Harborview Medical Center is a public hospital located in the First Hill neighborhood of

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, United States. It is managed by UW Medicine.

Overview

Harborview Medical Center is the designated Disaster Control Hospital for Seattle and King County, on account of it having the only Level I adult and pediatric trauma and burn center in

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a U.S. state, state in the Northwestern United States, Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first President of the United States, U.S. p ...

; it also serves the states of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Monta ...

, and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. Harborview's burn center is one of the largest in the United States, specializing in pioneering treatments including the use of artificial skin products, which have significantly reduced mortality rates for severely burned patients. Harborview's Center for Sexual Assault provides medical and counseling services for victims of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

and their families. Thousands of patients are treated each year in the

Neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and pe ...

Department for disorders of the

brain A brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as Visual perception, vision. I ...

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the sp ...

, and peripheral nerves, such as head and

spinal cord injuries A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal co ...

stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...

brain tumors A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and second ...

, degenerative disc disease, and

spinal disc herniation Spinal disc herniation is an injury to the cushioning and connective tissue between vertebrae, usually caused by excessive strain or trauma to the spine. It may result in back pain, pain or sensation in different parts of the body, and physical ...

s. The hospital's orthopedics service has been listed as one of the top 10 services of its kind in the country by '' U.S. News & World Report''. As of fiscal year 2007, Harborview's operating budget was $568 million and its income from operations was $585 million. Harborview was instrumental in establishing Medic One, one of the country's first paramedic response programs. Many of Washington state's emergency medical service technicians are trained at the hospital. Harborview is also the principal clinical site for the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

's center for

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

research. The Madison Clinic, Harborview's outpatient facility, is the largest single provider of AIDS care in King County.

History

The hospital was founded in 1877 as King County Hospital, a six-bed

welfare Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

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 ...

in a two-story south

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

building. By 1906, it had moved into a new building in Georgetown, with room for 225 patients. Another move occurred in 1931, when the center wing of the present hospital on First Hill was completed, and the hospital's name was changed to Harborview. Harborview's Center for Sexual Assault and

Traumatic Stress Traumatic stress is a common term for reactive anxiety and depression, although it is not a medical term and is not included in the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM). The experience of traumatic stress include subtypes ...

was established in 1973. In 2020, the hospital launched a $1.7 billion upgrade and expansion effort.

In popular media

Harborview is the subject of Audrey Young's book ''House of Hope and Fear'', and the

Mark Lanegan Mark William Lanegan (November 25, 1964 – February 22, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet. First becoming prominent as the lead singer for the early grunge band Screaming Trees, he was also known as a member of Queens of the ...

song "Harborview Hospital". In the 2005 ABC medical drama ''Grey's Anatomy'' Seattle Grace Hospital was based on Harborview Medical Center. It is also in the television show '' Private Practice'', a ''Grey's Anatomy'' spinoff. Over the course of ''Grey's Anatomy'', there were two other hospital names in the same hospital based on Harborview, Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, and Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Harborview also appears in the two-hour special "Most Deadly Passage" of the series ''

Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situa ...

'', where main characters John Gage and Roy DeSoto visit Seattle to see how the paramedics of the

Seattle Fire Department The Seattle Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the city of Seattle, Washington, United States. The department is responsible for an area of , including of waterfront, with a population of 713,700. There is ...

handle their calls compared to the ones Gage and DeSoto deal with back in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. Harborview serves as the inspiration for Lakehill Hospital in the 2020 video game ''

The Last of Us Part II ''The Last of Us Part II'' is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Set five years after ''The Last of Us'' (2013), the game focuses on two playable chara ...

'', which takes place largely in Seattle.

Notable faculty

Since 1997, Paul Ramsey, MD, has served as Harborview's chief executive officer.

References

External links

Harborview Medical Center home page
{{authority control Hospitals in Seattle Hospitals established in 1877 Hospital buildings completed in 1906 Hospital buildings completed in 1931 Teaching hospitals in Washington (state) First Hill, Seattle 1877 establishments in Washington Territory Trauma centers