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. UW Medical Center has 450 beds.

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.