In the 1800s, patients sought the University of Michigan’s medical faculty for treatment. The faculty reported in 1868 that even though there were no hospital facilities available, more than 300 patients had come to the university for medical assistance. In 1869, the University of Michigan became the first university in the nation to own and operate its own hospital. In what was the east Professor’s House on North University Avenue, the University Hospital had 20 beds and had no operating rooms or wards. It was a receiving home, in which patients brought in for the clinics could be kept before and after presentation to the class.
— Compiled from the U-M Millennium Project
