Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston). Massachusetts General Hospital opened its doors in 1821 and became the first teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School within the hospital's first year of operation. It has since been home to medical discoveries that no patient today could imagine going without.
More than 48,000 patients are admitted annually in Massachusetts General's main campus, which includes approximately 950 beds. U.S. News & World Report most recently ranked the hospital No. 2 in the nation and No. 1 in New England. Massachusetts General has achieved Magnet designation for nursing excellence and was also named a Top Hospital by Leapfrog Group for patient safety and quality of care.
The hospital's lengthy history includes many medical highlights, such as the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia in 1846, marking the first pain-free surgery. Massachusetts General physicians also identified appendicitis in 1886 and created the first X-ray exposure in the United states in 1896. Today, with more than $786 million in sponsored projects each year, the hospital is one of the largest recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health and the 12th largest institution for NIH funding overall.
Massachusetts General Hospital has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to quality and patient safety. For instance, since the early 2000s, President Peter Slavin, MD, has started every meeting with the chiefs and executives with information about quality and safety. It also has a quality reporting program complete with quality chairs for each clinical department to ensure safety events are appropriately and quickly addressed. To learn more about Massachusetts General Hospital's patient safety and quality initiatives, read assistant editor Ellie Rizzo's spotlight profile — Massachusetts General Hospital: Investing in Structure to Improve Quality.
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