History

1736

Alms House Hospital Bellevue

Both Bellevue, one of the oldest hospitals in the country founded in 1736, and Kings County Hospital, founded in 1831, were originally almshouse infirmaries.

Lincoln Hospital can trace its roots back to 1839.

1832

A prison infirmary on Blackwell's Island evolved into other hospitals and later relocated as Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. The facility specialized in long-term care, one of the first.

Metropolitan Charities -
The Bible and Fruit Mission to Public Hospitals

By the mid-1800s, New York had become a fast-growing economy fostered by industrialization, increasing numbers of rural and foreign immigrants which sparked crowded, oppressive conditions, and the development of a visible class system: the rich and the poor.

The rich tended to be born and die at home and, of course, physicians made house calls. So it was, then, that during the first half of the 19th century, dozens of hospitals were founded and served mainly the poor.

1850

Private Patients Room 1800’s

In the 1850’s, hospitals were no longer regarded as institutions exclusively for the poor, and they began to be patronized more by patients able to pay for services. This led to the creation of voluntary (or private) hospitals.

Lincoln Hospital can trace its roots back to 1839.

Harlem Hospital Center began as a small way station on a dock at East 120th Street. It was a three-story wooden building with room for 20 patients, built to accommodate those who were waiting ferry transport to facilities located on what was then called Blackwell’s Island, now Roosevelt Island.

1875

Welfare Island - Metropolitan Hospital

Metropolitan Hospital Center, founded in 1875, is a full-service, acute care hospital that emphasizes primary care medicine and utilizes the latest advances in medical science. In 1981, HHC broke new ground at the hospital by establishing a managed care demonstration project, Metropolitan Health Plan--one of the first HMO's in a public hospital. It later became MetroPlus Health Plan.

1890

Patient on Veranda -
Bellevue 1899

Many of the municipal hospitals were designed to serve the types of patients that the private hospitals found “difficult or unrewarding” to treat: alcoholics, the paralyzed, the insane, the mentally challenged, and those with tuberculosis or other contagious diseases. It wasn’t long before the public hospitals acquired the special responsibility for caring for these “unworthies.”

Soon, the municipal hospitals became a beacon for social change, opening doors for both men and women who had long been denied the opportunity to use their knowledge, training and skills.

1898

The first graduating class

Lincoln Hospital’s School of Nursing was the first in the nation to train black women as nurses when it started with six students in 1898.

1903

King’s County
Hospital Ambulance

Dr. Emily Barringer, a staff physician at Gouverneur, became the first woman doctor in 1903 to go out on ambulance calls.

1905

By 1905, there were nearly 50 hospitals providing general care, and another 50 offered different kinds of specialized treatments. Wealth, abundant jobs and businesses, a strong tradition of reform in building public institutions for all and a politically active citizenry contributed to a highly developed network of medical care.

The status of the medical profession and its emphasis on science-based evidence was about to explode and bring about enormous changes.

1909

Children’s Ward
Bellevue Hospital

Founded in the late 19th century as a first-aid station to serve summer beach goers, Coney Island Hospital was established on its current site in 1909, and has since grown into a multi-site community medical center serving many ethnic neighborhoods. Coney Island is the first HHC hospital to house a mosque and to serve halal food. Today this facility promotes a healthy community through its innovative adolescent medicine and Community Wellness 2000 programs.

1913

In 1913, Sea View opened as a tuberculosis sanitarium. It was there, in 1952, that physicians developed the drug that would ultimately cure this disease.

Sea View Hospital, Statan Island, New York City

1920

Open Air Balcony—
Goldwater Hospital on
Welfare Island

Dr. Louis Wright, the son of a doctor and a 1915 honors graduate of Harvard Medical School joined the Harlem Hospital staff holding an "ironclad" belief that public hospitals should demand first-rate care for their patients and first-rate service from their staff.

Dr. Dickinson Richards and a colleague set up the world’s first cardio-pulmonary laboratory at Bellevue. Dr. Dickinson won a Nobel Prize nonetheless for his work on understanding the heart and heart disease.

1961

Jacobi Medical Center

Named for Dr. Abraham Jacobi, the "Father of American Pediatrics," the hospital has a reputation for innovation. Jacobi's surgeons performed the world's first coronary bypass in 1961, and later pioneered the use of bedside minicomputers to monitor blood circulation and lung function. Its Level I trauma center houses the tri-state area's only multi-person hyperbaric chamber.

1965

In the mid-1960s unions appeared and held an increasingly more important role in helping the working class to secure benefits, including healthcare.

The introduction of Medicare/Medicaid in 1965 added another ingredient to the mix as a middle class burgeoned and the needs of the elderly and the disabled started to be heard.

1969

The creation of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation addressed the negative perceptions of public hospitals.

1976

North Central Bronx Hospital

Since opening in 1976, North Central Bronx Hospital has developed some of the finest clinical programs in the nation. The hospital was the first in the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation to introduce primary care team modules in a hospital setting. The hospital's midwifery service has received national recognition for its family-friendly approach.

1981

Woodhull Medical & Mental Health Center

Queens Hospital Center was the first in the borough of Queens to open a school of nursing and to employ African-American nurses. In 1981, the hospital published one of the first descriptions of an AIDS patient in the New England Journal of Medicine. Its pediatric service is recognized for its excellence.

Woodhull Medical & Mental Health Center is a leader in the fight against childhood asthma. The hospital also has been designated by New York State as an AlDS Center, which provides comprehensive and culturally sensitive services.

1985

Since 1985 HHC’s MetroPlus Health Plan has taken care of thousands of New Yorkers. MetroPlus offers free and low cost health insurance and provides health care at locations throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens.

1994

HHC’s highly successful Harlem Hospital Injury Prevention Program was first replicated in 1994 at Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital. The program, which was developed in 1984 by Dr. Barbara Barlow, Director of Surgery at Harlem Hopsital Center, has resulted in a dramatic reduction in injuries sustained by children living in central Harlem. The program now serves as a model to hospitals throughout the United States. Replication of the program continues through Dr. Barlow’s Injury Free Coalition for Kids, a national program based on the Harlem Hospital Injury Prevention model.

2000

HHC established the HHC Foundation in 2001 to provide a vehicle for raising private, philanthropic funds to support the activities of HHC. HHC Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, is closely affiliated with HHC, but is separately governed and managed. A Board comprised of both HHC representatives and independent directors with ties to New York's business and philanthropic communities guide the Foundation. A small professional staff manages its day-to-day operations.

In 2002 Queens Hospital Center of Health & Hospitals Corporation opens the first comprehensive cancer treatment center in the borough of Queens. Services include medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, gynecological oncology, and pain management.

2003

United States Army chooses Kings County Hospital Center as permanent site for army trauma training program in 2003. Kings County Hospital has the largest urban trauma center in New York State and is known for treating the most penetrating urban wounds, which are the closest to injuries seen in actual combat situations.

2005

Elmhurst Hopsital Center

In 2005, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (a subdivision of the American Nurses Association) conferred its highest honor, MAGNET Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Services, on HHC’s Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. Fewer than 3% of the nation’s hospitals have achieved MAGNET Recognition and Elmhurst is only the fourth hospital in all of New York City to attain this coveted distinction.

2006

HHC is ranked among the highest in the City for the quality of care afforded patients admitted for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia, according to quality data reported by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Of the 50 hospitals in New York City that voluntarily submitted quality data to CMS, HHC hospitals held seven of the top nine places – and all ranked in the top 17 -- when judged by 10 specific measures of healthcare quality for the treatment of patients with life threatening heart and pulmonary conditions. Brooklyn’s Coney Island Hospital achieved a first place ranking among all New York City hospitals, public or private.

Mayor Bloomberg helps unveil HHC Bellevue’s new State-of-the-art critical care pavilion. Bellevue Hospital Center is the only hospital in New York City with concurrent designations as a Level One Trauma Center, a Heart Station, a Micro-surgical and Reimplantation Center, a Regional Center for Head and Spinal Cord Injury and a designated New York State Regional Perinatal Center.