Other medical facilities added.
The first training facility for nurses in the community was established in 1904 on South Market Avenue as the Springfield Hospital Association and Training School for Nurses. It later became known in 1923 as Springfield Baptist Hospital and is now Springfield Park Central Hospital. The 132-bed facility now specializes in treatment of those with psychological and emotional illnesses.
In 1906, the Burge family donated land and a building on Jefferson Avenue for a medical facility. The first brick unit in what was to become Burge Hospital went up in 1908. That facility has continued to expand over the years to where today it occupies a full city block and has a patient capacity of 706. Renamed Lester E. Cox Medical Center in 1969, for its well-known benefactor, the hospital is well known for its techniques and equipment in radiation therapy. The Burge School of Nursing has been in operation since the hospital was founded.
Springfield is also known as the site for the first hospital in the world devoted exclusively to the care and treatment of prisoners. With the land purchased by local residents, the federal government built the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in west Springfield in 1933. It not only has added to the city's economy but has placed Springfield on the map because of its many notorious patients.
Springfield's Osteopathic Hospital, located in a modern, 55-bed facility in north Springfield since 1967, started in a small facility on East Sunshine Street in 1937.
