Sentara Norfolk General Hospital
Encyclopedia
- For the similarly named hospital in Simcoe, Ontario, see Norfolk General Hospital.
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital is a hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in the Ghent
Ghent (Norfolk)
The Ghent District includes the various Ghent neighborhoods in Norfolk, Virginia. Its boundaries are roughly Brambleton Avenue/The Hague on the south, the Elizabeth River on west, Monticello Avenue on the east and the railroad crossing immediately north of 22nd Street...
neighborhood of Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. It is located adjacent to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters
Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters
Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters , located in Norfolk, Virginia, is the only freestanding children's hospital in Virginia and the home to one of the nation's top pediatric residency programs....
, Sentara Heart Hospital and Eastern Virginia Medical School
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Eastern Virginia Medical School commonly referred to as EVMS, in Norfolk, Virginia is a public-private medical school founded by the citizens of Hampton Roads, Virginia...
for which it serves as the teaching hospital. Norfolk General is home to the only Level I Trauma Center and burn trauma unit in Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
. The hospital is considered among the best in the country.
History
In 1888 the forerunner to Norfolk General, the 25-bed Retreat for the Sick, was opened in downtown Norfolk. At this time there were fewer than 200 hospitals in the entire country. In 1892 the Retreat for the Sick opened the first nursing schoolNursing school
A nursing school is a type of educational institution, or part thereof, providing education and training to become a fully qualified nurse. The nature of nursing education and nursing qualifications varies considerably across the world.-United Kingdom:...
in Norfolk. The hospital moved to a new location in 1896 and was renamed Norfolk Protestant Hospital in 1898. The hospital moved again in 1903 and witnessed a fire in 1906, though no lives were lost. Norfolk Protestant was renamed Norfolk General in the 1930s and the first open-heart surgery in Virginia was performed there in 1967.
In 1981 Elizabeth Carr was born at the hospital, becoming America's first in-vitro fertilization baby. The first heart transplant performed in Hampton Roads occurred at the hospital in 1989.