Sutter Health Sutter Health is a not-for-profit integrated health delivery system headquartered in Sacramento, California. It operates 24 acute care hospitals and over 200 clinics in Northern California. Sutter Hospital Association was founded in 1921 as a r ...

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center is located in the

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties ...

of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

. Its three

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

campuses are located in Berkeley (Alta Bates Campus, Herrick Campus) and

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

(Summit Campus). Alta Bates Summit is a non-profit community-based medical center and is part of

History

Alta Bates Campus

The flagship Berkeley campus of the medical center was named after Alta Miner Bates, the nurse who founded the hospital in 1905. Bates was a prominent early California nurse anesthetist. The first graduate of a nurse training program in

Eureka, California Eureka (Wiyot: ''Jaroujiji'', Hupa: ''do'-wi-lotl-ding'', Karuk: ''uuth'') is the principal city and county seat of Humboldt County in the Redwood Empire region of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt B ...

, she was among the first female anesthetists in the San Francisco Bay Area, administering over 14,000 anesthetics during her career. Until her retirement in 1949, Bates served as the hospital's director and was president of its board. Alta Bates Hospital, later renamed Alta Bates Medical Center until its merger with Summit Medical Center in 1999, is now known as the Alta Bates Campus of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

Herrick Campus

In 1904, Dr. LeRoy Francis Herrick, a graduate of the Kentucky College of Medicine (1893), purchased a Berkeley mansion known as the Hume House, located on the same block upon which the current Herrick Campus is situated, between Dwight and Channing Ways, and Milvia and Grove (now Martin Luther King Way). He converted the large home into a 25-bed hospital which he chose to name for President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

whom he admired. (President Roosevelt was an early proponent of a government-supported national public health system.) The Roosevelt Hospital was expanded to 50 beds by 1924, and renamed Berkeley General Hospital. In 1932, Dr. Herrick died, and his heirs converted the hospital into a non-profit corporation. By 1934, the hospital had 100 beds. The original Roosevelt Hospital building was demolished to accommodate additional wings and facilities which were added over time. In 1945, the hospital was again renamed Herrick Memorial Hospital, in honor of its founder. Further improvements and expansions continued through the ensuing decades. Herrick Memorial Hospital formally affiliated with Alta Bates Hospital in 1984 and fully merged in 1988. The joint organization, spanning both sites, was briefly named Alta Bates Herrick Hospital but became Alta Bates Medical Center in 1992. The site is now known as the Herrick Campus of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

Summit Campus

The Summit Campus of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center was previously three separately owned and operated facilities located in the same "Pill Hill" neighborhood, generally bounded by Broadway,

Telegraph Avenue Telegraph Avenue is a street that begins, at its southernmost point, in the midst of the historic downtown district of Oakland, California, and ends, at its northernmost point, at the southern edge of the University of California, Berkeley cam ...

and the 580 (Macarthur) freeway, immediately north of

downtown Oakland Downtown Oakland is the central business district of Oakland, California, United States; roughly bounded by both the Oakland Estuary and Interstate 880 on the southwest, Interstate 980 on the northwest, Grand Avenue on the northeast, and Lak ...

: Providence Hospital (founded in 1904 by the Sisters of Providence), Peralta Hospital (founded by local Oakland doctors in the 1920s) and Samuel Merritt Hospital. Dr. Samuel Merritt (1822–1890) was a successful San Francisco physician and also the 13th mayor of Oakland, California from 1867 to 1869. In 1867, Merritt donated to the city of Oakland the wetlands now known as

Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designate ...

. Merritt left plans for a hospital and nursing school to be built in his name after his death; in 1909 Samuel Merritt College (still in operation as

Samuel Merritt University Samuel Merritt University (SMU) is a private university focused on health sciences and located on the Summit campus of the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland, California. It was an affiliate of the Sutter Health Network and Alta Bates S ...

and affiliated with Sutter Health) and Merritt Hospital opened. Merritt and Peralta merged in 1982; the combined Merritt merged with Providence in 1992 to form Summit Medical Center, which merged with Alta Bates in 1999.

References

External links