Emory renames Crawford Long Hospital

Emory University announced Friday that it has changed the name of Emory Crawford Long Hospital to Emory University Hospital Midtown.

“Being more clearly affiliated with Emory in the public eye will help expand upon the hospital’s 100-year tradition of providing outstanding care to people in metro Atlanta and throughout the region,” said James Wagner, president of Emory University.

The hospital is a 511-bed acute-care teaching facility. Founded in 1908, the hospital was renamed Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital in 1931 in honor of Long, the Georgia physician who discovered sulphuric ether for use as an anesthetic and was the first doctor to use anesthesia during surgery.

The hospital will add the initials CL — for Crawford Long — to much of its new signage.

Emory is in the midst of a major project to modernize its medical facilities at its main Druid Hills campus and the Crawford Long site in Midtown. The estimated cost of the project is $1.5 billion.

For the past few years, Emory has been studying ways to upgrade its medical facilities, make them more accessible to patients and better integrate the school’s medical and research departments. Emory even considered building a new medical campus at the school’s Clairmont Road facility before discarding that idea as unworkable.

—Staff writer Paul Donsky contributed to this article.