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Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine have a rich history of innovation, education and service to the community.

Learn how we started and have grown to be one of the nation's premier integrated academic health systems.

The “$50 million phone call”

Samuel L. Hinkle, left, president and chairman of the Hershey Chocolate Corporation, reenacts his 1963 phone call to Penn State president Dr. Eric E. Walker in which he invited Walker to discuss establishing a medical school and teaching hospital in Hershey. The M. S. Hershey Foundation gave a $50 million gift to The Pennsylvania State University for the project. With this grant and $21.3 million from the U.S. Public Health Service, the University built Penn State College of Medicine and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Founding dean and CEO Dr. George Harrell, pictured in 1966, oversees initial construction of the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and College of Medicine.
Founding dean and CEO Dr. George Harrell oversees initial construction of Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine in 1966.

Penn State College of Medicine opened its doors to the first class of students in 1967.

Eight medical students stand and wear caps and gowns at Penn State College of Medicine’s first graduation ceremony in 1971. Folding chairs are behind each of them. On the left, a man kisses a woman on the cheek.
Penn State College of Medicine’s first class of graduates in 1971.

Penn State Health

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center accepted its first patient on Oct. 14, 1970. Forty-four years later, the Penn State Board of Trustees formed Penn State Health, a multi-facility health system that today serves communities in 15 central Pennsylvania counties and employs more than 20,900 people. Milton S. Hershey Medical Center is recognized as one of the nation's premier academic health centers, providing high-level, patient-focused medical care. Its Hershey campus includes Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, the most comprehensive children’s hospital between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia; institutes focused on cancer, heart and vascular disease and the neurosciences; and Penn State College of Medicine.

The exterior of the Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center is framed by redbud trees in bloom in April 2017. A sign on the building includes the Nittany Lion shield with the year 1855 on it.

In 2015, Penn State Health acquired St. Joseph Regional Health Network in Berks County. Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center includes an acute care hospital in Bern Township, Pa., and a downtown Reading campus. The rapidly growing health system expanded once again in 2017 to acquire Physicians’ Alliance LTD, the largest independent physician practice group in Lancaster County.

That same year, Penn State Health partnered with Highmark Health to facilitate the creation of a value-based, community care network in the region. Penn State Health now encompasses nearly 2,500 physicians and direct care providers at 186 outpatient locations. 

Three photos are combined to show Penn State Health and Children’s Hospital executive leaders cutting ribbons on three different floors of Penn State Health Children's Hospital.
Staff cut ribbons on the 6th, 7th and 8th floors of Penn State Health Children's Hospital to celebrate its expansion in 2020.

To meet a steady increase in patient demand for services, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center expanded its Emergency Department and Children’s Hospital in 2020. The three-floor vertical expansion of the Children’s Hospital provided more space for a new Women and Babies Center, a 56-bed Level IV neonatal intensive care unit and the state’s only Small Baby Unit, created specifically for growth and improved brain development in premature babies.

Exterior of Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center. The main entrance sign reads “Hershey H. and Hasu P. Shah Main Entrance.” A Nittany Lion statue is next to a flagpole with the American flag. A flowerbed is in the foreground. The Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center sign is on the top of a brick section of the hospital.

In 2020, Penn State Health took another step forward as a regional health network by acquiring Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill, its affiliated outpatient practices, The Ortenzio Heart Center and West Shore EMS.

The Nittany Lion mascot, wearing a Penn State face mask, raises his arms. Below him, in an out-of-focus shot, hospital leaders wave pom-pom shakers to greet employees as they enter the new Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center on opening day, Oct. 1, 2021.
The Nittany Lion welcomes staff to Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center on opening day, Oct. 1, 2021.

Less than one year later, Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center, a $300 million acute care hospital, opened its doors to patients in Enola, Cumberland County.

A man raises an American flag in front of Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center. Behind him, a man holds up an umbrella. A sign on the front of the hospital reads “Welcome to Lancaster Medical Center.”
Bryan Schmalhofer, director of diagnostic imaging, helps to raise the American flag on opening day at Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center on Oct. 3, 2022.

Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center opened in East Hempfield Township, Lancaster County in 2022 with 142 private inpatient beds, an emergency department, labor and delivery, and an attached medical office building.

Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, a specialty provider of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services in Harrisburg, was created in 2008 through a joint venture by Penn State Health and another health system. It became fully part of Penn State Health in 2023.

Penn State Health also jointly operates Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center and Hershey Endoscopy Center.

These acquisitions, new facilities and joint ventures advanced Penn State Health’s long-term goal of ensuring everyone in the communities it serves is within 10 minutes of a Penn State Health primary care provider, 20 minutes of its specialty care services, and 30 minutes of a Penn State Health acute care hospital.

Training Tomorrow’s Leaders in Medicine

Three medical students wearing lab coats examine a manikin in the Penn State College of Medicine Clinical Simulation Center. A young woman in the front puts a stethoscope on his chest. The man next to her is wearing a stethoscope around his neck, and the man next to him is looking at them. The manikin is lying on an examining table. A monitor is next to them.

Penn State Health shares an integrated strategic plan and operations with Penn State College of Medicine. Faculty and physicians at the College of Medicine and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center combine the latest biomedical knowledge and technology with compassionate care of patients, while educating the next generation of scientists and physicians.

A woman researcher holds two test tubes filled with colorful liquid in front of her face. She has shoulder-length hair and is wearing glasses and surgical gloves. The test tubes have measurement markings.

The College of Medicine boasts a portfolio of nearly $159 million in funded research and more than 1,700 students and trainees in medicine, nursing, other health professions and biomedical research at its Hershey campus and a regional medical campus in State College.

Dr. Willis Willard touches the foot of a boy who is seated on an exam table. Two nurses wearing short-sleeved uniforms stand on either side of Dr. Willard. He is wearing a suit, tie and glasses. The boy is smiling and wearing a jacket with a string hanging down. The nurse on the left is wearing a nurse’s cap and has her eyes closed. The nurse on the right is wearing horn-rimmed glasses.
Dr. Willis Willard treats a young patient in the Family and Community Medicine outpatient clinic in 1968.

The College of Medicine was the first in the nation to have a dedicated Department of Humanities and a Department of Family and Community Medicine. It recruits faculty members who are internationally known for their accomplishments in research, education and patient care.

Penn State College of Medicine offers doctor of philosophy degrees in anatomy, biomedical sciences, biostatistics, epidemiology and neuroscience; an MD/PhD Medical Scientist Training Program; a physician assistant master’s degree program; and master’s degrees in anatomy, clinical research, laboratory animal medicine and public health. Each year, approximately 560 resident physicians are trained in medical specialties at Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

Continuing education programs serve health care professionals throughout Pennsylvania, with enrollment exceeding 39,000 each year.

With every person, practice and partner that joins Penn State Health, it brings more high-quality clinical care, clinical trials and education to the people of central Pennsylvania and beyond.

Two nurses hold up a man as he stands using crutches in a hospital room. The nurse on the left has her hair in a braid and is wearing scrubs. The nurse on the right has long hair and is wearing scrubs. The man has his leg bandaged and is wearing a patient smock and has crutches under his arms. A hospital bed is behind them, and a monitor and chair are on the right.

Contact Us

For more information about the history of Penn State Health, please contact the Office of Marketing and Communications at 717-531-8606.