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Penn State Health is an integrated academic health system serving patients and communities across 15 counties in central Pennsylvania. It employs more than 20,300 people systemwide.
The system includes Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital and Penn State Cancer Institute based in Hershey, Pa.; Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pa.; Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill, Pa.; Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center in Lancaster, Pa.; Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Pa.; Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, a specialty provider of inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, in Harrisburg, Pa.; and 2,485 physicians and direct care providers at 186 outpatient practices. Additionally, the system jointly operates various healthcare providers, including Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital, Hershey Outpatient Surgery Center, Hershey Endoscopy Center and Lancaster Orthopedic Group
In 2017, Penn State Health partnered with Highmark Health to facilitate creation of a value-based, community care network in the region.
Penn State Health shares an integrated strategic plan and operations with Penn State College of Medicine, the University’s medical school. With campuses in State College and Hershey, Pa., the College of Medicine boasts a portfolio of more than $159 million in funded research and more than 1,700 students and trainees in medicine, nursing, other health professions and biomedical research.
In addition, Penn State Health is fundamentally committed to providing compassionate, inclusive and equitable care and increasing the diversity of its workforce.
A special history
Our roots are traced to a deep desire to make our community, our state and our world a better place for everyone… the life-motivating vision of our namesake, Milton S. Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate Corporation. When Sam Hinkle, the company’s later president and chairman, made “the $50 million phone call” offering seed money to Penn State University President Eric Walker, the stakes were high: Could a world-class medical school and teaching hospital rise out of the cornfields of rural Derry Township, who would lead the charge and was it sustainable?
In a grainy, black-and-white film of the December 1963 medical center advisory committee meeting that brought together educators from other prestigious institutions such as Harvard and Temple universities, Hinkle casts a vision straight from the heart of Milton S. Hershey.
“With the accumulation of money he didn’t need for his orphans (at Milton Hershey School), I began to wonder, if he were living, ‘What would Mr. Hershey do?’” Hinkle said. “He was primarily concerned with alleviating human suffering, and that’s where the medical school idea came into play.”
An additional $21.3 million in funding from the U.S. Public Health Service—which would have to be repaid in full if the medical center failed—made groundbreaking possible in 1966. Since 1970, the campus has grown from 318 acres to 550 acres.
The milestones of the College of Medicine and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are intertwined in a long list of firsts. Among them, the College of Medicine was the first in the nation to have a dedicated Department of Family and Community Medicine and a Department of Humanities – producing “doctors with handbags and hearts.” Research in the field of hematology revolutionized the world’s understanding of HIV infection in individuals with hemophilia, improving their prognosis dramatically.
The Medical Center produced the world’s first mechanical blood pump for patients awaiting heart transplants, and, in 1985, implanted its first total artificial heart. In 2006, groundbreaking research into how to grow the human papillomavirus in the lab led to the first vaccine for cervical cancer.
A growing legacy
In 2017, Penn State Health expanded its vision by partnering with Highmark Health to create a value-based, community care network in the region. Our goal together is to ensure patients in the communities we serve are within:
10 minutes of our primary care providers
20 minutes of our specialty care services
30 minutes of a Penn State Health acute care hospital
Hershey Medical Center is the only Level 1 trauma center in Pennsylvania accredited for both adult and pediatric patients. Continuing its vision to bring the highest level of care closer to home, Penn State Health now also includes Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center in Enola, Pa., Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center in Camp Hill, Pa., Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center in Lancaster, Pa., and Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center in Reading, Pa. The health system also includes more than 200 primary, specialty and urgent care outpatient practices in 90 unique locations.
A host of honors
Penn State Health has earned national recognition for excellence in patient care that includes the U.S News & World Report Honor Roll of Best Children's Hospital 2022-2023, ranking tops in three specialties—cardiology and heart surgery, diabetes and endocrinology and pulmonology.
The Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was named one of the top hospitals in the nation for orthopedic care in the U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals 2021-2022” rankings. Hershey Medical Center is recognized as “high performing” in five additional specialties: gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, neurology and neurosurgery, pulmonology and lung surgery, and urology.
Overall, U.S. News & World Report ranked Hershey Medical Center as No. 1 in the Harrisburg metro region and No. 6 in Pennsylvania out of more than 200 hospitals evaluated.
Learn more about Penn State Health's awards and accreditations.

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