For more than 150 years, Wishard Memorial Hospital has provided Indianapolis-area residents with the highest quality healthcare.
The birth of Wishard Health Services can be traced back to 1855 when a smallpox epidemic prompted Indianapolis to build City Hospital. Since that era, the institution has evolved and grown into a diverse healthcare system providing a full range of care.
Milestones that helped shape the health care landscape and communities of central Indiana include:
1859:
City Hospital opens, first to treat victims of the smallpox epidemic, then as a military hospital. An estimated 13,000 sick and wounded soldiers were treated in the five-year period ending in 1865.
1866:
City Hospital now operates as a charity institution supported by Indianapolis taxpayers.
1885:
Flower Mission Training School for Nurses graduates its first class of five nursing students.
1887:
First City Hospital ambulances begin carrying sick and injured patients.
1909: Indiana University School of Medicine at Indianapolis opens, beginning long teaching affiliation with the hospital.
1914:
Wishard constructs two four-story isolation units, known as the Burdsal Units.
St. Margaret's Hospital Guild hires several Indiana artists including T.C. Steele to paint murals throughout the hospital.
1918:
Social Service Department established to help with social needs of patients.
1935:
First iron lung in the state of Indiana installed at City Hospital.
1943:
Two-way radios installed in City Hospital ambulances. This was the first hospital in the nation to use this type of radio to coordinate ambulance dispatch.
First class of African-American nurses graduated from City Hospital's diploma nursing school.
1947:
City Hospital renamed Indianapolis General Hospital.
1951:
General Assembly enacts statute creating the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County.
1961:
First cancer laboratory in Indiana opened at General Hospital.
1968:
New seven-story Myers Building dedicated.
1969:
General Hospital designated by the Indiana State Board of Health to be a major trauma center for Indiana.
Midtown Community Mental Health Center opens at General Hospital.
1975:
General Hospital renamed Wishard Memorial Hospital.
1992:
The American College of Surgeons verified the trauma center at Wishard as the first Adult Level I Trauma Center in Indiana.
1995:
Wishard named one of the top 100 hospitals in the country for third consecutive year by HCIA, Inc./Mercer Consulting.
1996:
I.U. School of Medicine and Health and Hospital Corporation form a primary care corporation to manage Wishard's primary care practices now known as IU Medical Group - Primary Care.
1997:
Wishard Advantage program begins serving needy residents of Marion County.
Senior Care at Wishard launched.
1998:
Health Connection - a 24-hour-a-day nursing telephone triage system - begins operation.
New Intensive Care Unit opens.
Acute Care for Elders Unit established.
1999:
The IU National Center of Excellence in Women's Health opens at Wishard.
Newly renovated Family Beginnings Center opens.
New Palliative Care Program launched.
New Urgent Visit Center opens.
2000:
I.U. Surgical Weight Management Center launched.
New Integrative Pain Center opens.
2002:
Psychiatric Emergency Services Unit opens as only unit in the state.
2003:
The state-of-the-art Richard M. Fairbanks Burn Center at Wishard opens, replacing the original burn unit.
2004:
Pecar Health Center opens, joining seven other community health centers.
2005:
Independence Square, an innovative new rehabilitation center, opens at Wishard.
2007:
New Pediatrics Unit opens at Wishard.
2008:
Senior Care's Healthy Aging Brain Center established.
Wishard Medical Legal Partnership created, the first medical-legal partnership in Indiana.
2009:
Project Prescription for Hope, a violence recidivism reduction initiative funded by Mayor Ballard's Crime Prevention Grant, launched by IU/Wishard Level 1 Trauma Center.
Mental Health services added to all Community Health Centers.
First Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to use electronic medical records in the field.