| University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center | |
| Type: | Comprehensive health center |
| Provost: | Gary Raskob, Ph.D. |
| Faculty: | 800 |
| Administrative Staff: | 2,400 |
| Students: | 4,000[1] |
| Country: | United States |
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, is the health sciences branch of the University of Oklahoma. It serves as the primary place of training for many of Oklahoma's health professions. It is one of only four health centers in the United States with seven professional colleges.[2]
The nineteen buildings that make up the OUHSC campus occupies a fifteen block area in Oklahoma City near the Oklahoma State Capitol. Surrounding these buildings are an additional twenty health-related buildings some of which are owned by the University of Oklahoma. The Health Sciences Center is the core of a wider complex known as the Oklahoma Health Center. The major clinical facilities on campus are part of OU Medicine and include the OU Medical Center hospital complex, The Children's Hospital, OU Physicians and OU Children's Physicians clinics, Harold Hamm Diabetes Center and the Peggy and Charles Stephenson Oklahoma Cancer Center. Also part of the major clinical facilities is the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center.[3]
The University of Oklahoma in Norman was founded in 1890, 17 years before Oklahoma's statehood, by the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature. In 1910, OU's fledgling two-year medical school moved to Oklahoma City and became a four-year program.[4] A school of nursing was founded nearby the next year, and graduated its first class in 1913. In subsequent years a new university hospital was built, a graduate college for biomedical sciences was established, and the Oklahoma City Veterans Administration Hospital was constructed. A school of health was created in 1967, splitting twelve years later into a college of allied and public health. In 1971, the University of Oklahoma Medical Center became the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and all schools on the HSC campus were designated as colleges. The College of Pharmacy, OU's oldest professional program, made the move from Norman to Oklahoma City five years later.[5]
On July 1, 1993, the University Hospital system officially became independent of the State of Oklahoma Department of Health Services.[6] In 1998, Columbia/HCA, a large hospital group based in Franklin, TN, entered into a joint agreement with the University Hospitals Authority and Trust (UHAT) to manage the hospitals. UHAT and community leaders founded the nonprofit, OU Medicine, which executed a $750 million buyout of HCA Healthcare's management agreement and ownership stake of its hospital facilities in 2018.[7]