The Denver Health and Hospital Authority is an integrated health care system that consisting of a main hospital, 911 response and EMS, poison and toxicology, family health centers, school-based clinics, detoxification services, correctional care, and medical response to terrorism, mass casualties and epidemics. The Denver Department of Environmental Health, a Denver government agency, manages and oversees the operating agreement to contract with Denver Health and Hospital Authority to provide services related to the medical investigations and medical services for disease control and the administration of vital birth and death records. DEH and Denver Public Health work together to conduct communicable disease reporting, investigation, and control for Denver. Public and environmental health functions and regulatory authority remains with DEH. DHHA provides communicable disease surveillance and medically oriented public health functions through their Denver Public Health department. Through grant-funded programs, DPH conducts research on infectious diseases, including hepatitis surveillance; tuberculosis clinical trials; HIV/AIDS prevention, counseling, testing and treatment; and vaccine trials. DHHA's Denver Health Paramedic Division, a hospital based paramedic service, is based out of Denver Health.
Denver General was established in 1860. The hospital was founded near 11th and Wazee, but in 1873, a new medical center was built at the corner of 6th Avenue and Cherokee; this is where Denver Health is located to this day. The hospital was well known for founding the first nursing school west of the Mississippi and for being one of the earliest facilities for treating Tuberculosis. The hospital employed many health care visionaries, including Florence Sabin who was instrumental in creating a functional Public Health department. In 1989 a book was written about The Denver General emergency room, The Knife and Gun Club, Scenes from an Emergency Room by photographer Eugene Richards which received an Award of Excellence from the American College of Emergency Physicians. The book is a collection of stories taken from the emergency department and ambulances. The emergency room of Denver Health gained the nickname "Knife and Gun Club" due to the frequency of knife and gun related injuries. On January 1, 1997, Denver General became a political subdivision of the state, and was renamed Denver Health and Hospital Authority.
