Emory University Hospital is a 587-bed facility in Atlanta, Georgia, specializing in the care of acutely ill adults. Emory University Hospital is staffed exclusively by Emory University School of Medicine faculty who also are members of The Emory Clinic. The hospital is renowned as one of the nation's leaders in cardiology and cardiac surgery, oncology, transplantation and the neurosciences.
History
Emory University Hospital's history dates back almost a century. In March 1904, its predecessor, Wesley Memorial Hospital, was chartered with 50 beds. The hospital was housed in a downtown Atlanta mansion that had been spared from destruction by General Sherman's army during the Civil War.
By November 1922, the hospital had grown too large for its quarters and moved to its current DeKalb County site on the Emory University campus. The new 275-bed facility was a gift of Asa G. Candler, philanthropist and founder of The Coca-Cola Company.
In the mid-1930s, its name was changed to Emory University Hospital. The university and the hospital bear the name of Bishop John Emory, who presided at a meeting of the Georgia Methodist Conference in 1834 when delegates decided to establish a Methodist college in Georgia.
General description
Emory University Hospital is a 587-bed facility specializing in the care of the acutely ill adult. The hospital is located on the Emory University campus in northeast Atlanta.
More than 24,000 inpatients and 80,000 outpatients come to Emory University Hospital each year. They receive care from physicians of The Emory Clinic, who also are faculty of the Emory University School of Medicine, and from a highly trained staff of nurses and other clinical professionals.
The hospital provides a full range of specialized care. News and World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" for several years as one of the nation's top 10 cardiology centers.
The latest data show it has 23,710 admissions and performs 9,446 inpatient and 2,843 outpatient surgeries. Its emergency room has 30,476 visits. Located in Atlanta, GA, it is accredited by the Joint Commission, Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). It is also a teaching hospital.
Specialties
Cardiac Care
The Emory University Hospital cardiology program has been recognized as one of the top 10 programs in U.S. News & World Report for nine years since the magazine began ranking hospitals in 1990. Emory has long been a major referral institution for patients with complex cardiac problems.
Transplantation
Emory is the only multiple organ transplant center in the state of Georgia, and the first corneal transplant was performed at Emory in 1947. Currently, heart, lung, liver, pancreas, kidney/pancreas, and kidney transplants are performed at Emory University Hospital. Combination transplants such as heart/lung, liver/kidney, and heart/kidney are also being performed.
More than 320 organ transplant procedures are performed at Emory each year.
Pediatric transplantation is performed at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, the affiliate children's hospital.
Cancer Treatment Services (Oncology) at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University
Diagnostic Radiology
Emory is the only medical center in Georgia with a cyclotron and radiochemistry laboratory accompanying its positron emission tomography (PET) scanner. These make possible the production of various radionuclides needed to image different parts of the body.
Neurosciences
It is the first hospital in the country to offer a precise surgical procedure (microelectrode-guided pallidotomy) for treating Parkinson's disease.
Rankings
On the U.S. News's "America's Best Hospitals", 2010â€"11, Emory University Hospital was ranked in 11 adult specialties. Out of 4,852 facilities analyzed for the 2010-11 Best Hospitals rankings, only 152 were ranked in any of the 16 specialties and this hospital was one of them.
2014 West Africa Ebola Outbreak
On July 31, 2014, the United States government and the Centers for Disease Control announced that Emory Hospital would treat at least one of the patients of the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak in a specialized isolation facility. On August 2, 2014, Kent Brantly arrived at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in a specially fitted Gulfstream jet which can only carry one patient at a time. Nancy Writebol, the second American aid worker, arrived at Emory on August 4, 2014. Brantly was released August 21, 2014 with Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory’s Infectious Disease Unit, declaring that Brantly "… has recovered from the Ebola virus disease and he can return to his family, to his community, and to his life without any public health concerns". In his statement, Brantly reported that Writebol had been released two days earlier (on August 19). Brantly and Writebol were the first patients ever to be treated with the experimental drug ZMapp, splitting a dose between both patients; Samaritan's Purse later reported Brantly's condition began to improve within hours of receiving the treatment, although they point out that it is unclear if either the treatment or a blood transfusion, received in Africa from a young Ebola survivor, was responsible for the improvement.
On October 15, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that Amber Vinson, the second case of Ebola transmission in the U.S., would be transferred to Emory. Vinson has since recovered from the disease and been declared Ebola-free.
References
External links
- Emory University Hospital (official web site)
- Emory Healthcare â€" What we're about
- Emory Healthcare â€" Specialties
- US News & World Report â†' Health â†' Hospitals â†' Emory University Hospital