About Us

Doylestown Hospital has cared for the people of our community and the wider region for more than 100 years. During that time, the Village Improvement Association of Doylestown (VIA) and our Boards of Trustees have worked together to build and grow the area’s first emergency hospital into a regional leader, providing best-in-class care in more than 50 specialties while maintaining a culture and reputation for providing compassionate care with a personal touch.

Today, we reaffirm our commitment to caring for the health and well-being of our community with new strength and support as we join the Penn Medicine family.

“In joining with Penn Medicine, we are writing the next chapter in our storied history that began more than 100 years ago,” said Penn Medicine Doylestown Health President and CEO, Jim Brexler, “Doylestown Hospital was founded with the principal mission to bring quality healthcare close to home for the patients we serve, and I can think of no better way to do that than by joining our region’s leading academic medical center.”

Since becoming Doylestown’s first hospital in 1923, this organization’s leadership has identified and developed new services to respond to the needs of our growing community. When Doylestown Hospital was built upon a simple yet brilliant premise: patients heal faster when they are known, cherished, and cared for in the community they call home. This philosophy has driven our mission to ensure that the health and well-being of our community is foremost in all that we do. These efforts have seen Doylestown Hospital grow into a community teaching hospital with 247 beds and a medical staff of more than 435 physicians in over 50 specialties who serve the region in outstanding fashion, providing sophisticated, personal care – close to home.

Doylestown Hospital consistently maintains the highest emphasis on patient safety, standing as the only hospital in Pennsylvania and among just 30% of hospitals nationwide who have achieved 17 consecutive “A” grades for patient safety as measured by the Leapfrog Group.

As a destination hospital for the highest level of heart and vascular care in the nation, we offer the newest advances in technology and surgical procedures, ranging from technically-advanced, minimally invasive valve replacements and vascular procedures to delicate open-heart surgeries to a robust cardiac rehabilitation program.

Our Cancer Institute is a Nationally Accredited Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) Commission on Cancer, offering access to outstanding specialists and advanced screening, diagnostics, treatment and professional supportive services. In 2023, we earned a three-year accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Rectal Cancer, a quality program of the American College of Surgeons, and a renewal from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), which acknowledged that the program maintains 100% compliance with the NAPBC’s Breast Program standards. We are a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence as recognized by the American College of Radiology.

We offer the most advanced technology for early lung cancer screening and diagnosis in the region. Our team uses the minimally invasive robotic-assisted bronchoscopy called the ION Endoluminal System, to find and biopsy smaller, early-stage lung cancer nodules.

We joined the ranks of the Philadelphia region’s teaching hospitals, welcoming our inaugural class of Family Medicine resident physicians in 2023. The residents rotate through various departments at Doylestown Hospital, as well as the hospital’s own dedicated outpatient Family Medicine Residency Practice.

We are also proud to join other health organizations in the Philadelphia area as a member of the Regional Coalition to Eliminate Race-Based Medicine. Convened in 2023, the Regional Coalition is working together to remove race “adjustments” from 15 commonly used clinical decision support tools that may adversely impact patients’ outcomes, working to phase out the use of race as a variable in some of the tools and collaborate on alternative best practices which do not reinforce a biological understanding of race.

Perhaps most importantly, we are proud to be an organization of individuals. It’s the people of Doylestown Hospital who represent our greatest strength. Our culture of caring and community is a promise that is realized through the people who serve this community – our Medical Staff, Associates, and volunteers. Now, backed by the quality, strength, and innovation of Penn Medicine, we will continue to accomplish the mission that a small but inspired group of women from Doylestown envisioned more than a century ago.

For the next century and beyond, Penn Medicine Doylestown Health will deliver personalized care of the highest quality, close to home, where our focus is you.

The Doylestown Health mission is to continuously improve the quality of life and proactively advocate for the health and well-being of the individuals we serve.

With a vision to enthusiastically pursue healthcare excellence through collaboration and innovation, we strive to inspire a more vibrant and healthier world for our patients and our community.

We consistently strive for healthcare excellence and provide a continuum of connected providers, quality and excellence in service and accessibility to the community we serve.

Here are the longstanding Service Values we live by:

• We serve the community
• We strive for excellence in our services and programs
• We respect the dignity and privacy of all
• We provide value through high quality, accessible services
• We seek innovation and integration for continuous improvement
• We are compassionate
• We are committed to the health and wellness education of our community

We are dedicated not only to making patients well, but in helping them to stay well too - before, during and after they visit our services. We invite you to subscribe to our online newsletter for valuable articles on the latest Doylestown Health news, innovations, health information and events.

Doylestown Health and the University of Pennsylvania Health System signed a definitive agreement in August 2024 that would have Doylestown Health become part of Penn Medicine, strengthening the two organizations’ shared commitment to delivering the most advanced, convenient and compassionate care to patients and families across the greater Philadelphia region. 

Pending final federal and state approvals in the months ahead, the systems aim to integrate clinical care and operations by early 2025, as well as working to develop new programs and enhanced services across four sites of care – in hospitals, outpatient facilities, in the home, and via telemedicine. 

Read more about this exciting, shared future.

The Village Improvement Association was the guiding force behind the founding of Doylestown Hospital in 1923, and still governs the operation of the hospital today. Founded in 1895 by a small but inspired group of women from Doylestown, the VIA is nationally recognized as the only Women's Club to own and operate a community hospital. The first meeting was held April 26, 1895 with 14 women present. Since that time the VIA has grown in size and scope to its present membership of over 300 members.

Throughout its history, the VIA has continued to be a progressive organization, while maintaining their original goals to promote "every proper means of improving and beautifying Bucks County," and "improving the health and welfare of the residents." Each year members rededicate themselves to these commitments made in 1895.

Even then, the VIA recognized the need for public health initiatives and community healthcare services close to home, where people would have access to family and familiarity, beginning with the employment of a Visiting Nurse in 1916. The arrival of the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic galvanized the need for formalized community-based health care. The VIA, together with local medical professionals and the Doylestown community, opened the Doylestown Emergency Hospital, an eight-bed facility, at Pine and Oakland streets in 1923.

In 1939, as demand for care increased, Doylestown Emergency Hospital moved to a new location at Belmont and Spruce streets in Doylestown. Originally a 21-bed facility, this hospital expanded to accommodate 54 beds in 1951. As the community grew, a larger facility was needed. Doylestown Hospital was dedicated in 1975 as a 165-bed facility on West State Street in Doylestown. In 2001 the Village Improvement Association added the Health and Wellness Center in Warrington to its family. In 2015 the VIA Health System changed its name to Doylestown Health to represent a connected system of outpatient, inpatient, and community services.

In 2022, Doylestown Health launched its first-ever residency program, proudly educating and training the next generation of family medicine physicians. Doylestown Hospital celebrated 100 years of service in 2023. Today, with 245 beds and a medical staff more than 600 providers in over 50 specialties, our culture of personalized care is inspired by our Founders’ desire to help their beloved community remain present in the high-tech high-touch care that patients have come to expect from Doylestown Health.

This patient-first philosophy and team approach is proof of our commitment to meet the healthcare needs of patients in our community and region, now and for generations to come. Here at Doylestown Health, where grace meets humanity, our focus is YOU.

Learn more…

The complete story of the first seventy-five years of the VIA and Doylestown Hospital has been beautifully detailed in the book by Anne Biggs entitled "Through Their Eyes." This Tower Hill Press book published in 1998 is available in the Doylestown Hospital Gift Shop.

Today, the center of VIA activity is at the James Lorah Memorial Home, located at 132 N. Main Street in Doylestown. This treasured house-museum commemorates the families who have lived in the historic home and the ongoing life of the VIA.