Minnesota’s Teaching Hospitals
University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC) is the state’s flagship teaching hospital and is comprised of two hospitals and dozens of adult specialty clinics on both the East and West banks of the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. This 1700- bed location offers a wide range of hospital and clinical services. Complete services range from primary care, emergency care, and the delivery of thousands of babies each year to the care of patients with the most complex medical conditions. Areas of specialization include solid organ transplantation, blood and marrow transplantation, heart disease, and cancer.
If you are a patient at one of our teaching hospitals, you will see MD students, residents, and fellows working alongside preceptors to encompass the patient and optimize care. We learn from every patient so that we can take better care of the next.
UMMC Through the Ages
The first University of Minnesota Medical Center opened in 1909 in an old fraternity building. At first, patients were seen free-of-charge until it became clear that the facility and physicians could not keep up with demand. In the 1913-1914 Report of the Medical School to the President, the Outpatient Department cited 13,575 new patients and 47,347 visits, averaging around 155 visits per day. The Board of Regents soon agreed to open a dedicated hospital facility on campus to meet patient demands.
In 1911, Elliot Memorial Hospital was the first building on campus built as a hospital facility and designed to be closely tied to medical education on campus. The 115 bed Elliot Memorial Hospital served two key functions. First, it was a modern clinical teaching facility for medical students integrated into the campus environment. Second, it provided free health care services for charitable cases from across the state.
Elliot Memorial Hospital is now the Elliot Wing of the Mayo Memorial Building.
In 1954 the Mayo Memorial Hospital, built in the courtyard area in front of Elliot, became the new face of the University Hospitals and forever obscured the front entrance of Elliot by using it as a connector to a new wing of the Mayo building and tower. Today Elliot can only be seen in its original form from the south on a service road next to Variety Club Research Center.
