Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas

Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) is a not-for-profit hospital in Dallas, Texas. It is part of Baylor Scott & White Health, and has 1,025 licensed beds. It is one of the major centers for patient care, medical training and research in North Texas.

It was named by the U.S. News & World Report in its list of “America’s Best Hospitals” for the fifteenth consecutive year in 1993. In 2013, Scott & White merged with Baylor Health Care System to form Baylor Scott & White Health.

BUMC was founded in 1903 as Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium and it received its charter from the state government in October 1903 and had financial support from the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The nursing school was established in 1918.

The hospital was renamed Baylor Hospital in 1921 and then Baylor University Hospital in 1936 to emphasize its relationship with the Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The Baylor College of Medicine, College of Dentistry and School of Pharmacy were co-located with the hospital. Financial difficulties due to World War II forced the College of Medicine to move to Houston, but some of the physicians at the hospital who were also professors at the College of Medicine chose to stay with the hospital instead of moving to Houston.

In the 1950s, with the construction of the seven-story, 436-bed George W. Truett Memorial Hospital, Baylor became the fifth-largest general hospital in the country. In 1959, Florence Nightingale Maternity Hospital was replaced with a newly expanded Women’s and Children’s Hospital, later renamed Karl and Esther Hoblitzelle Memorial Hospital. At this point, “medical center” was added to the hospital name. In 1981, Baylor Health Care System was formally established with Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas as its flagship hospital and corporate headquarters.