Banner Good Samaritan Celebrates a Century of Providing Health Care To Arizona
PHOENIX (Oct.13, 2011) – Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center has come a long way since its original 20-bed hospital in 1911. The medical center, which is four months older than the state of Arizona will mark its 100th anniversary with a community celebration on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 10 am to 2 pm
Admission is free to this event that will have something for everyone, including a health fair, 100-year history exhibit, entertainment, petting zoo, car show, kids activities, public safety display, the BGSMC pet therapy dogs and more.
Those who were born at Good Samaritan can show their birth certificate and get a special “I was born at Good Sam” t-shirt (while supplies last). Banner Good Sam is hosting the celebration as a way to give back to the community that has supported the hospital for the past 100 years.
There will be a “Welcome” ceremony at 11am with dignitaries that include Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski, Banner Health CEO/President Peter Fine, Banner Good Samaritan CEO Larry Volkmar, Lucette Lindberg, mother of the first quadruplets born at the hospital and Violet Lopez, Arizona’s first kidney transplant patient. The event will take place in the Banner Corporate parking lot at 12th Street and McDowell Road in Phoenix.
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center was established in October 1911 as the Arizona Deaconess Hospital and Home by Miss Lulu Clifton, a Methodist Deaconess. Miss Lulu started the 20-bed hospital to provide suitable accommodations, nursing, medical and surgical treatment of any person suffering from any physical disability irrespective of sex, color, race, religious belief or economic circumstances. Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center has strived to continue Miss Lulu's vision for the last century by providing its quarter of a million patients a year with clinical excellence and innovation, while also treating them with compassion, dignity and respect.
Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center now has 662 beds and employs almost 1500 physicians and 4400 employees. The hospital is ranked among the nation’s leading health care facilities for nursing care through the Magnet Recognition Program, as well as ranked nationally as one of America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News and World Report. Banner Good Sam also has one of the most sought-after Graduate Medical Education programs in the United States.
Banner Good Samaritan has recorded a number of Arizona firsts, including the first open-heart surgery in 1947; the first kidney transplant in 1969; the first liver transplant in 1983; and the birth of the first artificially conceived quadruplets in 1986.
