Memorial Hermann History

1990

Under President Dan S. Wilford, Memorial institutes continuous quality improvement process to strengthen the partnership between the hospitals and the people they serve. Employees begin serving on quality teams that evaluate hospital policies and practices. With improving patient care as the focus, these teams then provide recommendations on ways to increase quality and efficiency.

1991-92

Memorial Hospital - The Woodlands is added to the system. Memorial Hospital Northwest opens a 9,000-square-foot Cancer Treatment Center.

The Institute for Total Wellness is founded to promote the well-being of the Memorial family and the greater Houston community. The concept includes four areas of well-being: physical, psychological, social and spiritual.

Memorial Southwest launches $50-million expansion of its 15-year-old facility. The emergency center, surgical suite and cardiac catheterization laboratory are all scheduled for modernization and enlargement. New outpatient facilities and a new women's center are also in the works.

1994

For the first time, Memorial is named one of the "Top 100" hospitals in the nation. Only three Houston hospitals and 10 in Texas received the award.

Historic four-year renovation of Cullen Pavilion is completed.

Hermann Children's Hospital becomes new name for University Children's Hospital. Trustees vote to establish the children's facility as a separate hospital that will encompass existing pediatric facilities.

Hospital begins liver transplantation program and opens Texas Comprehensive Epilepsy Program.

Hermann Breast Center opens.

Hermann Heart Center opens.

Hermann Center for Chronobiology and Chronotherapeutics opens and is the world's first comprehensive center devoted to application of chronobiological methods for medical diagnosis and treatment.

Hermann Center for Wound Healing opens as the only Texas Medical Center facility dedicated to treatment of long-lasting, non-healing wounds.

Physicians at hospital perform Houston's first combined kidney/liver transplant.

A 10-month-old baby receives living donor liver transplant, the first such surgery performed in Houston.

What is believed to be world's first hand transplant is performed. Surgeons transpose a teen-age boy's hand from injured left arm to right arm that has no hand.

Physicians perform emergency liver transplant from living donor, believed to be one of the first such operations in medical history.

Silent Care Center opens as one of the nation's first general medicine clinics dedicated to deaf patients.

New Hermann Lithotripsy Center opens.

Walter M. Mischer Jr. Facility for Gamma Knife Radiosurgery is dedicated.

Melinda H. Perrin becomes first woman to serve as chair of the board of trustees.

Hospital is designated as first Level I Trauma Center in Houston.

First lung transplant at Hermann is performed on 53-year-old man.

Hermann Chest Pain Center opens and is first of its kind in Houston.

First testing of new immunosuppressant drug, Rapamycin, is announced by Barry Kahan, M.D., of Hermann.

"Great Pavilion Raising" celebration in Cullen parking lot formally breaks ground for the new pavilion to be built starting in early 1996.

Hermann Clinic at Power Medical Center formally opens with ceremony and news conference presided over by Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell.

Hermann is named one of the nation's "Top 100" hospitals.

Memorial President Dan S. Wilford receives American College of Healthcare Executives 1997 Gold Medal Award for significant contributions to health care industry during a career of service.

Wilford receives Earl M. Collier Award for Distinguished Hospital Administration from the Texas Hospital Association. It is the highest honor bestowed by the THA.

Hermann Hospital receives a $2.4 million federal grant for a telecommunications system in the new pavilion.

Voluntary Hospitals of America, Inc. awards a 1997 VHA Leadership Award to Memorial Healthcare System for improving supply chain management

Court approves merger of Hermann and Memorial Healthcare System. New system is named Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.

Hermann Healthcare System and Memorial Healthcare System announce the completion of their merger, joining a university-affiliated teaching hospital and children's hospital with Memorial's eight community hospitals. The new corporation becomes the largest not-for-profit health care system in the nation.

The Memorial Hermann name is first used on Nov. 4, 1997.

Memorial Hermann Healthcare System acquires three hospitals and sells another, bringing to 13 the number of hospitals in the system. Memorial Hermann acquires Fort Bend Medical Center and Katy Medical Center. The two hospitals will be known as Memorial Hermann Fort Bend Hospital and Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital, respectively. Memorial Hermann Pasadena Hospital is sold. Beaumont Regional Medical Center is purchased and becomes part of Memorial Hermann Baptist Beaumont Hospital.

Memorial Hermann Hospital is named a 1999 Consumer Choice Award winner by the National Research Corporation (NRC). Only one other Houston hospital is named a winner, with 126 hospitals selected nationwide. The award, based on a nationally syndicated study of more than 170,000 households, honors the most preferred hospitals for overall health care services in metropolitan areas.

Memorial Hermann and Baptist Healthcare System consolidate. Memorial Hermann assumes responsibility for managing Baptist's operations in Beaumont and Orange, Texas. David Parmer, chief executive officer of Baptist Healthcare, remains as Baptist's chief executive officer, reporting to Dan Wilford, president and chief executive officer of the Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.

Houston's first medically based, university-affiliated wellness center, the Memorial Hermann/HBU Wellness Center, celebrates its grand opening. The Wellness Center is a $16 million, 80,000-square-foot facility adjacent to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital offering everything from exercise and nutrition programs to presentations on the latest in treatment and prevention of such ailments as heart disease and osteoporosis.

Margaret R. Bradshaw pledges $2 million to the Memorial Hermann Foundation in support of the Memorial Hermann/HBU Wellness Center. The gift honors her late husband, B.J. Bradshaw, an attorney who served on the boards of the Memorial Hospital System and the Memorial Hospital Foundation. The funds will create a permanent endowment to support the Wellness Center's programs, and the Center will be named the B.J. and Margaret R. Bradshaw Wellness Center, Memorial Hermann/HBU. According to Margaret Bradshaw, the Wellness Center was her husband's longtime dream.

William F. Galtney Jr., founder, chairman and CEO of The Galtney Group, Inc. and his wife, Susanne, pledge $4 million to the Memorial Hermann Foundation in support of the emergency center in the new Hermann Pavilion of Memorial Hermann Hospital. In recognition of the Galtney gift, the Center is named the Galtney Trauma & Emergency Center.

Memorial Hermann History Home

Milestones

1900-1909

1910-1919

1920-1929

1930-1939

1940-1949

1950-1959

1960-1969

1970-1979

1980-1989

1990-1999

2000-Present