UC Davis Health is improving lives and transforming health care by providing excellent patient care, conducting groundbreaking research, fostering innovative, interprofessional education, and creating dynamic, productive partnerships with the community.
UC Davis Health harnesses the power of an entire universitysnationally-ranked resources andresearch to tackle the most pressing health care issues facing the world today. UC Davis Healths clinicians and researchers include partners working in the nations best School of Veterinary Medicine, the nations best School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, one of the nations best Colleges of Biological Sciences, and one of the nations best Colleges of Engineering all from within one of the top fiveBest Public Universities in the entire United States.
Grounded in equity, we provide unparalleled care across California, transforming lives and communities. Our teams research and develop trailblazing therapies and technologies, educate and prepare a future-ready workforce, and drive excellence into all we do.
UC Davis School of Medicine is one of the nation's leading medical schools, recognized for its research and primary-care programs and more. The school ranks among the nation's best in U.S. News & World Report ratings, including several top-10 scores. It also places among the nation's leading schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and is home to one of the nations inaugural Clinical Translational Science Centers.
The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis advances health and ignites leadership through innovative education, transformative research and bold system change. Founded by the nations largest grant for nursing education in 2007, leaders at the School of Nursing develop programs that keep pace with ever-evolving health care and educate a new breed of nurse leaders.
The School of Nursings visionary leadership propels research in five focus areas: chronic disease management, health technology, pain management, Healthy People and Healthy Systems. Faculty come from a wide range of backgrounds including nursing, business administration, sociology, gerontology, medicine, information technology and psychology. School of Nursing students engage in classrooms and clinical environments with students in the School of Medicine, health informatics and those in other health-related programs.
The School of Nursing cultivates academic excellence and addresses urgent, societal needs through leadership development, interprofessional education, transformative research, cultural inclusiveness and innovative technology. The school plays a critical role in preparing nurse leaders who will shape the future of health care and inform health policy. The investment made here redefines the role of nurses in the 21st century and moves toward a system that benefits all who depend on it.
At UC Davis Health we proudly apply the expertise, discoveries and technology of a world-class university to advance health and well-being for people and patients both here in California and across the nation.
1850 Most of what is now downtown Sacramento floods and cholera kills thousands, sparking a public outcry for a hospital to care for the poor. The Sacramento City Council appoints a hospital committee to create a plan.
Like most of California, Sacramento was a quiet, wide open place until the middle of the 1800s. Then in January 1848, James Marshall saw something shiny in a creek along the American River. By mid-1849, gold changed everything. People flooded into the territory by the tens of thousands.
More than 90,000 people made their way to California in 1849, according to historical estimates, and by 1855, more than 300,000 people had survived their hard journeys to the new state. About half crossed the thousands of miles of wild American country by land, the rest crowded onto ships and sailed to ports like San Francisco. Some then boarded riverboats heading up to Sacramento, others trudged by land toward gold country.
1879 Another new Sacramento County Hospital is built and opens on the same site. It has a two-story main administration building with five wings one for dining, the rest as wards and accommodates 150160 beds.
1872 to 1904 The Sacramento County Hospital is led by County Physician Dr. George Amos White, who initiates the use of spinal anesthesia in surgery, brings in one of the first X-ray machines in the state and helps develop the first clinical laboratory in the region.
1879 A large farm and vineyard surrounds the hospital and supplies food for patients and staff. It includes four acres of vineyards, six acres of gardens, 10 pasture acres and a few acres of orchards. The strongest patients are required to work the farm and garden in the early years. The farm lasts into the 20th century.
1891 The county authorizes burials for indigent patients on the hospital grounds. The first burial takes place in 1897, the last in 1927. (In 2004, the remains of 72 people are reinterred at the Sacramento County Cemetery on Fruitridge Road).
Through the 19th century, the hospital was guided mostly by just one County Physician, Dr. George Amos White, who held the post from 1872 to 1904, with an interruption from 1879 to 1881, when the county briefly put homeopathists in charge. White initiated the use of spinal anesthesia in surgery, a first for Sacramento and a procedure that had been developed in Europe not long before. He also brought in one of the areas first X-ray machines and helped develop the first clinical laboratory in the region.
In addition, in its first decades, the hospital established its legacy of caring for the poor and underserved. In 1891, the county authorized burials for indigent patients on the hospital grounds. The first person was buried in 1897, the last in 1927. (In 2004, 72 patient remains were reinterred at the Sacramento County Cemetery on Fruitridge Road).
1915 A citizens group sets down the foundation for a modernized hospital in Sacramento, with proposed plans to remake or rebuild the county hospital and to have it grow to a 500-bed facility. Changes to the plans continue until 1929.
1922 The first four-year degree program is offered by the University of California at the University Farm campus in Davis and the college is renamed the Northern Branch of the College of Agriculture for the University of California.
In 1908, the California State Fair had moved from various spots around the Capitol to become a next-door neighbor of the Sacramento County Hospital, with the fairgrounds growing to more than 200 acres in the 1930s. By 1938, it was the largest state fair in America, and into the 1950s, it was called one of the countrys top attractions. The fair paused from 1942-47, when the grounds were used for military purposes.
In the 1950s and 60s, the fair drew national class performers to the grounds and its concert venue, Governors Hall. The 50s stars included Duke Ellington, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee and Lawrence Welk. In the 1960s, the venue hosted rock bands ranging from The Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish, Buffalo Springfield, Quicksilver Messenger Service and the Yardbirds to lesser known acts.
1944 Doctors from the County Hospital and around the region sponsor, organize and staff the 51st Evacuation Hospital. They support U.S. troops in Italy and France that year, then in Germany in 1945. Among its duties there, the unit treats freed prisoners of war. It would be thanked by the War Department for its service, skill and valor.
1966 The creation of the UC Davis School of Medicine begins. UC Davis and Sacramento County sign an affiliation agreement for the Sacramento County Hospital to be the medical facultys primary clinical teaching facility.
Back in Davis in 1966, in a field west of campus, the UC Davis School of Medicine was forming in a few temporary buildings. Its founding vision, which still guides the school today, was to become an academic, research and medical powerhouse that could change health care and the world. One key step for the School of Medicine: It needed a teaching hospital. In 1966, UC Davis and Sacramento County signed an affiliation agreement for the County Hospital to be the facultys primary clinical teaching facility. The university and the county would share the cost of providing care.
Through the next two decades, the UC Davis Medical Center and the campus around it officially the Sacramento Campus of UC Davis would grow physically to 144 acres, taking over most of the former California State Fairgrounds. It would also expand both its health care services and its national reputation. For instance, in 1981, it developed a system of quality assurance that would become a national model.
1984 UC Davis Medical Center is named the Sacramento County Trauma Center, and the Life Flight medical air ambulance service begins operating from the medical center to transport patients from across the hospitals 33-county service area in Northern California.
1989 The hospital and its related services qualify for membership in the National Association of Childrens Hospitals and Related Institutions, and the hospital is designated as a childrens hospital within a hospital.
1992 UC Davis Heart Center is created. UCDavis Health establishes its first telemedicine link. The connection with Colusa Community Hospital allows many women to stay in their own community while receiving expert delivery services.
1994 The UC Davis Health system is established, integrating business operations and strategic planning for UC Davis physician group, medical school and medical center. The first community clinic beyond the Sacramento health campus opens in Placerville.
1998 UCDavis establishes the MIND Institute, a unique interdisciplinary institute, to conduct research and provide clinical programs focused on autism and neurodevelopmental disorders. The Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center opens to deliver outpatient services and treatments.
1999 The state-of-the-art 14-story Davis Tower opens, creating a model inpatient environment. The Telemedicine Learning Center is established to train practitioners and administrators throughout Northern California. It is recognized as one of the most successful programs in the nation. UCDavis pediatric intensive care unit establishes a novel telemedicine link to the emergency department of Mercy Medical Center in Redding.
2006 The School of Medicines Education Building opens on the UC Davis Sacramento campus, across the street from UC Davis Medical Center, bringing all four years of medical school activities to Sacramento.
The UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures opens on the Sacramento campus in a refurbished building from the former Sacramento County Fairgrounds, becoming the universitys hub for stem cell science and research.
UC Davis announces plans for the Sacramento Rehabilitation Hospital at UC Davis Health, creating a second hospital on the Sacramento campus. It will be focused on helping patients transition between inpatient services and their homes.
Projected to open in 2022, Aggie Square will eventually span 25 acres of the UC Davis Sacramento campus and feature state-of-the-art research facilities, classroom space, the Alice Waters Institute for Edible Education, multi-family housing, mixed-use space and a range of amenities.
2020 Partnerships across the university help the UC Davis School of Medicine become a national leader in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, treating thousands of the regions sickest patients, helping create innovations in care, treatments and testing, and participating in crucial vaccine clinical trials.