HistoryThe story of our medical center began 145 years ago in a small rented building in Zokak El-Blat in Beirut, home to the first classes of the School of Medicine, which was established by the Syrian Protestant College (later known as AUB). It became evident, and quite quickly, that the School of Medicine would need to expand to meet the needs and demands of our region. In 1902, the College purchased a property across the street from AUB Medical Gate and established a 200-bed hospital that provided ancillary services. The property housed an administrative building, homes for the superintendents, nurses, and student nurses, a kitchen, as well as multiple wards for gynecology, obstetrics, and children’s diseases. In 1905, the School of Nursing – the first of its kind in the Middle East – was founded.
Over the years, the need for continued expansion became clear. In 1970, a new state-of-the-art medical center – the American University of Beirut Medical Center – was inaugurated in the presence of then Prime Minister Rashid Karameh. The new medical center was built with a 420-bed inpatient capacity, an elaborate outpatient facility, an emergency department, research laboratories, classrooms, and offices for academic staff.
All the growth mentioned above has led us to where we are today: the Faculty of Medicine has graduated over 4,000 medical students and physicians (as at 2011); the Rafic Hariri School of Nursing provides excellent education for the nursing staff, and the Medical Center meets the health care needs of over 360,000 patients annually.
Today, AUBMC is the first medical institution in the Middle East to have earned five international accreditations of Joint Commission International (JCI), Magnet, College of American Pathologists (CAP), Joint Accreditation Committee for EBMT and ISCT Europe (JACIE), and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education - International (ACGME-I) attesting to its superior standards in patient-centered care, nursing, pathology/laboratory services, and graduate medical education. AUBMC’s impact on the medical sector and on improving people’s lives is without equal in the Arab world.
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