Erlanger Health System

Erlanger Hospital
Erlanger Health System
Erlanger Baroness Campus
Geography
Location	Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States
Coordinates	35.048176°N 85.28966°W / 35.048176; -85.28966
Organization
Care system	Public
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	University of Tennessee College of Medicine
Services
Emergency department	Level I trauma center
Beds	818
History
Founded	1889
Links
Website	erlanger.org
Lists	Hospitals in Tennessee

The Erlanger Health System (often referred to as Erlanger Hospital or simply Erlanger) /ərlindʒər/, is a multi-hospital system with five campuses based in Chattanooga, Tennessee—Erlanger Baroness Campus, Children's Hospital at Erlanger, Erlanger East Campus, Erlanger North Campus, and Erlanger Bledsoe Campus. Erlanger is a Level I trauma center for adults with trauma surgeons available at all times. The Children's Hospital at Erlanger houses a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, with a Pediatric Trauma Team, Emergency Department, and Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The system also runs two community health centers: Southside Community Health Center and Dodson Avenue Community Health Center.

Erlanger Hospital is an 818-bed facility that provides patients with a complete range of primary and specialty care services. It is the Southeast Tennessee region's major tertiary care center and a modern medical complex. Erlanger is also home to the area's only kidney transplant program. In fiscal year 2006-2007, Erlanger had 29,047 inpatient admissions, 265,323 outpatient visits, and treated over 26,571 surgical patients.

Academic Medical Center

As the primary teaching hospital for the University of Tennessee College of Medicine's Chattanooga campus, Erlanger serves as the educational training ground for more than 150 physicians enrolled annually in the medical college’s residency and fellowship programs. Medical students from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis,TN may elect to do a variety of clinical rotations at Erlanger. Nursing students, Paramedic students, and many other allied health students also train at Erlanger in conjunction with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), Chattanooga State Technical Community College (CSTCC), and other regional colleges.

History

Erlanger traces its history to 1889, when Baron Frédéric Emile d'Erlanger, a European financier with local railroad holdings, visited Chattanooga and donated $5,000 to establish a local hospital. Chattanoogans chose to name the new institution in honor of the Baron’s Southern-born wife, Baroness Marguerite Mathilde Slidell d’Erlanger. On August 20, 1891, community leaders held a cornerstone ceremony to celebrate the completion of the foundation of Baroness Erlanger Hospital, the region’s first permanent hospital. When construction of the hospital facility was completed in 1899, the $50,000 structure opened with 72 beds.

By 2000, Erlanger had grown to become a multi-hospital system with five campuses.

Accreditations, awards, and recognition

In August 2011, U.S. News & World Report ranked Erlanger Health System the number one hospital in Chattanooga. Each year, the magazine ranks 5,000 hospitals based on publicly reported data (volume. mortality rates, staffing levels, safety statistics, patient satisfaction) as well as surveys from 10,000 physicians. The resulting analysis is turned into rankings by specialty, region, and metropolitan area.

In 2008, Erlanger was recognized by Thomson Reuters as one of the nation's Top 100 teaching hospitals for cardiovascular care.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has fully accredited Erlanger Bledsoe Hospital as a critical access hospital and the Erlanger Southeast Regional Stroke Center as a primary stroke center.

In 2008, Erlanger East Campus and T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital were awarded top honors for outstanding patient satisfaction by Professional Research Consultants (PRC).