King's Daughters Medical Center (KDMC) is a hospital system based in Ashland, Kentucky which is the city's largest employer at over 4,000 employees, generating more than $200 million in payroll a year. The hospital, which is owned by the University of Kentucky, is a locally managed, not-for-profit 465-bed facility that offers "cardiac, medical, surgical, pediatric, rehabilitative, psychiatric, cancer, neurological, pain care, wound care and home care" services. History Early history King's Daughters' Hospital opened in 1897 as a three-room emergency hospital over the Poage, Elliott and Poage Drug Store on Winchester Avenue near 16th Street. In 1899, the hospital itself was founded by the What-so-ever Circle of the International Order of the King's Daughters and Sons and moved to a seven-room building at 18th Street and Greenup Avenue. Ten years later, the hospital moved again to a nine-room building between 20th and 21st Street along Winchester Avenue. In 1915, the hospital purchased property at the northeast corner of 22nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Two years later in November, it opened a new 50-bed facility in a two-story brick structure. An expansion in 1930–31 added an east wing, which was expanded again in 1945 and 1953, all to the east. In 1958, that building closed (which is now known as Vincent Apartments), and a new administration building was completed across Lexington Avenue and the remainder of the hospital. Developing into a modern facility In 1963, the hospital began to study plans for a specialized Coronary Care Unit. The hospital expanded in 1965 with a northern extension. In 1967, a 24-hour emergency department was established. One year later, the Coronary Care Unit opens with four private patient rooms and a ten-bed Intensive Care Unit. In 1968, the hospital expanded upon the 1953 extension with a two-story structure; this was expanded upward with an additional two levels in 1984. With the extension, the hospital now stretched from 22nd Street to 23rd Street. One year after the hospital was expanded upon, the Ashland Medical Arts Building was completed in 1969 at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street. In 1972, a new emergency department was completed. Six years later, the Cardiac Step Down Unit and Cardiac Rehabilitation opened, followed by the Echocardiology Department in 1981 and the Diabetes Clinic in the following year. The hospital expanded northward again in 1984 to Montgomery Avenue. In 1986, a new 16-bed Intensive Care Unit was completed,