History of Highland
Diversity, community, quality, compassion, longevity and dynamism are the words that describe the essence of the Emergency Medicine training program at Highland. In 1980, Bob Dailey M.D., our first department chair and one of the true fathers of Emergency Medicine, established an EM residency at Highland Hospital. Highland is one of the of the oldest Emergency Medicine residencies in the country. It began as a two-year program, (pgy 2-3) with 6 housestaff per year. In 1988, Highland was among the first residencies to transition to a four-year training program. As the residency grew and matured, private and university experience was added to the primarily county-based program. We have recently expanded to 10 housestaff per year and now have 40 residents in our program.
Highland Hospital opened its doors in 1927 with the mission to improve the health of all county residents regardless of ability to pay. Located on a hilly 16 acre site, 3 miles south of downtown Oakland, the original hospital, with its Spanish baroque architecture, promised “progressive medical care in comfortable surroundings.” Today, Alameda County Medical Center (ACMC) consists of three campuses, Highland Campus with its 236 bed inpatient hospital, a 159 bed Fairmont Rehabilitation Hospital, and the 80 bed John George Psychiatric Pavilion. ACMC is home to residencies in Emergency Medicine, Surgery, Oral-Maxillofacial Surgery and Internal Medicine. It is the designated trauma center for northern Alameda County (Oakland) and the county EMS base station.
For its first 50 years of existence the Emergency Department at Highland consisted of one very long hallway. Its 6,000 square feet of space were usually jammed with patients. In 2004 we opened our 26,000 square foot modern ED in the new and seismically-safe Koret Building, equipped with the latest technology such as a dedicated light speed multi slice CT scanner and integrated informatics system. This beautiful new space ensures that we will be prepared to serve our community and its needs for years to come.