Maricopa Medical Center was established as the “county” hospital in 1883 when ten acres were purchased for the facility at Yavapai and Baltimore streets (which is now 7th Avenue and Roosevelt). In 1898, the hospital was moved to 35th Avenue and Durango. This was 3 miles outside of Phoenix (at that time) and away from the general population. The hospital was a safe haven for tuberculosis patients and many of the poor and indigent of the area.
Many years passed; issues came and went. During this period, there were additions and changes to the small hospital. In 1948, the hospital was licensed as a health care facility by the Arizona Department of Health Services. Then, in 1952, the hospital was approved as a teaching hospital by the American Medical Association and accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAHO).
In 1965, Dr. MacDonald Wood and Dr. William Ray Price developed the burn unit at Maricopa County General Hospital. Soon after in 1970, the hospital moved to its current location on 24th Street and Roosevelt. Patients began to be transferred to the new facility in February 1971. With the long awaited opening of the hospital in it’s new location, a burden was lifted from all those involved in the the planning and structure of the new facility. It was a cold February when 300 patients were transferred from the Durango facility to the new hospital. There were even some patients brought by personal cars in addition to those being moved via ambulance with the help of Army Reserve medics and nursing student volunteers.
The burn unit celebrated its first dedication in 1977, but in 1992, it was officially designated as a Level I Burn Center by the American Burn Association. Several years later (circa 2000), Dr. Daniel M Caruso (Medical Director) had the name changed to The Arizona Burn Center.
Maricopa County General Hospital has been in the business of caring for trauma patients over the last 60 years. In 1983, during the time the Arizona State Medicaid program became Arizona Health Care Cost Contaimment System (AHCCCS), the hospital changed its name to it’s current designation, Maricopa Medical Center.