Good Samaritan Hospital (Cincinnati)

Good Samaritan Hospital (Cincinnati)

Good Samaritan Hospital, the oldest and largest private teaching and specialty health care facility in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, was opened in 1852 under the sponsorship of the Sisters of Charity. The hospital is member of TriHealth, a joint operating agreement between Catholic Health Initiatives and Bethesda, Inc. Cincinnati to manage Good Samaritan. The Hospital of the Good Samaritan, at Sixth and Lock streets, was originally the Cincinnati Marine Hospital, built at a cost of $300,000, from a generic pattern by American Architect, Robert Mills. Because there was already a place for merchant seamen (river men) to go, there were insufficient numbers of such men to warrant opening the hospital.

During the Civil War, it was the Military Hospital of Cincinnati, which operated first as a volunteer hospital, supported by community donations, until it was obvious that the war would last more than 90 days, thus it was taken over by the Army Medical Department. After the war, Butler and Worthington purchased the hospital from the government for about $70,000 and donated it to the Sisters of Charity. The original eye hospital was used for a time,and perhaps formed by Dr. Daniel Drake, who received a charter from the Ohio General Assembly for a medical school in 1819 and then in 1821, a charter for the City Infirmary called the Commercial Hospital and Lunatic Asylum of the State of Ohio. "Commercial" stood for commerce and this is where the sick and injured river and canal men were brought.