University of Utah Hospital opened its doors in 1965, coinciding with the closing of Salt Lake County General Hospital, which had served as the main teaching hospital for the
University of Utah School of Medicine since 1942. In September 1981, an expansion to the old building was dedicated. In 1982,
Barney Clark received the world's first permanently implanted artificial heart, the
Jarvik-7, during an operation performed by
William C. DeVries, M.D. In 2001 the hospital was named as the
Intermountain West's first nationally certified Level 1 Trauma Center by the
American College of Surgeons. In 2007 the
George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Critical Care Pavilion, an addition to the hospital was opened. A new $200-million patient care pavilion, with space for an additional 100 private patient rooms, was dedicated in July 2009.
Mario R. Capecchi, Ph.D. won the 2007
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine as a University of Utah
gene targeting pioneer. In March, 2017, University of Utah Health Care was quietly renamed University of Utah Health. In July 2017, the hospital was part of an
incident where the police detective Jeff Payne wrongfully arrested nurse
Alex Wubbels. Payne asked Wubbels to provide a blood sample from an unconscious patient, and she was arrested when she refused. Wubbels was later released and no charges were brought against her. In September 2017, after footage of the incident went viral, the hospital announced changes to the hospital protocol meant to stop a similar incident from happening in the future. Under this new protocol, police officers will not be allowed in patient-care areas and will speak with "house supervisors" instead of nurses. ==Medical campus==