Philly.com
Posted
on Sun, Feb. 15, 2004
1850 Female Medical College is formed by a group of
male Quaker reformers to educate women as doctors.
1867 The school changes its name to Woman’s Medical College of
Pennsylvania, the name that many older patients still use.
1930 The college moves from North College Avenue across from Girard
College to its current site on Henry Avenue in East Falls.
1946 The college considers being absorbed by Jefferson Medical College,
but is saved by benefactors, including Margaret Kelly, the mother of actress
Grace Kelly, whose family lives in East Falls.
1970 The college begins to admit male students and changes its name to
Medical College of Pennsylvania.
1988 Allegheny Health System, of Pittsburgh, takes over MCP Hospital and
MCP School of Medicine, beginning a decade-long expansion in Philadelphia that
will make the system the state’s largest.
1993 Allegheny acquires Hahnemann University and Hospital and the
schools are combined as MCPHahnemann School of Medicine.
1997 Allegheny moves baby delivery out of MCP, stripping it of a service
that goes back to its roots as a women’s medical college.
1998 Allegheny Health System declares bankruptcy with $1.5 billion in
debts, forcing MCP hospital and medical school to separate. The hospital is
bought by for-profit Tenet Healthcare Corp., and the MCPHahnemann medical
school becomes the Drexel University College of Medicine.
1998-2002 Key services decline or are cut, including heart surgery,
orthopedics, ophthalmology and neurology. MCP gets close to profitability with
the help of special Medicare funds for the sickest patients, but Tenet comes
under national investigation for securing such funds, and they virtually
disappear, dealing MCP a $10 million financial blow.
2002 (JULIE
ADDED) Tenet gives Drexel University $90 Million in cash for bad debts (Tenet
press release 4/2002 found on Tenet site)
October MCP nurses go on strike against Tenet, cutting the number of
hospital patients from 150 to about 70.
December Tenet announces it will close MCP.