Lowell General Hospital

The Lowell Free Hospital Association was founded in May 1891. James Fellows funded the purchase of the Fay mansion in the Pawtucketville neighborhood with a $30,000 donation,^[1] and in July 1893, Lowell General Hospital opened. In the first year, the Lowell General Hospital Training School for Nurses started.^[2]

LGH Nurses responded to the Spanish Influenza outbreak, which struck Lowell particularly hard, in November 1918.^[3] The epidemic killed several hundred people in the city.

In the twentieth century, the hospital underwent several expansions, with a building dedicated to the Nursing School, and a Maternity and Children's Building.

In 2012, Lowell General merged with Saints Medical Center, adding a second campus to the hospital, and consolidating hospital care in the city under the Lowell General Hospital name.^[4] The hospital, now one of the largest institutions in the Merrimack Valley, has 407 beds.^[5] Saints Medical Center itself has a long history in Lowell, itself formed by the 1992 merger of St. Joseph's Hospital and St. John's Hospital. St. Joseph's Hospital, the oldest in the city, had been founded as Lowell Corporation Hospital in 1839.^[6]

The Magnet Recognition Program recognizes healthcare organizations that are dedicated to nursing excellence, professionalism and patient focused care. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), the largest and most prominent nursing credentialing organization in the United States, honored Lowell General Hospital with Magnet Recognition for excellence in nursing care in October 2010. Lowell General was the eighth hospital in Massachusetts to achieve Magnet designation.^[7]