ChristianaCare is a network of private, non-profit hospitals providing health care services to all of the U.S. state of Delaware and portions of seven counties bordering the state in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. The system includes two hospitals in Delaware, Wilmington Hospital and Christiana Hospital, and one in Maryland, ChristianaCare Union Hospital in Elkton. ChristianaCare operates the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, the Center for Heart & Vascular Health, The Center for Women & Children's Health, and ChristianaCare HomeHealth, as well as the Eugene du Pont Preventive Medicine & Rehabilitation Center, and a wide range of outpatient and satellite services. ChristianaCare is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.
History
The system's history dates to 1888, when Delaware Hospital was first opened in Wilmington. It was expanded throughout the subsequent decades. In 1965, it merged with Memorial Hospital and Wilmington General Hospital to form Wilmington Medical Center, with each of the three facilities being known as a "division", thus Delaware Hospital became known as the Delaware Division of the Wilmington Medical Center. Later, it was decided to close the other two hospitals and replace them with a new one, Christiana Hospital. In 1985, the Delaware Division was renamed Wilmington Hospital.
In 2014, family medicine physician Janice E. Nevin, M.D., MPH, became president and CEO of the health system.[1][2] Under Dr. Nevin, the health system focused on excellence and love and focusing on empowering coworkers to speak up about potentially problematic behavior by others in the work environment.[1] The health care system developed CareVio, a patient centered and clinician-led information technology enhanced care coordination service, that was designed to provide information and scheduling aid in 2017.[3]
Demographics
In 2007, ChristianaCare saw 457,348 outpatient visits, 55,512 admissions and 7,100 childbirths.[4] ChristianaCare provided $35.7 million in charity care in 2007.[4] With more than 10,000 employees, it is one of the largest private employers in Delaware and among the top 10 in the greater Philadelphia region.[5] In 2017 it was reported that the Health Care system was ranked as the 22nd leading hospital and the 11th on the East Coast in terms of admissions.[3]
Aerial view of the Christiana Hospital campus in Newark
Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, is Delaware's only adult Level I trauma center. It was built in 1985 and houses 907 licensed beds[6] and includes 22 hospital-based operating rooms and 10 outpatient operating rooms. It is home to Delaware's only Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit and the state's largest maternity center, where more than 7,100 newborns are delivered each year. The Christiana Hospital campus is also home to the Center for Heart & Vascular Health and the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center. In 2018, the hospital opened Delaware's first epilepsy monitoring unit, where doctors attempt to induce a seizure to make a proper diagnosis.[7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in mid-December 2020, Delaware resident president-elect Joe Biden received his first vaccination at Christiana Hospital on live TV[9] and returned in mid-January 2021 for his second shot.[10]
Wilmington Hospital houses 241 licensed beds and is home to ChristianaCare's Center for Rehabilitation and Center for Advanced Joint Replacement. Its campus is also home to the Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter, Wilmington Hospital Health Center, an HIV program and the First State School,[11] a private/public partnership that provides in-school education for children with serious illnesses that would otherwise render them homebound. Plans for a $250 million expansion project were announced in 2007 that will include room for 90 new patient beds, new operating room suites, an expanded emergency department and much more.[12]
Since 2019, Wilmington Hospital houses the Center for Hope and Healing which strives to provide care for individuals struggling with mental illness, medical conditions, and social health issues.[13] In February 2021, the Delaware Health Resources Board cleared the Delaware Neurosurgical Group PA and ChristianaCare's joint spinal surgery center, named Center for Spine Surgery LLC.[14] This center, located at Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter on the Wilmington Hospital campus, will contain 6 operating rooms, 6 overnight rooms, a post-surgical recovery space and 23-hour stay capacity for spine surgical patients. The projected opening date is January 2022.[14]
Middletown Free-standing Emergency Department
ChristianaCare Emergency Department — Middletown, DE
The Middletown Free-standing Emergency Department located in Middletown, Delaware offers 24-hour emergency care with 18 treatment rooms.[15] It opened in April 2013 at a cost of $34 million.[16]
In 2019, after a compliance review, the emergency department earned Advanced Disease-Specific Care Certification as an Acute Stroke Ready Hospital from The Joint Commission.[17]
In 2020, ChristianaCare officially acquired Union Hospital of Elkton, Maryland along with its parent health system, Affinity Health Alliance, and its subsidiaries.[18] This acquisition is the first hospital ChristianaCare owns outside the state of Delaware.[19] The hospital, known as ChristianaCare, Union Hospital, adds 72 beds, six operating rooms and 375 physicians to the ChristianaCare health system.[19] It will provide care in various specialties such as oncology, gastroenterology and audiology, in addition to its imaging and laboratories technology.[18]
ChristianaCare is a nationally recognized, urban and suburban, academic[21] and community hospital. The health system has been involved in graduate medical education for over 100 years.
There are over 10 ACGME-accredited residency programs, including Diagnostic Radiology, Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, General Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, and Podiatry. ChristianaCare also offers combined programs, including Emergency Medicine/Family Medicine, Emergency Medicine/Internal Medicine, and Medicine-Pediatrics. Besides residency programs, several fellowship programs are also offered. Other programs include General Practice Dentistry and Pharmacy.
In regards to medical schools, ChristianaCare is affiliated with The Sidney Kimmel Medical College of the Thomas Jefferson University, and is their largest teaching affiliate.[22] It houses up to 30 medical students, who live and complete their entire third and fourth year curricula in Delaware. In 2018, ChristianaCare started a new affiliation with the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine to be one of its clinical campuses for third year medical students with a class size of 11 students.
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