Philadelphia

Health Care

There are more than 100 hospitals in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and six medical schools, as well as schools of nursing, dentistry, and pharmacology. There are major teaching hospitals affiliated with both the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.

Pennsylvania Hospital, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, is the oldest hospital in the United States, established in 1751 by Dr. Thomas Bond (1712–84) and Benjamin Franklin (1706–90). This 505-bed facility was also home to the country's first surgical amphitheater and was the first hospital in the country to treat mental illness.

Temple University Hospital, affiliated with the Temple University Medical School, is a 514-bed facility that provided care to 20,000 patients and 150,000 outpatients in 1998. Its emergency department, a certified Level I regional trauma center, treats more than 37,000 patients a year. Community hospitals that belong to the Temple University Health System include Episcopal Hospital, Jeanes Hospital, Lower Bucks Hospital, Neumann Medical Center, and Northeastern Hospital. Also part of Temple's hospital system is Temple University Children's Medical Center.

Philadelphia is also home to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Wills Eye Hospital, both considered among the best in the country in their respective specialties.