Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (Winston-Salem, N.C.). Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's history dates back to 1923, when North Carolina Baptist Hospital opened. In 1941, the hospital and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine entered into a partnership, laying the foundation for what Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is today. The academic medical center, which has 885 beds, is the region's sole Level I trauma center and the first Level I pediatric trauma center in the state. The medical center is comprised of 100 buildings on 290 acres, including a 196-acre research farm.
Physicians at Wake Forest Baptist have been pioneers in medicine, boasting medical firsts spanning several specialties. For instance, in 1965, Jesse Meredith, MD, performed the nation's first hand reimplantation. Later, in 1986, the hospital became first in the U.S. to use lithotripsy to break up common gallstones. More recently in 2002, physicians at the hospital became first in the world broadcast a live implantation of a deep brain stimulator on the Internet. It was the first live webcast of a surgical procedure of any kind in North Carolina.
The hospital has received recognition for excellence in multiple specialties. U.S. News & World Report ranked it in the top 50 in the nation in seven specialties for 2015-16, including cancer (No. 17), nephrology (No. 18), urology (No. 28), ear, nose and throat (No. 29), gastroenterology (No. 37), pulmonology (No. 37) and neurology and neurosurgery (No. 46). The Magnet-recognized hospital is also ranked second overall in North Carolina.
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