memphis and only the third in the country to install a first generation unit of an EMI/CAT head-only scanner. 1979: Baptist Memorial Hospital-East, a sister hospital to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Medical Center, opens to meet patient demand in rapidly growing East Shelby County, Tennessee. 1979: Obstetric services move from Baptist Medical Center to Baptist East on Father's Day. 1980: Baptist acquires a hospital in Ripley, Tenn. (Lauderdale County) 1981: Baptist Memorial Health Care System Inc., a multi-hospital system with Baptist Memorial Hospital-Medical Center as the flagship institution, is established. 1981: Baptist acquires a hospital in Covington, Tenn. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-Tipton) 1982: There are a total of 2,068 licensed beds at Baptist. 1982: Baptist Memorial Hospital-Lauderdale is rebuilt. 1982: Baptist acquires a hospital in Booneville, Miss. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-Booneville) 1982: Baptist acquires a hospital in Union City, Tenn. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City) 1983: Baptist acquires a hospital in Huntingdon, Tenn. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-Huntingdon) 1983: Baptist acquires a hospital in Forrest City, Ark. 1986: Baptist Forrest City gets a new facility. 1988: Baptist builds a hospital in Southaven, Miss. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto) 1989: Baptist acquires a hospital in Oxford, Miss. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi) 1989: Baptist acquires a hospital in New Albany, Miss. (Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County) 1990: Baptist acquires twin hospitals in Osceola (Baptist Memorial Hosptial-Osceola) and Blytheville, Ark. (Baptist Memorial Hosptial-Blytheville) 1993: Baptist acquires a hospital in Columbus, Miss. (Baptist Memorial Hosptial-Golden Triangle) 1997: Baptist announces plans for a $400 million expansion project, and a merger begins with Memphis' St. Joseph Hospital. Plans are announced for a freestanding women's hospital and a Baptist Heart Institute on the campus of Baptist East. 1999: Baptist opens a new hospital in Collierville, Tenn. (Baptist Memorial Hosptial-Collierville) 2000: The last patients at the Medical Center are transferred on Nov. 17. 2001: The University of Tennessee, the newly formed Memphis Biotech Foundation, and Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation reach a series of preliminary agreements on a major gift of land and facilities and the establishment of a new biotechnology research park on the Medical Center campus of Baptist Memorial Health Care. The Memphis Biotech Foundation, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) and Baptist will become partners in the UT-Baptist Research Park, a project that will extend Baptist's traditional mission in the Medical Center. 2001: Baptist East officially changes its name to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis. 2001: The Baptist Heart Institute opens on the Baptist Memphis campus. 2001: Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women, one of only a few freestanding women's hospitals in the country, opens on the Baptist Memphis campus. Unparalleled in the Mid-South, the hospital meets the needs of women through every stage of life and health, offering innovative services and technology, as well as the comforts and conveniences of home. 2002: Baptist announces a $175 million expansion project at Baptist DeSoto. The certificate of need filed by Baptist becomes the largest in Mississippi history. 2002: Baptist Memorial Health Care helps Schneider Children’s Hospital in New Hyde Park, New York, open The Center for H.O.P.E. (Healing, Opportunity, Perseverance, Enlightenment), a grief center created to help children and their families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. 2003: Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation grant of $1.16 million enables the January opening of the Baptist Comprehensive Breast Center at the Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women. 2003: February, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Collierville breaks ground on a two-story, 60,000-square-foot medical office building. 2003: Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi completes its expansion project in March. The approximately 100,000-square-foot expansion includes a new entrance, a new Emergency department, consolidation of noninvasive cardiac services on one floor and underground parking. 2003: Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis becomes the first hospital in the Mid-South to own a new robotic surgery device called the da Vinci.® The machine gives surgeons new ways to perform prostate and gynecological surgeries, as well as certain types of open-heart surgery without opening the chest. 2003: Cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon Dr. Ed Garrett Jr. performs the 200th heart transplant at Baptist in August. 2004: According to a study by The University of Memphis’ Sparks Bureau of Business and Economic Research, Baptist Memorial Health Care has a combined economic impact of more than $2 billion, supports more than 20,500 jobs and generates a total of nearly $191 million in local, state and federal tax money in the Mid-South community. 2004: The Baptist Heart Institute is one of the first in the country to use Stereotaxis, a revolutionary new treatment for abnormal heart rhythms. Stereotaxis uses magnets to navigate catheters through complex artery systems, allowing doctors greater accuracy, decreased procedure time and the ability to access hard-to-reach areas of the heart. 2004: At 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 6, Baptist colleagues and the Mid-South community witness the implosion of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Medical Center’s patient tower. The demolition of the 21-story building requires about 800 pounds of explosives and takes about 21 seconds. The demolition occurs five years after the facility closed, and marks a significant step forward in the creation of the UT-Baptist Research Park. 2004: Baptist begins installing an integrated electronic clinical information system for six Baptist Memorial hospitals. It is the largest project in size, scope and magnitude Baptist has undertaken since opening Baptist Memorial Hospital in 1912. The multiyear project moves Baptist closer to a paperless environment, with electronic patient charting and documentation and automated delivery systems at Baptist’s largest hospitals. 2004: Made possible by a grant of nearly $1 million from the Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation, the Baptist Trinity Center for Good Grief opens, providing comprehensive bereavement counseling and programs for children, adolescents and adults in the Mid-South free of charge. 2005: Baptist Memorial Hospital-Collierville begins offering a computer-assisted navigation system for orthopedic surgeries. Called StealthStation, the technology visually guides surgeons through complicated operative procedures, such as knee and hip surgeries, giving surgeons the ability to more clearly pinpoint correct alignment. 2005: Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle opens its new 167,000-square-foot bed tower. The facility features 151 private patient rooms and a new labor and delivery wing. 2005: Physicians at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis successfully perform the hospital’s first allogeneic stem cell transplant, curing a patient of cancer and sickle cell disease. 2005: Baptist Memorial Health Care officially unveils its signature community outreach program, the Baptist “Operation Outreach” health care van for the homeless. The mobile clinic brings much-needed health care services to the homeless in Memphis. 2005: Baptist’s heart and lung transplant program celebrates its 20th anniversary. Since the program’s beginning in 1985, Baptist physicians have performed more than 230 heart transplants, and the Baptist Heart Institute continues to meet or exceed national 1-, 5- and 10-year heart transplant survival rates. 2005: Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women wins the Memphis Business Journal’s Best Places to Work award for large companies. 2006: Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto opens its 400,000-square-foot, 11-story patient tower. The tower adds 140 acute and critical care beds to the hospital, allowing it to offer all private rooms. The project also adds a new and expanded emergency department, more operating suites and space for future additions. 2007: Baptist partners with NEA Clinic to acquire a hospital in Jonesboro, Ark. The hospital is called NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital. 2008: Baptist gives $2 million to The University of Memphis to expand health care-related programs at the university. 2008: Baptist Memorial Health Care becomes the first Memphis-area health care system to offer patients an out-of-pocket health care cost estimating tool. The Expense Navigator is one of the most comprehensive health care cost estimators in the country. 2008: Officials break ground on Baptist Memphis' $14 million emergency department renovation, signaling the beginning of construction to expand the existing building. The project will add an MRI machine and a CT scanner; and will reconfigure the emergency department so all patients will have private rooms, increasing capacity to a total of 54 treatment rooms. It also will create a separate waiting area for the pediatric emergency department.
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