University of Colorado Hospital (Aurora). University of Colorado Hospital, the crown jewel of the newly formed University of Colorado Health, was founded in 1921. The hospital is the only academic medical center in the region, and physician faculty members — part of the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine — have kept the Rocky Mountain area at the forefront of research and medical treatments.
The 551-bed UCH was ranked as the top hospital in Colorado by U.S. News & World Report for 2013-14. U.S. News recognized the hospital as a top 50 institution for cancer, nephrology, neurology/neurosurgery and orthopedics, and the publication said UCH was the second-best hospital in the country for pulmonology care. UCH is also the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in the Rocky Mountain region, and a national leader in clinical trials for head and neck cancer.
UCH, which sits on the Anschutz Medical Campus, has been the site for many clinical firsts: It was the first hospital to conduct human cell cloning to study genetics and cancer, the first to discover how the human cancer gene functions and the first to set the international standard for classifying human chromosomes. UCH physicians also performed the world's first liver transplant in 1963.
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