Houston Methodist Hospital has been saving lives for 100 years
Houston Methodist Hospital started 100 years ago as a small, 30-bed clinic, in what was at the time a booming Bayou City.
Now one of the largest health systems in the nation, with eight hospitals around the Houston-area, Methodist began in earnest as a small clinic run out of Dr. Oscar Norsworthy’s house in 1919.
Thanks to a outbreak of Spanish Flu, Dr. Norsworthy sold the burgeoning medical practice to the Methodist Church. A five-story Methodist Hospital opened behind the original Norsworthy clinic in 1924.
The Great Depression dealt a serious blow to the hospital’s finances, but thanks to the ingenuity of bookkeeper Josie Roberts, it remained open and continued to grow under her executive leadership.
The Texas Medical Center was established in 1945 and Methodist Hospital was one of the first to open in 1951. Its original Fannin building had 300 beds.
Figures like legendary surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey and many others, helped the hospital to grow and help the multitude of patients to this very day.
“I don’t think anybody in 1919 could have imagined what we would have become,” said Dr. Marc Boom, CEO of Houston Methodist. “What I want is, 100 years from now, for people to look back at 2019 and say, look at what they did to put us on the right footing and make this the absolute best hospital on the planet. That’s our goal.”
Naturally the history of Houston Methodist Hospital only grows each year as the hospital system grows into the future.
Read the full abc13 story here.
