About
Rhode Island Hospital
Milestones
- 1853—The initial capital
campaign is developed to establish a hospital.
- 1863—Rhode Island Hospital
is founded.
- 1868—The hospital's
first patient is admitted.
- 1877—A children's ward
is added.
- 1882—Sarah Gray, the
first chief of nurses, is appointed and opens a nursing school.
- 1895—The Department
of Orthopedic Surgery for the prevention and cure of deformities
in children and adults opens.
- 1915—Rhode Island Hospital
becomes the first hospital in the region and the third in the
United States to offer an EKG machine.
- 1922—A tumor clinic
is established by Herman Pitts, MD, and George Waterman, MD.
- 1931—The Joseph Samuels
Dental Center opens at Rhode Island Hospital to provide comprehensive
dental care services to Rhode Island's underprivileged children
and individuals with special needs.
- 1934—Dr. Minot, Dr.
George and Dr. William Murphy of Rhode Island Hospital, win the
Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for their work on pernicious
anemia.
- 1941—The Potter Building
opens to care for children.
- 1945—Modern research
begins when the Rhode Island Medical Society approves the creation
of an institute of pathology within the hospital to make laboratory
services more available.
- 1948—Trustees approve
"dedicated to the care of the sick, education and research"
to Rhode Island Hospital's statement of purpose.
- 1955—The new Rhode
Island Hospital is dedicated and opens; it is one of the first
ten-story patient care buildings in the country.
- 1959—The first open
heart operation in Rhode Island is performed at Rhode Island Hospital.
- 1959—George Clinic
opens for cancer treatment and research.
- 1966—Rhode Island Hospital
opens the Child
Development Center, a state-wide referral program with a multi-disciplinary
approach to mental retardation and multiple handicaps in children.
- 1969—Groundbreaking
for Ambulatory Patient Center.
- 1972—The Coronary Care
Unit for treatment of the acute heart attack opens.
- 1973—The Ambulatory
Patient Center opens after ten years of planning.
- 1986—Henry Randall,
MD, receives a Bronze Medal, the highest volunteer award presented
by the National American Cancer Society.
- 1992—Rhode Island Hospital
is one of the first centers in the United States and one of two
in New England to offer Gamma Knife radiosurgery. The gamma knife
is an instrument that targets brain tumors with a large number
of finely focused radiation beams, a technique referred to as
radiosurgery.
- 1994—Hasbro Children's
Hospital opens. Designed in collaboration with doctors, nurses
and other health care professionals, as well as parents and children,
it has earned worldwide recognition for its family-centered environment
and expert staff and has won numerous architectural and health
care related awards.
- 1998—Rhode Island Hospital
performs the first pediatric kidney transplant in the state.
- 1998—Rhode Island Hospital
is the first in the state to treat Parkinson's patients with deep
brain stimulation.
- 1998—Rhode Island Hospital
establishes the state's first Injury Prevention Center, which
develops community outreach, education and research programs aimed
at preventing injuries before they occur.
- 1999—The state's first
cartilage transplant is performed at Rhode Island Hospital.
- 2000
- Rhode Island Hospital is the only hospital in the state
with magnetic resonance spectroscopy capability.
- Rhode Island Hospital is the first on the East Coast to
offer cardiac CT scans.
- Rhode Island Hospital becomes the third site in New England
to offer intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) for cancer
treatment. IMRT is a noninvasive procedure that allows for pinpoint
delivery of radiation therapy, resulting in better tumor control
with less toxicity
- 2001—Rhode Island Hospital
opens two electrophysiology labs, the only ones in southeastern
New England.
- 2002
- Rhode Island Hospital patents a cardiac valve replacement.
- The Rhode Island Hospital Medical Simulation Center opens,
one of a few centers in the country to offer high fidelity
medical simulation. The center is a custom designed training
and assessment facility to promote excellence in clinical
care, advance patient safety initiatives, and improve multidisciplinary
team performance.
- Rhode Island Hospital is the first in the state to offer
digital mammography at the Anne C. Pappas Center for Breast
Imaging.
- Rhode Island Hospital is the first site in New England to
offer Mammosite treatment for breast cancer, a direct result
of the related breast brachytherapy treatment developed here.
- The first pancreas transplant is performed; Rhode Island
Hospital is the only facility in the state to offer the transplant.
- Rhode Island Hospital receives an $8.4 million grant from
the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) to establish
the state's first laboratory—based cancer research center.
- Rhode Island Hospital's medical intensive care unit is named
one of the best in the country by the National Coalition on
Health Care and the Institute of Healthcare Improvement.
- A new procedure known as Kyphoplasty is performed for the
first time in the state at Rhode Island Hospital by Phillip
Lucas, MD, orthopedic surgeon-in-chief in the division of
spine surgery, for the treatment of osteoporotic vertebral
fractures.
- Georges Peter, MD, director of the division of pediatric
infectious diseases at Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro
Children's Hospital, is named the Distinguished Physician
of the year by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
- Rhode Island Hospital's David Williams, MD, performs a groundbreaking
cardiac procedure for the first time in the Northeast, designed
to prevent stroke from atrial fibrillation by inserting an
"occluder," into a portion of the patient's heart.
- 2003
- Rhode Island Hospital is the first in the state to offer
the first Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, a non—invasive,
nuclear medicine procedure that is able to detect certain
diseases before other imaging procedures, such as CT scan
and magnetic MRI scan.
- Hallett Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology opens. It
is the first comprehensive, academic diabetes and endocrinology
center in Rhode Island and is structured to integrate programs
on diabetes and the full spectrum of endocrine disorders.
- Rhode Island Hospital performs a first-of-its-kind combination
of treatment for recurring lung cancer by combining High Dose
Rate brachytherapy with radiofrequency ablation.
- Rhode Island Hospital begins performing cardiac MRI—the
first in the state to offer the technology.
- Rhode Island Hospital provides care to 63 patients from
The Station nightclub fire.
- Rhode Island Hospital orthopedist, Arnold Peter Wiess,
MD, patented artificial finger joints.
- 2004
- The new Comprehensive Cancer Center opens.
- Rhode Island Hospital is the first in the country to use
new microwave ablation technology to treat cancer and led
the national clinical trial of the new technology.
- Rhode Island Hospital's Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU)
is named a Circle of Life Award honoree by the American Hospital
Association.
- Rhode Island Hospital is included in Modern Healthcare's
listing of the busiest emergency departments in the country.
(Ranked 23rd)
- The Picture Archival Communications System (PACS) system
is implemented, converting radiology films to digital images.
- A new multidetector CT scan is installed in Rhode Island
Hospital's emergency department; it is the first of its kind
to be used in a New England emergency department.
- 2005
- New emergency department opens, along with 10 new operating
rooms, in the Bridge Building.
- Rhode Island Hospital becomes the first in New England to
offer the newest image—guided radiation technology for
cancer treatment, the Trilogy stereotactic system.
- Rhode Island Hospital is the first in the state to offer
robotic prostate brachytherapy.
- The state's first 64-slice CT scanner is installed in Rhode
Island Hospital's diagnostic imaging department; the fastest
machine available allows imaging of the heart to be done for
the first time in the state using CT scan technology.
- Rhode Island Hospital is one of only nine sites in the country
to begin offering Xoft brachytherapy, a cutting edge technology
that delivers localized, non—radioactive radiation treatment
directly to cancer sites.
- A dental residency program at Rhode Island Hospital is approved
by the American Dental Association.
- Rhode Island Hospital orthopedist Christopher DiGiovanni,
MD, patents an artificial ankle and begins testing the technology
in clinical trials.
- The Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders Clinic is established.
The clinic is the largest memory assessment program in Rhode
Island and offers a full range of diagnostic and treatment
services including cutting edge brain imaging, genetic tests
and neuropsychological evaluations
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