Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC Magee 100
celebrating 100 years
Celebrate 100 years of excellence with Magee on Nov. 10. Registration is $75 a person. Learn more, or register.
A Brief History of Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC
Since opening our doors 100 years ago, Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC has striven to advance the understanding of women’s health and the practice of gender-specific medicine. Our first patients included 14 women and their infants transported in horse-drawn ambulances to a make-shift facility.
It all started on Jan. 19, 1911, when the Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital opened in the Christopher L. Magee homestead known as The Maples located on Forbes Avenue and Halket Street. Upon Mr. Magee’s death in 1901, he stipulated in his will that after his wife’s death, the estate should be used to build and endow a hospital.
This institution would be named Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital, in honor of his mother, and would “be open to the sick and injured of all classes without respect to their religion, creed, color, or previous condition ... I especially desire the admission to this hospital of all females who may apply for admission thereto for lying-in purposes and as to all such I direct that they be admitted without any question asked as to their lives or names,” Mr. Magee directed.
The hospital’s first staff included the medical director, two resident physicians, three senior medical students, ten nurses, a social worker, telephone operator, a housekeeper, and a bookkeeper.
Permanent Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital
The permanent Elizabeth Steel Magee Hospital opened on Oct. 15, 1915, accommodating 140 adults and eight infants. The hospital closed in 1918 during the worst influenza epidemic in U.S. History, as it was leased to the Army for treatment of stricken soldiers. It reopened in 1920, and a nurse’s home was added in 1939.
Facilities expanded in 1952 and a new maternity suite was installed in 1956. The hospital added a research wing in 1959 and an antepartum and premature nursery was added in 1961.
In 1962, Woman’s Hospital, a hospital specializing in treatment of diseases and conditions for women and physically linked to Presbyterian, merged with Magee Hospital to become Magee-Womens Hospital. The merger was tangibly symbolized by the addition of the Miller Wing to Magee’s facility, which housed eight operating rooms, 69 patient beds, two nurseries, offices for administrative and nursing personnel,and research laboratories and offices for the Department of Medicine.
More Recently
In the last few decades, Magee’s physical facility has been remodeled, expanded, and updated dramatically, and the process continues today. Increasing numbers of highly-trained personnel staff its services and perform diagnostic and treatment procedures unknown twenty five or even five years ago.
Since Mrs. Alfred Birdsall gave birth to the first Magee baby on Jan. 19, 1911, more than 500,000 babies have been born at Magee during the last 100 years and our outpatient visits have grown to 200,000 a year. Not only a full-service women's hospital, Magee now has expanded to include a range of services for women and men
In 2010, Magee ranked 6th in gynecologic care in this year's annual U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals issue. Magee also ranked 42nd in women's cancer care.
From quality women's health and women's care to minimally invasive surgery, orthopaedic and spine surgery, plastic surgery and state-of-the-art imaging, geriatrics and ultrasound - Magee has it all. And the work continues.