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History of the Stritch School of Medicine

At the beginning of this century, there were several independent and unaffiliated medical schools and the need in Chicago for a strong Catholic medical school under university auspices was recognized by Loyola University. In 1909, the Illinois Medical School was affiliated with Loyola University, followed in 1910 by the Bennett and Reliance Medical Colleges. In 1915 the whole organization passed to complete control of the trustees and became the Loyola University School of Medicine.

The Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery owned property and physical facilities ideally situated near the 2,700 bed Cook County hospital. This college with its laboratories and physical facilities was acquired by agreement in 1917. Loyola University School of Medicine was accredited by the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association on February 9, 1920, and has been a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges since 1921.

On April 15, 1948, the Board of Trustees of Loyola University of Chicago unanimously approved a resolution to designate this school as the Stritch School of Medicine in honor of the deceased Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Archbishop of Chicago.

In 1968, a new medical school and 504 bed teaching hospital - the first two units of the new Loyola University Medical Center - were completed on a 60-acre tract of land in Maywood, Illinois. The new medical school was occupied in January, 1969, and the University hospital opened its doors on May 21, 1969. In 1981, the Loyola University Mulcahy Outpatient Center, a comprehensive, multi-specialty clinic facility staffed by the faculty of the Stritch School of Medicine, was constructed to provide a full range of outpatient services.

In 1986 a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit was added to the Outpatient Center. The Vincent P. & Frances G. Russo Surgical Pavilion, containing a new 50 bed neonatal ICU, 16 operating rooms, 40 surgical intensive care beds, cardiac catheterization lab, pharmacy, cardiographics, and other support services, accepted its first patients in February, 1987. The Emergency Medical Services Building opened in 1991 and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center opened in 1994. The Stritch School of Medicine’s state-of-the-art building, dedicated to a new curriculum founded on principles of active learning and early clinical experience, opened in July 1997.