Description
Partially processed. Includes records of Highland Hospital School of Nursing, student
materials, Cadet Nurse Corps records, photographs; Highland Hospital medical staff
records, patient records (selected); correspondence.
Background
Health care for the indigent was provided in Alameda County as early as 1853. The first
county hospital was opened in 1864 in a rented house in Oakland. In 1869 a new County
Infirmary was opened in San Leandro; this institution would serve as the county hospital
for some sixty years. In 1917, 9½ acres in the Highland Park district of Oakland
were purchased as a site for the new hospital. The building was financed under the
general tax fund until 1924 when a $1,800,000 bond issue was authorized for its
completion at a cost of over $3,000,000. The name Highland Hospital had been suggested by
Dr. R. G. Broderick, the first Director of Hospitals, to remove the perceived stigma
associated with county care of indigency. In 1934 the name was changed to the Alameda
County Hospital, Oakland. On December 24, 1940, the institution was given the official
name of The Highland Alameda County Hospital. Known today as Alameda County Medical
Center -Highland General Hospital, the institution is a busy, county-owned, 250-bed,
acute medical/surgical hospital with approximately 35 full-time attending physicians and
a house staff of more than 85. There are approved residencies in Emergency Meidicne,
Internal Medicine, Surgery and Oral Surgery, with residents from the Unviersity of
California at San Francisco (UCSF) or the University of California at Davis (UCD) to
provide full-time coverage in Orthopedics, Pediatrics and Ophthalmology. All these
programs have an instututional "umbrella" affiliation with either UCSF or UCD. Having
received Trauma Center designation in 1986, the Emergency Department is a major segment
of Highland General Hospital, with an annual census of 72,000+ patients, exclusive of
Pediatrics and Psychiatry (most pediatric emergencies are seen at nearby Children's
Hospital in Oakland).