University of Washington Medical Center

The University of Washington Medical Center is a nationally renowned hospital located along the Montlake Cut and Portage Bay in the University District of Seattle, Washington, USA. It is one of the teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine. With the addition of the state-of-the-art eight story "Montlake Tower" which opened up in September 2012, the UWMC grew from 450 beds to over 570. The 210 million dollar addition offers additional Oncology, Neonatal, Transplant and ICU and Radiological Imagining space.

The 2007 issue of U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" ranks the UWMC 10th out of 5,462 hospitals nationwide. Many UWMC programs score very high in specialty rankings, including: primary care (1); rehabilitation medicine (3); otolaryngology (13); endocrinology (16); orthopedics (15); internal medicine (6); pediatrics (8); rural medicine (1); geriatrics (13); oncology (6); gastroenterology (30); pulmonology (14); nephrology (16); neurology/neurosurgery (30); rheumatology (20); gynecology (9); urology (24).

The University of Washington Medical Center opened on May 5, 1959. It grew out of the medical school that the university opened on October 2, 1946. It is home to the world's first pain center and was the location of the world's first long-term kidney dialysis, developed by UW professor Belding H. Scribner, M.D.

In May 2013, it was announced that UW Medicine, which owns and operates the University of Washington Medical Center, and PeaceHealth were coming together in a "strategic affiliation." The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the merger as PeaceHealth is "directed by the Catholic Ethical and Religious Directives."