A vital part of the metropolitan Ann Arbor health care community is the University of Michigan Medical Center, ranked in a 2004 U.S. News & World Report article as the nation's 11th best hospital. It is a treatment, referral, and teaching complex that houses several facilities: University Hospital, Women's Hospital, Mott Children's Hospital, Holden Peri-natal Hospital, Taubman Health Center, and the Medical School as well as emergency services, an adult psychiatric hospital, an anatomical donations program, a burn center, an outpatient psychiatric unit, and an eye care center. The U.S. News & World Report also ranked the Medical School 7th among the nation's top research-oriented medical schools; the school graduates about 170 physicians each year. A 2000 theme issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, devoted entirely to the Medical School on its 150th anniversary, described how a university team pioneered extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a device that keeps gravely ill patients alive long enough to allow their bodies to build up their own defenses. ECMO is particularly effective when used on newborns with respiratory failure. The University of Michigan medical center staff includes more than 800 physicians; about 1,400 more physicians practice within the metropolitan area.
Offering general care are Catherine McAuley Health Center, which operates the Hospice of Washtenaw, home health services, and an Alzheimer's Care and Treatment Center; and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, which maintains branch clinics in the city and in nearby Saline and the adjacent county of Livingston. Public and private chemical dependency, mental health, urgent care, physical therapy, and fitness programs are also available in Ann Arbor.