City: Mesa, AZ

Category: Health Care

Telephone: (480) 412-3000

Address: 1400 S. Dobson Rd.

Description: Banner Desert Medical Center, formerly known as Desert Samaritan Hospital, opened in 1973, but its roots go back to 1921 when Genevieve LeSueur donated her 2-story, 12-room house to become Mesa Southside District Hospital. As Mesa grew, so did the hospital. By 1958 it had moved to Main Street and Country Club Drive and expanded to become a complete hospital facility with operating rooms, a recovery room, and an emergency room. In 1968 Southside merged with Good Samaritan Hospital (now known as Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center), and Samaritan Health Service was born. The corporation built Desert Samaritan to replace Southside Hospital, and in 2003 the hospital was purchased by Banner Health Systems and renamed Banner Desert Medical Center. Banner Desert primarily serves Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, and Apache Junction. A full-service community hospital, Banner Desert has 611 licensed beds, including private rooms with patios. It features a Level II emergency room with 53 beds. Banner Desert also provides 26 private labor-delivery-recovery rooms. Banner Desert Children’s Center is a Level III neonatal intensive-care unit and also offers pediatric intensive-care facilities. Thousands of inpatient and outpatient surgeries are performed each year at Desert Banner, including more than 500 open-heart surgeries. The hospital also has a radiation oncology department, 88 critical-care and intermediate-care beds, a 32-bed orthopedic and neurology unit, and a sleep disorders center. Banner Desert also offers various therapy programs, such as aquatic therapy, community health education classes, and an orthopedic and sports-rehabilitation program.