Outpatient Services Wilson Hospital history

1868: Wilson Street Hospital opened in a small house on Cleveland’s lakefront to provide Cleveland city residents access to medical care.

1887: Nine teenage girls from prominent Cleveland families formed the Rainbow Circle of King’s Daughters, a group devoted to helping the city’s sick and poor children.

1888: Cleveland City Hospital formally changed its name to Lakeside Hospital.

The Peck Wing opened, the result of a tour during the hospital quarters on opening day in 1890.

1891: Rainbow Cottage opened, caring for 32 patients its first summer.

1894: The White Hospital (today UH Portage Medical Center) opened in Ravenna.

1895: Lakeside Hospital affiliated with the Medical Department of Western Reserve University (today Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine).

1898: Lakeside Training School for Nurses opened.

1899: UH administrator James Knowles established the forerunner of the American Hospital Association.

1906: George Crile, MD, performed the first radical neck dissection for laryngeal and other cancers of the neck.

1907: Charles Franklin Hoover, MD, is the first to describe two physical signs that help physicians diagnose certain conditions.

1910: Lakeside Hospital was the world’s first hospital to perfect the manufacture of nitrous oxide gas.

1912: The nation's first school of nurse anesthesia, under the direction of Agatha Hodgins, RN, was established at Lakeside Hospital.

1917: The Lakeside Unit was deployed as the first American military unit on European soil during World War I.

The hospital opened just in time to care for victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918.

1923: Henry Gerstenberger, MD, received a patent for infant formula known as SMA (Synthetic Milk Adapted), developed at Babies Dispensary and Children’s Hospital in collaboration with Harold Ruh, MD, and biochemist William Frohring.

1924: Babies’ Dispensary and Hospital moved to University Circle and was renamed Babies and Children’s Hospital.

1925: UH became the first multihospital system in northeast Ohio, comprising Lakeside Hospital, Babies and Children’s Hospital and Maternity Hospital.

1929: Harry Coulby designated in his will that the bulk of his $3.2 million estate be left to The Cleveland Foundation, with half the money designated for the benefit of Lakeside Hospital.

1933: Claude Beck, MD, performed the first successful removal of a heart tumor.

1934: Harry Goldblatt, MD, described the role of the kidneys in hypertension (high blood pressure), laying the foundation for the discovery of renin and eventually the development of enzyme-inhibitor medications to treat chronic hypertension.

1944: Walter Heymann, MD, began research on kidney disease in children.

1947: Claude Beck, MD, performed the first successful defibrillation of a human heart.

1951: James Reagan, MD, pioneered cytopathology for cancer detection and introduced diagnostic terminology for Pap smear results reporting, including dysplasia, carcinoma in situ and squamous carcinoma.

1953: Frank Nulsen, MD, pioneered pressure-regulated one-way valves for the treatment of hydrocephalus (water on the brain). He, along with Charles Herndon, MD, and Lester Persky, MD, also established one of the first hydrocephalus and myelodysplasia clinics for children in the country.

1954: Louis Pillemer, PhD, in collaboration with Irwin Lepow, PhD, and Enrique Ecker, PhD, discovered an alternative pathway for the immune response that does not involve antibodies.

1955: Claude Beck, MD, and Walter Pritchard, MD, performed the first successful reversal of a fatal heart attack outside of an operating room, with open heart massage.

1956: The Howard M. Hanna Pavilion opened on the University Circle campus for the care of psychiatric patients.

In 1958, he established the Cleveland Eye Bank (now Eversight Ohio).

1961: Richmond Heights General Hospital (today UH Richmond Medical Center) opened.

1965: Kenneth Ryan, MD, was the first in the world to describe how human ovaries produce estrogen from two types of specialized ovarian cells, laying the foundation for advances in female health.

1968: S.S.C. Yen, MD, developed the first radioimmunoassay techniques for the measurement of three important pregnancy hormones, enhancing the evaluation of maternal and infant health in pregnancy.

1969: The role of cholesterol in blood vessel disease was developed by William Insull, MD.

1971: Charles Herndon, MD, was one of first surgeons in the United States to perform a hip replacement, conducting the procedure in a specially constructed operating room he designed to reduce infection in joint replacement surgery.

1972: John Kennell, MD, and Marshall Klaus, MD, demonstrated the importance of maternal-infant bonding, leading to revolutionary changes in the care of mothers and newborn infants in hospitals throughout the western world.

1974: Rainbow Hospital merged with Babies and Children’s Hospital to become Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

1978: Research technique to record accurate cardiac output was developed by Herman K. Hellerstein, MD, Anthony Bacevice, MD, and Peter Katona, MD.

1980: Irwin Merkatz, MD, conducted the first clinical trials of ritodrine, the first Food and Drug Administration-approved drug to inhibit pre-term labor, at UH MacDonald Women’s Hospital.

1981: Nikon Cheung, MD, and other researchers at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, pioneered work treating neuroblastoma patients with antibodies, significantly advancing the field of targeted cancer immune-therapy.

1982: Randall Marcus, MD, developed revolutionary improvements in the design of an interlocking nail system to repair fractures, particularly of the long bones, which improves the healing rate and reduces the risk of infection.

1986: Arthur Zinn, MD, Douglas Kerr, MD, Charles Hoppel, MD, published the first description and detailed characterization of a defect (in the enzyme fumarase) in the famous pathway required for energy metabolism, the Krebs cycle.

1988: Herbert Meltzer, MD, conducted the first human trials of clozapine and established it as an effective medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients.

1989: Joseph Calabrese, MD, in collaboration with researchers at Case Western Reserve University, launched groundbreaking studies that show the effectiveness of anticonvulsants and atypical antipsychotics in treating bipolar disorder.

1990: Anthony Maniglia, MD, was awarded the first of five patents leading to technology for developing the totally implantable cochlear implant.

1994: Alfred and Norma Lerner Tower & the Samuel Mather Pavilion opened on the University Circle campus through a gift of $10 million.

1995: Michael Konstan, MD, Pamela Davis, MD, PhD, and Charles Hoppel, MD, demonstrated ibuprofen’s profound effect on slowing the loss of lung function in patients with cystic fibrosis, and later showed that twice-daily therapy with high-dose ibuprofen improves survival.

1997: Leonard and Joan Horvitz Tower opened at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, named in recognition of the Horvitz family for their enduring generosity.

1998: UH became the site of one of the world’s first intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

2002: Pamela Davis, MD, PhD, and Michael Konstan, MD, performed the first-in-human clinical trial of a non-viral gene therapy approach in patients with cystic fibrosis using DNA nanoparticles.

Actor Christopher Reeve receives a DPS at UH in 2003

2004: Robert J. Maciunas, MD, was the first surgeon in North America to treat Tourette syndrome with deep brain stimulation.

2005: Cliff Megerian, MD, developed a minimally invasive treatment for glomus jugulare tumors, a rare, non-cancerous skull bone tumor that involves the inner and middle ear.

2006: The UH Medical House Calls program is established, in collaboration with Internal Medicine and Nursing, bringing primary care services to homebound seniors who otherwise would not have access to care.

2008: Faruk H. Örge, MD, was the first in Ohio to use endoscopic and microsurgical techniques to drain excess fluid from the eye in infants and young children born with glaucoma.

2009: The Brain Tumor and Neuro-Oncology Center, under the direction of Andrew Sloan, MD, pioneered a minimally invasive, MRI-guided laser system to treat previously inoperable brain tumors.

2010: Pediatric urologists Jonathan Ross, MD, and Edward Cherullo, MD, performed one of the world’s first pediatric single-site nephrectomies.

2012: Jonathan Miller, MD, performed the first temporoparietoocipital disconnection in the United States, a procedure to remove tiny, non-functioning, sections of the brain where seizures originate, providing a cure for intractable epilepsy.

With the completion of a beautiful six-story clinical pavilion in 2013, the downtown area now has access to San Antonio's largest outpatient center, staffed by more than 100 primary and specialty care physicians for both adults and children.

2014: University Hospitals expanded through the integration of hospitals in Elyria, Parma and Ravenna.