Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit). Automobile pioneer Henry Ford blazed yet another trail by financing and leading the building of Henry Ford Hospital, which opened its doors to patients in 1915.
When it opened, Henry Ford Hospital could accommodate 48 patients. Today, the 802-bed hospital is Henry Ford Health System's flagship and an affiliate to Wayne State University's School of Medicine. The hospital includes a Level I trauma center and more than 1,700 affiliated physicians and researchers.
The hospital is a recent recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a presidential honor for innovation and performance excellence. Henry Ford Hospital also received 2014 awards from Healthgrades for excellence in cardiac care, cardiac surgery, coronary interventional excellence and prostate surgery. U.S. News & World Report has ranked the hospital as one of the top 50 in the country for neurology and neurosurgery, as well. The National Institutes of Health designated the hospital's Department of Neurology as a headache research center in 1995, the first in the country.
Henry Ford Hospital has played a pivotal role in American healthcare history, as it was the first hospital in the country to form a group practice model with a closed, salaried medical staff. It also lent itself to the government for almost a year during World War I, going under the name of U.S. Army General Hospital No. 36 and later caring for hundreds of wounded American soldiers as they returned home. Henry Ford Hospital is also one of the first in the U.S. to institute a total ban on smoking.
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