History

Patient care. Teaching. Research.

Celebrating more than 20 years in a long history of caring for our community.

• 1887: Minneapolis City Hospital opens
• 1921: Medical residency program begins at what is now Minneapolis General Hospital

• 1951: Medical director position is created and filled by Thomas Lowry, MD.
• 1958: The Medical Research Laboratory is built and medical research begins in 1959.
• 1963: The first kidney transplant in the central United States is performed by Claude Hitchcock, M.D.
• 1964: Minneapolis General Hospital becomes Hennepin County General Hospital.
• 1972: Under the leadership of hospital administration, construction begins on the new hospital, renamed Hennepin County Medical Center two years later.
• 1975: 45% of specialists in Minnesota have received all or part of their training at HCMC. Physicians who trained at HCMC now practice in all 50 states.

• 1983, May 26: The physicians of Hennepin County Medical Center incorporate as Hennepin Faculty Associates.
• 1984, April 1: HFA begins operations with the mission of combining high-quality patient care with a commitment to superior physician education and relevant clinical and scientific research.
• 1986: The HFA Board of Directors approves the establishment of an Office of Academic Affairs, sponsored jointly by HFA and HCMC to encourage, promote, support, and coordinate medical education at HCMC.
• 1990: The Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation and Regional Kidney Disease Program become subsidiaries of HFA.
• 1992: HFA purchases the D Building of the former Metropolitan-Mount Sinai Medical Center.

• 2000: Forty-one HFA physicians are included in the national "Best Doctors in America" list.
• 2001, November: HFA opens a clinical laboratory to serve HFA clinics and provide outreach services.
• 2002, August: HFA hires a sales manager to bring in external customers for HFA laboratory business. Over the next several years, HFA increases referrals to several other specialty clinics through concerted effort on marketing to off-campus providers and clinics.
• 2002, September: HFA opens a new radiology clinic, LifeDiagnostics Imaging, in the One Financial Plaza office tower in downtown Minneapolis.
• 2003, October 31: A new Contact & Occupational Dermatitis Clinic opens within the HFA Multispecialty Clinic, offering patch testing for allergies.
• 2003: HFA and HCMC enter the joint strategic plan "Partners in Care".

• 2004: HFA celebrates its 20th anniversary
• 2004, March: HFA sets up an outpatient clinic at HCMC for computer-aided detection (CAD) mammography testing.
• 2005, July: Interventional Pain clinic, staffed by HFA anesthesiologists, opens within the LifeDiagnotics Imaging clinic space. Soon clinic days are standing room only! The clinic goes through two expansions in three years.
• 2005, October: HFA buys an existing clinic near the University of Minnesota campus on 24th Avenue South and renames it HFA Riverside Surgery.
• 2005, December: HFA Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic closes its doors. Ob/Gyn services are later offered on a limited basis within the Specialty Services Clinic.

• 2006, January: HFA’s Multispecialty Clinic splits into two separate clinics. The half that keeps the name Multispecialty Clinic remains in Suite 250 of the Parkside Professional Center, while the remaining portion becomes the HFA Specialty Services Clinic and moves into Suite M-50.
• 2006, November: HFA opens a new Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery clinic in Parkside Professional Center.
• 2007: HFA purchases an existing orthopaedic clinic in the Parkside Professional Center and reopens as the Institute for Bone & Joint Care.
• 2007, July: HFA Alternative Medicine Clinic expands to make way for new services, including an MD-staffed Integrative Pain Program.
• 2007, November: A new Vein Care program to treat varicose veins and other types of venous insufficiency is begun at LifeDiagnsotics Imaging and staffed by HFA's interventional radiologists.