From Humble Beginnings
The Roaring 20s is a time of both prosperity and Prohibition. It’s the Jazz Age, the height of the Harlem Renaissance and the heyday of none other than Al Capone. Flappers are dancing the Charleston, silent films are all the rage and Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic. Insulin is first used to treat diabetes and Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Closer to home, a newly formed Sarasota County separates from Manatee County, and the Florida Land Boom sees the local population grow by 400%.
1924 Sarasota residents begin raising funds to build a community hospital. In the meantime, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System finds its humble beginnings with tents and a five-room bungalow converted into a stop-gap emergency hospital.
1925 Sarasota Hospital opens November 2, 1925, on Hawthorne Street with 32 beds and 12 physicians. It cost $40,000. One of the few registered nurses in Sarasota, Ruth Wilhelm serves as its first superintendent, providing around-the-clock patient care, as well as preparing meals and washing laundry. Superintendent nurses would essentially run the hospital for the first 15 years of its operation.
1927 With the completion of a new annex, the hospital moves into and becomes part of the City of Sarasota. It is renamed Sarasota Municipal Hospital. The two-story, $175,000 expansion increases bed capacity to 60. The on-site Nurses Home expands to accommodate 30 resident nurses.
As the decade comes to an end, the new hospital has been dubbed a “dream of many made possible by the intensive efforts of a few and the generosity of all,” but Black Tuesday signals the beginning of The Great Depression. Difficult times lie ahead for Sarasota and its hospital.
1930s
Community Comes Together
The Dirty Thirties are a period of hardship and unrest. The Great Depression brings economic turmoil, the Dust Bowl ravages the Midwest, and the Hindenburg explodes over New Jersey. On the bright side, Prohibition ends, J.R.R. Tolkien publishes The Hobbit and DC Comics introduces the world to Batman and Superman. Cortisone is discovered, as are vaccines for yellow fever, tetanus and diphtheria. In Sarasota, a population of just over 8,000 relies on the circus and a tourism economy to stay afloat in hard times.
1932 In the midst of the Great Depression, Sarasota County and the City of Sarasota rally in joint support of Sarasota Municipal Hospital, calling the hospital “one of the county’s most necessary assets.”
1933 Voters approve a major hospital expansion. The hospital now has approximately 100 beds, a nurses’ home, an operating room, a garage, and an annex to accommodate patient overflow. Private citizens furnish patient rooms and wards in memory of loved ones.
1939 William McQueen, MD, is chosen as the new superintendent and first physician administrator of Sarasota Municipal Hospital.
The slow summer months sometimes find the hospital treating only one patient at a time, but with the Great Depression coming to an end and World War II just beginning, a period of growth and transformation awaits.
A Post-War World
The 1940s are a decade dominated by World War II and its aftermath. The computer is invented, as is the jet engine, the microwave, the Frisbee and the slinky. The first dialysis machine is built and chemotherapy revolutionizes cancer treatment. Movie houses screen Citizen Kane and Casablanca to sold-out audiences, while Sarasota enters the war effort by leasing the Sarasota-Bradenton airport to the U.S. Army Air Corps, which uses the airfield as a training ground for fighters.
1945 Post-war population booms spur calls for hospital expansion and an outpouring of donations from the community fuels rapid growth, including a new surgical suite, enlarged garage, kitchen and dining room, a concrete block wing and the hospital’s first air-conditioning unit. A citywide effort begins to raise money for a war “Memorial” hospital.
1947 The Women’s Auxiliary is founded with 25 members, marking a milestone in the hospital’s long history of volunteer support. By 1950, membership would grow to more than 385.
1948 The hospital expands again, adding more operating rooms, new medical equipment, and a pharmacy.
1949 The Florida Legislature passes an act establishing Sarasota Municipal Hospital as a public institution governed by a nine-member elected hospital board.
When the 1940s come to a close, Sarasota Municipal Hospital already has a reputation as the busiest hospital of its size in Florida and the 1950s will only get busier.
1950s
Into the Technological Age
The 1950s brings the Baby Boom, the King of Rock and Roll and the Korean War. The polio vaccine is discovered, nearly eliminating the disease in the U.S. by the end of the decade, and the first human kidney transplant is performed. Television sets become household fixtures and Sputnik is launched, marking the beginning of the space race. Meanwhile in Sarasota, the NAACP stages wade-ins to protest segregated beaches, and Cecil B. DeMille shoots his Academy Awardwinning circus drama, The Greatest Show on Earth , starring Betty Hutton, Charlton Heston, and Jimmy Stewart.
1950 Don Laurent is named Sarasota Municipal Hospital administrator, beginning a 25-year career. The hospital expands its practical Nurses Training Program to address acute nursing shortages.
1951 Sarasota Municipal Hospital enters a period of marked expansion, adding a Medical Arts Building, followed by Doctors Gardens offices and the Crippled Children’s Commission HQ. Civic leaders join hospital staff to break ground on a new “Memorial” hospital building.
1955 On Sunday, October 16, Sarasota Municipal Hospital is renamed Sarasota Memorial Hospital in honor of World War I and World War II veterans. It opens with a capacity of 255 beds and is one of the few fully air-conditioned hospitals in the South.
1956 Sarasota Memorial Hospital establishes its first cardiac care center.
1958 Local papers and population booms call for another expansion. A new $2 million wing includes a new Intensive Care Unit and opens its doors just as the 1957-58 influenza pandemic hits Sarasota. Physicians and nurses tend to patients in the hallways.
At the end of the decade, Sarasota Memorial Hospital has grown to 350 beds, 500 employees and serves a community of more than 76,000 people. “The new magnificent, ultra-modern, Sarasota Memorial Hospital is a reality,” writes the Herald-Tribune.
1960s
A Stronger Tomorrow
The 1960s are defined by the Civil Rights Movement and political unrest, the Kennedys and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The counterculture movement protests the Vietnam War but embraces The Beatles, while the FDA approves the measles vaccine and The Pill hits the market. Bob Dylan becomes the voice of a generation and the world watches as Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Back on Earth, Sarasota integrates its public schools and desegregates its beaches.
1960 New and expanded services include a 5th-floor unit dedicated to psychiatric patients and a new laboratory with the “finest facilities available anywhere.”
1962 A new era begins with the introduction of the first computer system, an IBM 305 RAMAC.
1965 Following the passage of federal Civil Rights legislation, Sarasota Memorial integrates, treating Black patients in rooms throughout the hospital, rather than a segregated wing.
1967 With support from the county, Sarasota Memorial Hospital doubles in size, with major expansions including 14 operating rooms, a 26-bed recovery room, a 48-bed ICU, a clinical laboratory, and a new X-ray department. The hospital board applies for helicopter landing space.
1969 The 92-bed Retter Wing completes construction, thanks to a $1 million gift to Sarasota Memorial from Earl and Edith Retter.
John W. Chenault, M.D.
The first African American doctor to earn hospital privileges at Sarasota Memorial Hospital and the first physician to open a practice in Newtown, Dr. Chenault moved to Sarasota in 1957 and quickly became a pillar of the community. His office on the corner of Osprey and what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way was not only a rare patient room always open to the people of Newtown but a place of learning and inspiration for their children. Today, the Sarasota Memorial Internal Medicine Practice in Newtown proudly displays Dr. Chenault’s portrait to honor his legacy in the community.
A man has landed on the moon and the sky is the limit. And by the end of the 1960s, Sarasota Memorial Hospital has nearly 1,000 employees, 500 beds and has served its 100,000th patient.
1970s
50 Years Strong
The ‘70s are a strange trip but the music is groovy. President Richard Nixon resigns in the wake of Watergate and the Vietnam War ends. Disco is king and everybody is wearing roller skates. The MRI is invented, gene splicing becomes a possibility and Stephen Hawking makes major breakthroughs in theoretical physics. Apollo 13 has a problem but everyone is watching Jaws and Star Wars . In Sarasota, a recession hits that will not subside until the 1980s, and the last passenger train rolls into Sarasota Station.
1970 Men join the Sarasota Memorial Hospital nursing corps and the Women’s Auxiliary, which drops “Women” from its name.
1972 The East Tower is completed in January, partially opening in February. The first medical evacuation from the hospital’s helicopter pad takes place.
1974 Sarasota Memorial is one of the first general hospitals to establish a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, supported by ongoing donations from the Sudakoff family. SMH would add a Cardiac Cath Lab and Cardiac Rehabilitation Program toward the end of the decade.
1975 Sarasota Memorial Hospital celebrates its Golden Anniversary. It has 1,400 staff and 601 beds. Jack Floyd succeeds Don Laurent as executive director.
1976 The Sarasota Memorial Hospital Foundation, later named the Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation, holds its first meeting and immediately begins providing critical philanthropic support for the hospital and its mission.
1978 The Nuclear Medicine Department is established. Minicomputers and nuclear cameras replace probes and exploratory surgery. Sarasota Memorial’s East Tower fully opens and is dubbed “the flagship of the Southwest in the hospital industry.”
The 1970s were a time of technological transformation and philanthropic innovation, but only prelude to an era where everything got bigger not just the hair and Sarasota Memorial would be no exception.
1980s
Healthcare With Heart
The 1980s are an age of high tech and pop culture. Ronald Reagan is president but Michael Jackson is King (of Pop). The Berlin Wall falls and Chernobyl goes critical. It’s the era of Atari and the birth of the Internet, as audiences are introduced to Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros. and the World Wide Web. The IBM personal computer is released and the first surgical robot is developed. Sarasota experiences a building boom and the art scene expands with the renovation of the iconic Sarasota Opera House and the formation of the Sarasota Ballet.
1981 Sarasota Memorial goes a little green, and a re-design of the Energy Center recaptures the energy produced by water and steam, saving millions of dollars.
1983 Sarasota Memorial launches its Open-Heart Surgery Unit and opens an intensive care nursery.
1984 Sarasota Memorial completes Waldemere Tower, pushing total bed capacity near 800, and breaks ground on Cape Outpatient Surgery Center.
1985 Philip Beauchamp is named president and CEO.
1986 The inpatient oncology unit opens and, a year later, Sarasota Memorial purchases its first MRI. At the time, it is the most expensive piece of equipment purchased by the hospital at $2.6 million.
1987 The facility now known as Sarasota Memorial Nursing & Rehabilitation Center opens on Clark Road. Today, it remains a 5-star nationally recognized facility for safe, high-quality care.
1988 A new Comprehensive Rehabilitation Unit starts taking inpatients, while the hospital’s first Child Care Center opens its doors on Hyde Park Street.
1989 Specially designed mother/baby unit allows for rooming-in of mothers and babies.
As the ‘80s disappear in a puff of glitter and hairspray, the ‘90s promise to keep the party going powered by advanced robotics and personal computers.
The Rise of Robotics
The 1990s bring a decade of economic prosperity and optimism. The Hubble Telescope orbits the Earth, Pathfinder lands on Mars, and Titanic arrives in theaters. Everything goes digital, email is hot, and pagers are a fashion statement. Seinfeld owns the airwaves but grunge rules the radio. The Soviet Union dissolves, ending the Cold War just in time for the Gulf War to begin, and Hurricane Andrew strikes Southwest Florida. In Sarasota, Robert De Niro and Ethan Hawke film Great Expectations.
1990 SMH’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) earns Level III designation; the only hospital unit providing advanced care for premature and critically ill newborns.
1991 Smoking is no longer allowed inside the hospital. A campus-wide prohibition on tobacco use would be put in place in 2007.
1992 Sarasota Memorial Hospital opens what would become the Community Specialty Clinic to provide free, specialized care to underserved residents.
SMH’s First Physicians Group starts with a handful of physicians. Today it includes near 600 providers offering care in more than 40 specialties.
1997 The first floor of the Critical Care Center establishes three streamlined centers of emergency and critical care with specialized clinicians all under one roof.
1999
SMH is one of the first hospitals in the nation to utilize minimally invasive robotic technology, including Zeus, the precursor to the da Vinci robots of today.
As the world braces itself for Y2K and the coming of a new millennium, Sarasota Memorial, with 850 beds and 3,700 employees, is now among the largest public hospitals in the nation. The 21st Century is looking bright.
2000s
Rising High & Reaching Out
The Noughties are the age of the Internet and international turmoil, as the 9/11 terrorist attacks plunge the nation into war. Amazon, Facebook and Google emerge as digital titans, and everyone is watching cat videos on YouTube or The Sopranos on HBO. Barack Obama makes history as the first Black president. The Human Genome Project is completed, the HPV vaccine is approved, and the first full face transplant is performed. In Sarasota, the building boom comes to an abrupt end when the city emerges as an epicenter of the 2008 real estate crash.
2000 Sarasota Memorial begins developing an extensive network of ambulatory centers to bring outpatient and diagnostic services close to people’s homes, opening outpatient care centers on University Parkway and Blackburn Point Road. Duncan Finlay, MD, is named president and CEO.
2001 SMH earns the Florida Governor’s Sterling Award for Performance Excellence, an honor given sparingly to exceptional organizations with model results. The growth of the Sarasota campus and the addition of satellite facilities and outreach programs prompts a name change: Sarasota Memorial Health Care System.
2003 Sarasota Memorial earns its first Magnet Nursing designation, the nation’s highest honor for excellence in nursing. 20 years later, SMH will be among the 1% of the nation’s hospitals to have earned the designation all five consecutive times.
2005 Gwen MacKenzie, RN, MN, MHSA, is named president and CEO.
2006 First Urgent Care Center opens, located on University Parkway. Today, Sarasota Memorial has seven Urgent Care Centers conveniently situated throughout the region.
2007 The Institute for Advanced Medicine opens, offering outpatient services and the latest in the field of neuroscience. The new outpatient center on Clark Road offers an array of wellness programs, including HealthFit, the area’s first medically-oriented fitness center.
2009 A freestanding Emergency Room and Health Care Center opens in North Port, while an outpatient care center begins seeing patients in Manatee County’s Heritage Harbour community.
After a decade of expansion and nationwide recognition, the newly named Sarasota Memorial Health Care System has come into its own as a leading hospital in the nation. The 2010s will solidify that reputation and build upon it.
2010s
Building A Better Future
The ‘Teens are alright. The nation comes out of the Great Recession and signs up for Netflix—but they don’t have Game of Thrones. It’s the era of smartphones and superhero flicks, while social media emerges as the new frontier. Deepwater Horizon spills 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the nuclear reactor at Fukushima melts down, and the world watches as 12 boys are rescued from a flooded cave in northern Thailand. A human liver is grown from stem cells and 3D printer is used for the first-ever skull transplant. The Baltimore Orioles fly south to Sarasota for the winter.
2010
A new Central Energy Plant opened – the first step in Sarasota Memorial’s long-awaited, multi-phase Campus Improvement Project.
2013 The Courtyard Tower opens with Cardiac and Orthopedic Units, an expanded Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and state-of-the-art Labor & Delivery and Mother-Baby suites. Sarasota Memorial unveils four integrated operating rooms dedicated to minimally invasive and women’s surgery.
2014 David Verinder is named president and CEO.
2015
2016
Sarasota Memorial opens the first and only Trauma Center in Sarasota County.
Sarasota Memorial earns 5 stars for overall quality in the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s new hospital ratings program. It is the only hospital in Florida to receive the highest 5-star grade in every reporting period since.
2017 The Rehabilitation Pavilion opens as a state-of-the-art inpatient/outpatient facility with 44 beds.
Sarasota Memorial partners with the Florida State College of Medicine to launch an Internal Medicine Residency Program, helping to train the next generation of physicians. The newly opened Sarasota Memorial Internal Medicine Practice in Newtown is staffed by resident physicians and attending board-certified Internal Medicine physicians on staff at Sarasota Memorial.
As the 2010s come to a close, few suspect that the next few years will be defined by a global pandemic that thrusts healthcare workers into the spotlight and onto the front line in a fight against a deadly virus. Sarasota Memorial will emerge as a national example.
2020s
The Future Is Now
The story of the 2020s is still being written. The COVID-19 pandemic has left its mark but the heroic efforts that turned the tide made even greater impact. It’s the decade of artificial intelligence and renewable energy, TikTok and cryptocurrency. The human genome is sequenced and the James Webb Telescope gives humanity its clearest look at the universe yet. In Sarasota, a growing city decides its future…
2020 Sarasota Memorial unveils a new radiation oncology center on University Parkway.
2021
Two dozen staff from an SMH COVID unit are the first healthcare workers invited by the NFL to attend Super Bowl LV in Tampa, with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell personally extending the invitation and calling healthcare workers, “America’s real MVP’s.”
Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice opens, offering high-quality acute care close to home for residents in south Sarasota County.
The Sarasota Memorial Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute opens its state-of-the-art Oncology Tower on the Sarasota campus.
2023 Sarasota Memorial breaks ground on the Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute. When it opens in 2025, the institute will enhance clinical research, education and simulation training.
Sarasota Memorial opens the new Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion, a comprehensive inpatient and outpatient facility that replaces the aged Bayside Center for Behavioral Health.
2024 SMH-Venice doubles its capacity, opening a new patient care tower and expanded Emergency Care Center.
Construction is under way on the Milman-Kover Cancer Pavilion. Slated to open in 2025, the pavilion will provide a full array of outpatient oncology services. That same year, SMH will break ground on a new hospital in North Port.”