The John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County (formerly Cook County Hospital and also known as the New Cook County Hospital) is a public urban teaching hospital in Chicago that provides primary, specialty and tertiary healthcare services to the five million residents of Cook County, Illinois. The hospital employs 300 attending physicians and over 400 fellows and residents. The 1.2 million square foot, 464 bed hospital, located at 1901 W. Harrison Street, is a part of the 305 acre (1.2 km²) Illinois Medical District which is one of the largest concentrations of medical facilities in the world.Built in 1857, it was used as a teaching hospital by Rush Medical School until the Civil War, when it was transitioned to an army hospital. After the war, it continued its purpose as a center for medical education and founded the first medical internship in the country in 1866. By the 1900s, the best surgeons and physicians in Chicago volunteered their services at this expanding hospital which was completed in 1916. Regarded as one of the world's greatest teaching hospitals, many interns, residents, and graduate physicians came to see the medical and surgical advances. Innovations included the world's first blood bank and surgical fixation of fractures.The New Cook County Hospital was completed in December 2002, and is housed in a facility located adjacent to the old hospital building.County General Hospital, a fictional hospital that serves as the setting for the NBC serial medical drama ER, is loosely based on this hospital. Cook County Hospital is also used in the 1993 movie The Fugitive.
