Memorial Health System | Memorial Hospital for Children | Foundation | PhysicianLink 
History
A Century of Caring
1904
In response to an overwhelming need in the community, the women of the Methodist Church open Colorado Conference Deaconess Hospital and Nurses Training School on Institute Street. One student nurse and a superintendent nurse staff the hospital, which has a capacity for 30 beds but opens with eight (including one designated pediatric bed).
1907 - 1911
General William Palmer, founder of Colorado Springs, donates land for a hospital at the present site of Memorial Hospital Central on East Boulder Street. Construction is completed in 1911, and the hospital is renamed Beth-El.
1912
A Crippled Children's Ward and Pavilion, jointly staffed by Beth-El Hospital and the Visiting Nurse Association, opens for children with special needs, establishing a commitment to caring for children that would continue throughout the next century.
1918
An observation hospital, staffed by Beth-El, opens to treat contagious diseases and is funded and constructed by the City of Colorado Springs and El Paso County. This community extension of the hospital was instrumental in treating local patients suffering from the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918, which killed more than 20 million people, including 675,000 Americans.
1925 - 1926
Beth-El Hospital opens the four-story National Methodist Sanitarium for the treatment of tuberculosis patients. The state-of -the-art facility, located on 29 acres east of the hospital (now the United States Olympic Training Center), attracts patients from across the United States.
1937
Daniels Hall, built with a gift from Mr. and Mrs. C.W. Daniels, expands the treatment and care of crippled children.
1943
Colorado Springs City Council votes to purchase Beth-El Hospital for $76,500 and re-name it Memorial Hospital, in honor of the men and women of Colorado Springs who lost their lives in World War II. The hospital and sanitarium, staffed by 145 employees, have a total of 177 beds and 17 bassinets.
1946 - 1949
Voters approve city operation of the hospital, creating a citizen's board of trustees. They also approve a three-story hospital addition, referred to as the Sunshine Wing.
1956
City Council approves $600,000 in revenue bonds to make improvements and add 60 beds to Memorial Hospital.
1965 - 1967
The Junior League of Colorado Springs establishes the Memorial Hospital Auxiliary to help provide service to Memorial and its patients. In 1967, a junior volunteer program begins.
1973
In response to population growth and the needs of the community, voters approve a $15 million bond issue to rapidly expand services, as well as funds for a parking garage and the construction of a seven-floor patient tower, expanding the number of beds to 315.
1974 - 1979
New services are added, including a Neonatal Intensive Care Nursey and a 24/7 Emergency and Trauma Center. The north patient tower opens, housing the state's only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit outside of Denver. Memorial's survival rates for babies born between one and two pounds will soar by 200 percent over the next few years.
1981 - 1984
Memorial launches its open heart surgery program. High-tech transportation services begin for critically ill and injured newborns, children and pregnant women in premature labor. Memorial receives Level III designation for the highest level of nursery care available in a non-teaching hospital. At the beginning of the 1980s, Memorial employs 873 people and realizes a net operating revenue of approximately $21 million.
1987 - 1988
Memorial receives Level II trauma designation for the Emergency and Trauma Center and opens the Family Birth Center.
1992 - 1997
In 1992, the Memorial Cancer Center opens to expand the hospital's cancer services. Construction of a second seven-story tower is completed in 1997. The new patient wind opens with additional surgery suites and expanded space in laboratory, radiology and cardiology departments. The Rehabilitation Patient Care unit opens, and the Intensive Care Unit moves to its expanded space in the new tower.
2000
Memorial opens Printers Park Medical Plaza and Surgery Center, featuring outpatient surgery, radiology, rehabilitation and occupational medicine, laboratory services and physician offices.
2003
Memorial Hospital is named as one of the Top 100 cardiac hospitals in the nation and announces plans for a Children's Hospital. The Briargate Medical Campus opens to serve the city's fast-growing northeast suburbs. A new parking facility opens on the main Boulder campus.