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Description

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Our Mission
Pocono Health System is committed to the highest quality of care and the prevention of illness the promotion of wellness and the restoration of health in an environment of collaboration compassion and respect

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History

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Pocono Medical Center began as General Hospital and was founded in East Stroudsburg on Courtland Street in 1915 The General Hospital was the second of three hospitals that operated in Monroe County during the early half of 20th century The first of the other two hospitals the Stroudsburg Private Hospital founded in 1906 by the physicians of the Monroe County Medical Society became the Monroe County Hospital The other was a private hospital started by Dr Carl B Rosenkrans in 1924 on Washington Street in East Stroudsburg This private hospital closed in 1945

In 1927 the General Hospital moved from its location on Courtland Street to the JC Roop estate on East Brown Street the site now occupied by Pocono Medical Center On October 30 1930 the Monroe County Hospital of Stroudsburg and the General Hospital in East Stroudsburg merged to become the General Hospital of Monroe County This new hospital was situated on the East Brown Street property

The General Hospital of Monroe County prospered and expanded its size to accommodate the increasing demand for beds and services by the evergrowing population of the Pocono region In fact in 1930 when the two hospitals merged they set a goal of the total number of available beds at 60 At the 50year mark in 1965 just 35 years later the bed capacity nearly tripled to 186 In 1999 the official bed count is 192

The completed construction of Route 80 from New York City through to the west in 1964 plus the completion of Route 33 from Pocono to the Allentown Bethlehem Easton areas and to Philadelphia radically changed the complexion of the Pocono area from a fairly stable population to a burgeoning one The proximity of PMC to Route 80 partially accounts for its more than 50000 annual visits to PMCs Emergency Department

The hospitals name was changed to Pocono Hospital in 1976 to reflect the service area that reached outside Monroe County into portions of Pike and Northampton counties as well as Northwestern New Jersey In 1988 the hospital adopted the name Pocono Medical Center to reference the region that it serviced and generally describe the overall medical services provided This name change was further defined by the changes in the hospitals mission statement in 1989

You can review a timeline of significant moments in PMCs history over 85 years as part of Progress Magazine online Annual Report 2000

SourceA History of the first 75 years Pocono Medical Center 19151990 Anniversary Project of Pocono Medical Center and The PMC History Book Committee 1992