More than 50 hospitals in the Pittsburgh region, including 20 in the city, offer a full range of traditional health services. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is the premier health care system in the region and its largest employer. UPMC consists of 19 hospitals including Western Psychiatric Institute; two surgery centers, a diagnostic center, and 17 assisted living facilities; the system has been ranked as a top hospital system for six years by U.S. News and World Report. The medical school and its research affiliates attract more than $375 million a year in National Institute of Health grants. UPMC is committed to biotechnology and is concentrating on research fields such as minimally invasive robotic surgery, genetic therapy, cancer, muscular dystrophy, chronic pain, arthritis, heart disease, regenerative medicine, and pharmaceutical discovery. In a 29-county western Pennsylvania region, UPMC employs more than 40,000 workers, has an annual budget of over $5 billion, and contributes over $200 million each year in community and charitable services.
The West Penn Allegheny Health System consists of six hospitals, two of which are in Pittsburgh—the Western Pennsylvania Hospital in the Bloomfield neighborhood and Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side. Western Pennsylvania provides 524 beds and handled more than 30,000 emergency visits in 2004. Allegheny General has 625 beds and 3,876 employees, 817 of whom are medical staff. The system's medical specialties include geriatric care, emergency trauma, children's health, surgery and transplants, sports medicine, and heart, cancer, and diabetes care.
Pittsburgh Mercy Health System has two hospitals, a mental health personal care home named Outlook Manor, and an outpatient clinic run by Catholic Health East. Mercy was the first hospital in Pittsburgh, established in 1847 by seven Sisters of Mercy nuns. Mercy is dedicated to bringing health care to even the poorest patients, and provides a number of community minded charitable services, such as domestic violence and child abuse programs, a state of the art trauma and burn emergency center, programs that fight drug and alcohol addictions, the Carol Sue Rocker Health Education Center, and Operation Safety Net, an outreach program for the city's homeless.