[3] The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hospitals in the United States to use a standard fee schedule and favor private or semi-private rooms over large wards.

As founder Henry Ford viewed tobacco as being unhealthy, the hospital was one of the first in the United States to institute a total ban on smoking.

[5] Henry Ford Hospital, which opened in 1915, is a Level 1 trauma center, recognized for clinical excellence and innovations in the fields of cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, sports medicine, organ transplants, and treatment for prostate, breast, and lung cancers.

Henry Ford Hospital operates a Level 1 Trauma Center and has one of the busiest emergency rooms in Michigan, treating nearly 100,000 patients annually.

Henry Ford Hospital performs organ transplants in many areas, including heart, lung, kidney, bone marrow, pancreas, and liver.

Henry Ford Hospital's Vattikuti Urology Institute operates the largest robotic prostatectomy program in the world.

One-third of all physicians in Michigan receive training at Henry Ford, and its post-graduate medical education enterprise is among the largest in the country.

In 2009, Henry Ford researchers published more than 450 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and attracted $57.4 million in external funding.

It includes the 1,200-member Henry Ford Medical Group, five hospitals, the Health Alliance Plan, 30 primary care centers and many other health-related entities throughout Southeast Michigan.

Founded in 1915 by auto pioneer Henry Ford and now one of the nation's leading health care providers, Henry Ford Health System is a not-for-profit corporation managed by chief executive officer Wright L. Lassiter, III and governed by a 17-member Board of Trustees, with volunteer-led advisory and affiliate boards providing additional leadership.

Advisory and affiliate boards include 150 volunteer leaders, who provide vital links to the communities served by the System.

More than 30,000 total Henry Ford Health System employees provide care during the more than 4.24 million annual patient contacts.

The Association used donations from its members to purchase a site at Grand Boulevard and Hamilton, and to hire architect William Stratton to design the hospital.

[10] In 1951, Conrad Lam and Edward Munnell developed a technique for the correction of mitral valve stenosis, using a special six-finger glove with a knife attached to the sixth mid-palm finger.

In 1952, Henry Ford Hospital vascular surgeon, D. Emerick Szilagyi, performed one of the world's first grafts of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

In 1956, Henry Ford Hospital cardiothoracic surgeon Conrad Lam performed the first successful open heart surgery in Michigan using the heart-lung machine on 15 month old Kathleen McQuillen.

[3] In 1980, Fred W. Whitehouse and Dorothy A. Kahkonen were the first physicians in Michigan and the second in the country to administer human insulin to a patient with diabetes.

In 1987, Charles Jackson and other Henry Ford Hospital and Yale researchers identified the location of a gene on chromosome 10, linked to hereditary medullary thyroid cancer.

Also in 1987, Henry Ford Hospital was the first in Michigan to use iodine radium implant seeds to combat cancerous cells in the prostate.

In 1995, Henry Ford Hospital conducted Michigan's first radiosurgery treatment for patients with inoperable tumors using the three-dimensional x-knife system.

In 2001, the Vattikuti Urology Institute, under the direction of Mani Menon, was the first in the United States to perform surgery using a robotic system for the treatment of prostate cancer.

[10] The Clara Ford Nurse's Home is a 6+1⁄2-story red brick Georgian Revival structure with a clay tile roof.

[10] The clinic tower is a 17-story rectangular red brick building, extending 11 by 17 bays of evenly spaced windows from the second through sixteenth floors.

[10] In 2017, the Henry Ford Health System announced the start of a second development on its evolving 300-acre South Campus site in New Center, with the construction of a new $150 million, 187,000-square-foot, six-story, Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion, scheduled to open in early 2020, along with a skywalk across West Grand Boulevard to connect it to the hospital.

[21][22] In 2011, Henry Ford Health System was one of four recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, presented by the president of the United States.

The prize honors hospitals that have committed in a systematic manner to achieving the Institute of Medicine's six quality aims—safety, patient-centeredness, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, and equity.