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What's in a Name?

As a new staff member or research associate at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, you may be confused by all the entities that have "Northwestern" in their names. Admittedly, this is a large, complex environment, but the following information should help you sort out the players.

Northwestern University is an independent, private institution founded in 1851 by men determined to create "a university of the highest order of excellence." It has 12 divisions, including the Feinberg School, which was founded in 1859 as Chicago Medical College and became affiliated with Northwestern in 1870. Northwestern University Medical School was renamed the Feinberg School of Medicine in 2002 in recognition of the generosity of the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation. Other divisions located on the Chicago campus are the School of Law, School of Continuing Studies, and the Kellogg School of Management's evening managers' program.

The University and five affiliated teaching hospitals form the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. These hospitals are Children's Memorial Hospital (CMH), Evanston Northwestern Healthcare (ENH), Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH), Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC), and Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. This is Northwestern's academic medical center, the member institutions of which are committed to the missions of teaching, research, and patient care. Nearly all attending staff members at the McGaw hospitals hold faculty appointments at the Feinberg School. Two McGaw hospitals (NMH and RIC), plus the Lakeside Outpatient Clinic, are located on the Chicago campus.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is one of the school's teaching hospitals, where medical students, residents, and fellows gain clinical experience to prepare them for the next stages of their careers. It was founded in 1972 with the consolidation of Wesley Memorial and Passavant Memorial Hospitals. In 1999 NMH opened a $720 million hospital and ambulatory care center that occupies an entire city block a short walk southwest of the medical school. Physically separate from the new hospital but part of NMH are Prentice Women's Hospital and Maternity Center, the largest birthing center in the state, and the Norman and Ida Stone Institute of Psychiatry. Both are located on the medical school campus. A new women's hospital is being constructed at the corner of Chicago Avenue and Fairbanks Court, with completion expected in 2007.

Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation (NMFF) is the principal group practice of the medical school's full-time faculty. Its 530 members treat patients in numerous specialty practices. At the end of the last academic year, NMFF provided $18 million to support research and education programs at the Feinberg School as well as  250,000 hours of teaching. A partner with NMH in the Galter Pavilion, NMFF has consolidated its more than 20 practice sites in that location.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare owns and operates three hospitals in suburbs north of Chicago: Evanston Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital, and Highland Park Hospital. Evanston Hospital has been formally affiliated with Northwestern's medical school since 1930, beginning a long tradition of medical student and resident teaching that contributes to the school's educational mission.

As you become more acquainted with us, you will encounter examples of how the institutions in the Northwestern family are intertwined. For example, Feinberg School clinical department chairs and division/section chiefs hold the same positions at NMH. Medical school, NMH, and NMFF employees often work alongside each other in the same offices. It doesn't matter which entity issues a paycheck; all members of these Northwestern institutions help fulfill the Feinberg School's goal of providing the highest quality teaching, research, and patient care.

Northwestern University Staff Advisory Council (NUSAC)

Association of Northwestern University Women (ANUW)