Washington Hospital Center

MedStar Washington Hospital Center is the largest private hospital in Washington, D.C. A member of MedStar Health, the not-for-profit Hospital Center is licensed for 926 beds. Health services in primary, secondary and tertiary care are offered to adult and neonatal patients. It also serves as a teaching hospital for Georgetown University School of Medicine. The Hospital Center occupies a campus in Northwest Washington that it shares with three other medical facilities. Immediately adjacent to MedStar Washington Hospital Center are the National Rehabilitation Hospital and the central branch of Children's National Medical Center. History The MedStar Washington Hospital Center was founded on March 10, 1958, when three specialty hospitals, Central Dispensary and Emergency Center, Episcopal Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, and Garfield Hospital, merged into one. On May 7, 1998, Medlantic Healthcare Group, the Hospital Center's not-for-profit parent company, merged with Helix Health, a group of four Baltimore, MD-based hospitals, making the combined company the largest health care provider in the mid-Atlantic region. Helix/Medlantic was renamed MedStar Health on February 1, 1999. Overview The Washington Hospital Center Heart program is a national leader in the research, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease; its angioplasty or cardiac catheterization has the largest volume of PCI cases in the nation within the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). One of the Washington area's first heart transplants was done at the Hospital Center on May 22, 1987. Washington Hospital Center is home to Washington's only 256-slice Cardiac CT scanner and has the only onsite 24/7 cardiac catheterization team in the region. Its Ventricular Assist Device program is certified by The Joint Commission. Recently, the MedStar Heart Institute at Washington Hospital Center has forged an alliance with the Cleveland Clinic Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute.