Our History

Strong Memorial Hospital is the flagship hospital for University of Rochester Medicine, and their origins are closely aligned. In 1910, Abraham Flexner, under the auspices of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, published a report on medical schools that led to a major transformation in how medicine was taught across the country. URochester Medicine and Strong Memorial Hospital were developed from the concept of establishing a medical school at a university that would utilize Flexner’s revolutionary ideals in medical education.

The medical school opened in 1925, and Strong followed less than a year later as a 250-bed community teaching hospital. Over more than 95 years, Strong has grown to include URochester Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital and expanded facilities such as Ambulatory Care, an Emergency Department, the Ambulatory Surgery Center, Wilmot Cancer Institute, and many others.

Today, Strong is an award-winning hospital accommodating approximately 886 acute inpatients and over 39,000 annual admissions. Strong serves patients’ needs as both a community hospital delivering traditional and established medical care services along with highly specialized and advanced medical treatments. True to its heritage, Strong continues to strive for innovative, transformational care that defines Medicine of the Highest Order.