Medical Milestones

The first health network you think of when you think of firsts.

Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare delivers a continuity of care with more than 770,000 patient visits annually. We offer easy access to expert care in every specialty, while the patient remains close to home enjoying the support of family and friends. Jewish Hospital — excellence above all.

Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare (JHSMH) is a regional health care network that includes 70 health care facilities and 1,900 patients beds in Kentucky and southern Indiana.  The merger of Jewish Hospital HealthCare Services and CARITAS Health Services to form JHSMH combines the strength and honors the heritage of two organizations to provide a complete array of health care services to this region and beyond, including: hospitals, emergency air ambulance services, outpatient care, nursing home care, occupational health, psychiatric care and rehab medicine.

JHSMH provides home health care to families in 41 Kentucky and southern Indiana counties, occupational health mobile services to 30 Kentucky counties and employs a network of physician practices that provide both primary and specialty medical care.  The organization employs more than 8,100 people.

From new innovative procedures to medical breakthroughs, from heart to hand surgery, from minor to major surgery and treatment, from new equipment to high-technology — for more than 100 years — surgeons throughout the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare Network have continued to look for ways to care for and improve the lives of those around us.

The University of Louisville School of Medicine and the Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare Network form a partnership of health care excellence in research, education and patient care. Together, we have pioneered medical firsts that have made the lifesaving difference tthe people of this region and beyond.

2005

• World’s first APTIS Medical implantable total distal radioulnar joint prosthesis

2004

• Region’s first implantation of the Heartmate II ventricular assist device (heart)
• Kentucky’s first non-heartbeating donor liver transplant

2003

• World's first two-level percutaneous transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (ortho)
• One of the world’s first wrist allograft transplants
• United States’s first multi-modality show site for GE Medical Systems products (Medical Center East)
• Region’s first totally implantable Left Ventricular Assist System (the LionHeart®) as a permanent device (heart)
• Region’s first use of the Frontrunner device to penetrate completely blocked coronary arteries (heart)
• Region’s first use of the SilverHawk system to shave and remove plaque from blocked peripheral vessels and arteries
• Region's first minimally invasive one-level spinal fusion (ortho)
• Region’s first implantation of the DeBakey ventricular assist device (heart)
• Kentucky’s first new Stryker Howmedica Osteonics Trident® ceramic-on-ceramic total hip replacement (ortho)

2002

• Region's first Stryker Navigation System used in knee surgery (ortho)
• Region's first UniSpacer knee surgery (ortho)
• Region's only hospital to participate in the National Lung Screening Trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute

2001

• World's first and second AbioCor® Implantable Replacement Heart
• United States' first 24-hour, seven days a week hand care emergency room and overnight recovery center
• Kentucky's first hospital to be awarded Magnet Nursing Services designation - the highest honor nationally for nursing services
• Kentucky's first cochlear implant in an infant (12-month-old)
• Kentucky's first implantation of the Acorn CorCap Cardiac Support device (heart)

2000

• Kentucky's first artificial spinal disc implant

1999

• World's first successful human hand transplant
• Kentucky's first liquid ventilation (heart)
• Kentucky's first vertebroplasty (ortho)

1998

• United States' first two-year Novacor ventricular assist device (VAD) survival patient (heart)
• Region's first FreeHand System (JHHN rehab)
• Kentucky's first percutaneous myocardial revascularization (PMR) (heart)
• Kentucky's first "Beta Cath" following balloon angioplasty (heart)
• Kentucky's first laparoscopic nephrectomy (kidney)

1997

• United States' first free-standing heart research facility on a hospital campus
• Kentucky's first laser sheath lead extraction (heart)

1996

• World's first minimally invasive saphenous vein harvest (heart)
• Region's first ventricular remodeling surgery (heart)
• Region's first port-access mitral valve surgery (heart)
• Kentucky's first dedicated emergency stroke center

1995

• Kentucky's first double-lung transplant
• Region's first dedicated heart and lung center

1994

• Kentucky's first full-service hotel located on a medical campus
• Kentucky's first cardiomyoplasty (heart)

1993

• Kentucky's first coronary stent implant

1992

• Kentucky's first use of Novacor VAD (heart)

1991

• Kentucky's first dedicated emergency heart center

1990

• Kentucky's first kidney/liver transplant
• Kentucky's first atherectomy
• Kentucky's first adult liver transplant

1988

• Kentucky's first hospital to be designated as a federally approved heart, liver, lung and kidney transplant center
• Kentucky's first heart/lung transplant

1987

• Kentucky's first use of the Bird High-Frequency Ventilator
• Kentucky's first coronary laser angioplasty (heart)
• Kentucky's first pancreas transplant
• Kentucky's first kidney/pancreas transplant
• Kentucky's first use of coronary excimer laser (heart)

1985

• World's first successful heart transplant following the use of a Thoratec ventricular assist device
• Kentucky's first juvenile VAD implantation (heart)

1984

• Nation's first published bilateral laparoscopic oophorectory surgery (gynecology)
• Kentucky's first adult heart transplant

1983

• World's first bilateral upper arm replantation
• Kentucky's first advanced gynecologic laparoscopic surgery

1981

• One of the world's first cross-hand replantations
• Kentucky's first coronary angioplasty (heart)

1980

• Kentucky's first hyperbaric oxygen treatment facility

1977

• World's first successful double-limb replantation (hand)
• World's first bilateral forearm replantation

1973

• World's first vascularized epiphyseal transfer (hand)

1967

• World's first reported successful technique for primary flexor tendon repair in "No Man's Land" (hand)

1965

• Kentucky's first adult open heart surgery

1964

• Western Kentucky's first kidney transplant

1962

• World's first reported repair of a digital artery (hand)

For a printable version of Jewish Hospital St. Mary's HealthCare's Medical Milestones, click here.