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Indiana University Health is a nonprofit healthcare system located in the U.S. state of Indiana. It is the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Indiana, with 15 hospitals under its IU Health brand and almost 30,000 employees. It has a partnership with Indiana University School of Medicine.

IU Health is known for its three Indianapolis hospitals that have deep roots in Indiana: IU Health Methodist, the largest private hospital in Indiana with a capacity of 625 beds; Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health, the state’s first pediatric hospital; and IU Health University Hospital, the largest teaching hospital in the state.

The three Indianapolis hospitals, along with administrative offices and a centralized pathology lab, are located on a linear “campus” served by a driverless People Mover train that runs on elevated tracks through downtown Indianapolis. At the north end of the tracks is Methodist, which has a distinctive lighthouse beacon on its roof and has long served as the official hospital for race car drivers injured at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In 2015, IU Health announced it would undertake its most far-reaching development plan: combining most operations of its Methodist and University hospitals into a new consolidated hospital to be built at the Methodist site. Construction was expected to begin in 2017 and last several years, at an estimated cost of over $1 billion.

History
IU Health’s creation dates to January 1, 1997 when three Indianapolis hospitals -- Methodist Hospital, Riley Hospital for Children and Indiana University Hospital – merged to form Clarian Health Partners. Based in Indianapolis, the hospital system soon grew to include other hospitals and health centers across the state.

In January 2011, Clarian Health adopted the new name of Indiana University Health. The new brand did not change the corporate structure. IU Health remained an independent, nonprofit health system with for-profit entities, with the Methodist Church and Indiana University Board of Trustees as corporate board members.

The system’s flagship hospital, IU Health Methodist (originally called Methodist Episcopal Hospital and Deaconess Home), opened in 1908 on the site of a former baseball park. Two years later the hospital’s affiliation with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway began when the city’s first motorized ambulance began bringing patients to Methodist from the racetrack. Methodist expanded over the decades and was the site of numerous medical firsts, including the nation’s first heart transplant at a private hospital (1982) and Indiana’s first double-lung transplant (1995).

Riley Hospital for Children became Indiana’s first children’s hospital when it opened in 1924, named after Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley. The 300-room hospital provides care to more than 300,000 children a year. Nearby Indiana University Hospital opened in 1970 as a teaching hospital affiliated with Indiana University School of Medicine, replacing Long Hospital that had been in operation since 1914.

IU Health’s LifeLine helicopter is the oldest air ambulance in Indiana; it began flying in 1979. The IU Health-owned People Mover train, which is open to the public, began running in 2003 on a 1.4-mile dual track that runs above city streets and crosses underneath Interstate 65.

The health system launched a major expansion into Indianapolis’ suburbs in 2005 with the opening of IU Health North and IU Health West hospitals.

In 2008, the health system moved its administrative offices into Fairbanks Hall, a six-story office and clinical studies building constructed along the Indiana Central Canal. Another significant expansion came in 2012 when IU Health opened a $100 million neuroscience building near Methodist Hospital.

In more recent years, IU Health has expanded outpatient services while reducing its hospital holdings. In 2015 it converted IU Health Morgan hospital into an outpatient facility and sold its majority interest in IU Health LaPorte and Starke hospitals in northern Indiana. At the same time, IU Health added physicians’ offices and opened multiple urgent care centers. It also operates insurance plans for employers, families and individuals, including the Medicare-eligible.

In 2016, IU Health announced it would move women’s services including maternity care from its Methodist campus to Riley Hospital for Children.

The same year brought the retirement of Daniel F. Evans Jr., who served 14 years as IU Health’s second CEO, was a key architect of its creation and growth, and was the fifth generation of his family to serve at IU Health Methodist Hospital. He was replaced by Dennis M. Murphy, a hospital administrator from Chicago who had been groomed as Evans' successor.