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| Name |
Mount Sinai Medical Center |
| Address |
One Gustave L. Levy Place |
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New York |
| State |
New York |
| Country |
USA |
| Post Code |
NY 10029-6574 |
| Phone |
212-241-6500 |
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| Email |
NewsMedia@mssm.edu |
| Website |
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Hospitals alternate contact Nos.
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212-590-3300 |
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Specialization Of Mount Sinai Medical Center
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Obestetrician/Gynecologist |
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About Mount Sinai Medical Center
Mission Statement
The following Mission Statement states Mount Sinai's commitment to excellent patient care, the education of physicians and scientists, the support of innovative research, the dissemination of knowledge, the good health of the community, and the creation of a working environment conducive to individual creativity, career and personal advancement.
Preamble
In the context of the Jewish traditions of scholarship and charity, the Board of Trustees commits Mount Sinai to the advancement of the art and science of medicine through clinical excellence. This central mission consists of high-quality patient care and teaching conducted in an atmosphere of social concern and scholarly inquiry into the nature, causation, prevention and therapy of human disease.
Article I: Patient Care
In this academic medical center, the responsibility to teach and do research in the laboratory, at the bedside and in the community enhances the fundamental goal of entirely personal, compassionate patient care. Mount Sinai will strive to provide superlative patient care, considered to be the requisite model for learning.
Article II: Education
The educational process will aim to graduate individuals who will be committed to a lifetime of continuing education while they are contributing in many and varied ways to the health needs of people. Mount Sinai will be responsible for the certification of physicians at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level, as well as the certification of biomedical scientists at the graduate level; and, as appropriate, will undertake the education of other health and allied professionals.
Article III: Research
Since medicine is a derivative science and must draw upon at least the biological, social and physical sciences, no discipline will intentionally be excluded as irrelevant. Fundamental and applied research will be primarily centered in geographic proximity to clinical facilities. Mount Sinai will encourage, support and evaluate innovative ideas and programs in health services delivery.
Article IV: Dissemination of Knowledge
Mount Sinai will participate as a national and international resource in the gathering, analysis and dissemination of information pertaining to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Article V: Concern for the Community
Mount Sinai will be ever sensitive to the social and health care needs of the many different communities it serves. The Center will be a participant in efforts to define and solve health problems in population groups and communities through its capability in developing scientific knowledge, education and service.
Article VI: Organization
In a framework of free participation, Mount Sinai will strive to create a stable evolving working environment conducive to individual creativity.
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History Of Mount Sinai Medical Center
The stated mission of the Mount Sinai Medical Center is to pursue quality patient care, education, and research and to disseminate this new knowledge as broadly as possible. Mount Sinai’s mission statement also notes an institutional concern for the many communities it serves, and strives to help solve the health problems in these populations through its education and service efforts. The following looks at how this mission has evolved since Mount Sinai's founding.
On January 15, 1852, nine men came together to establish the Jews' Hospital in New York, to offer free medical care to the indigent "Hebrews" in the City who were not able to provide for themselves during their illness. This was the beginning of The Mount Sinai Hospital. Sampson Simson was unquestionably the Father of Mount Sinai: He was the first President of the Board of Directors. He gave the land on which the first hospital was built, and he personally met many of the financial burdens of the young institution. When he resigned in February of 1855 at the age of 75, the other Directors sent a delegation to his home in Yonkers to beg him to reconsider, but to no avail.
With the founding of the organization, a fundraising effort was begun to secure enough money to erect a hospital building. But, with mounting costs, it was the bequest of Judah Touro, a resident of New Orleans, for $20,000 that really assured the timely completion of the venture. Ground was broken for the Hospital in the fall of 1853. A year and a half later, on May 17, 1855, the Jews' Hospital was officially dedicated, opening for patients on June 5.
This first hospital was located on West 28th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, extending through to 27th Street. That area of the City in the mid-1850's was still rural, with vegetable gardens growing next to the Hospital. The building accommodated 45 patients initially, but additions were built to house Union soldiers during the Civil War. The Hospital was almost exclusively ward service - as were all hospitals at this time - but a small section was later set aside for paying patients.
High quality patient care was the goal of these first Hospital Directors. (The name was changed in 1917 to Trustees, allowing the Superintendent to take the title of Director of The Mount Sinai Hospital.) To meet this goal, they sought to assemble a staff of respected and dedicated doctors. Their efforts were rewarded, with names such as Drs. Valentine and Alexander Mott, Benjamin McCready, Thomas Markoe, Willard Parker and Israel Moses appearing on the early staff lists. The Resident Attending Physician was Mark Blumenthal, MD. He lived in, and was continually on call. For this, he received $250 the first year and $500 in subsequent years.
With a bed capacity of only 45, the Hospital was quickly and continuously full. Intended originally as a purely sectarian institution, the Jews' Hospital never turned away emergency cases, regardless of creed. In the first year of its existence, the Hospital admitted 216 patients, only five of whom were born in this country. The largest group, numbering 110, were from Germany. This was a completely charitable enterprise, with the Directors relying on the gifts of friends and members, as well as payments from the City, to provide enough to subsidize the care.
The 1860's were hectic years for the Hospital on 28th Street. The City was racked by violent riots in 1863 protesting the draft procedure for the Union Army. Ironically, the injured rioters were taken in and treated at the Hospital next to the Union soldiers, whom the Hospital cared for in large numbers.
The first half of the second decade of the Hospital revealed two things. The Hospital was clearly no longer sectarian and the Directors feared that by retaining the name of Jews' Hospital, the Hospital would be considered ineligible for State and City support. In 1866, the charter of the Hospital was amended by an Act of the State Legislature, designating the new name as The Mount Sinai Hospital.
Also, by the 1860's, the downtown location was much too small for the needs of the Hospital, and that area on the West Side had become very industrial. In 1868 a steam boiler exploded in a factory adjacent to the Hospital, shaking the building and breaking some windows. The Directors were urged to faster action. On October 6, 1868, the City granted The Mount Sinai Hospital a 99 year lease for property on Lexington Avenue, between 66th and 67th Streets. For the sum of $1, the Hospital acquired the land for its second home. A new building campaign was begun.
THE SECOND MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL, 1872-1904
When The Mount Sinai Hospital moved into its new home on Lexington Avenue in 1872, the Directors were sure their new neighborhood would provide them with all the quietness, fresh air, and sunlight they knew a health care facility required. The area was open, the street unpaved; they were indeed on the fringes of the City and hoped to remain so.
The Hospital was dedicated on May 29, 1872. It had 120 beds and had cost $335,000 to build. There was no electricity in the building, gas was used; a telephone system was installed in 1882. Bells would sound to announce the arrival of a member of the Consulting staff. There were no operating rooms in the new building. This was rectified in 1876 when part of the Hospital's synagogue was walled off to become a dedicated surgical space.
This second home of Mount Sinai saw the beginning of many aspects of the modern institution that are now taken for granted. The Medical Board was created in 1872 and at its first meeting urged the formation of a House Staff. The Out-Patient Department was established in 1875. In 1881 a Training School for Nurses was established, ushering in professional nursing care to a hospital previously served by untrained male and female attendants. In these events can be seen the beginning of Mount Sinai's commitment to education, although teaching was still not considered an official part of the Hospital's mission. These efforts were viewed more as important to providing good care for the patients and not a new direction for the institution.
No firm date can be said to mark when research began at Mount Sinai. In 1867 a microscope was purchased for the use of the staff, but it was another twenty-six years before a laboratory was set up in a converted coat closet, large enough to hold only two people at a time. Although this laboratory was established primarily to perform clinical testing to support patient care, this allocation of lab space was also a recognition that medical knowledge and the medical staff were becoming more sophisticated. Many of the younger staff members had received training in Europe that emphasized the value of bacteriology to support bedside observations. Some of the young staff were allowed to spend their free time, after doing work in the wards and clinics and in their private practices, as volunteers in the laboratory pursuing their research interests.
Patient care, the stated goal of the Hospital, also changed in the three decades on Lexington Avenue, although the patient population remained predominantly Jews of the group that were known as the "worthy poor". The changes in patient care were basic and extensive. Once admitted, the patient might have found himself on one of the new specialty wards: the Surgery, Pediatrics, Eye and Ear, Neurology, Genito-Urinary and Dermatology Services were all created during this time. Student nurses moved quietly about, bringing a sense of order to the ward. Body fluids were taken for various lab tests. After 1900, a patient might even be x-rayed with the new equipment that had just been developed.
It was a time of great excitement at Mount Sinai, a time when the early "giants" roamed the halls. There was Bernard Sachs, MD the Neurologist, who described the first American case of Tay-Sachs Disease in 1887. The surgical staff had Arpad Gerster, MD a surgeon who wrote the first textbook in America on the application of aseptic and antiseptic surgery techniques. Henry Koplik, MD was on the Pediatric service, which had been created by Abraham Jacobi, MD in 1878. Willard Parker, MD was on the staff. He had introduced the clinical lecture to medical school teaching and had performed the first appendectomy in this country in 1864. On the House Staff was Charles Elsberg, MD a future pioneer in neurosurgery, who in 1910 developed the first practical apparatus for positive pressure anesthesia. Also, Charles May, MD of the May Ophthalmoscope and many others were associated with Mount Sinai Hospital at this time.
The mission to provide excellent patient care was bolstered during these years by the development of the House Staff (1872) and the presence of The Mount Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses (1881). This was the time of the development of the infamous examinations for a place on the resident staff, a practice that lasted into the 1950's. House Staff positions were eagerly sought at Mount Sinai due to the distinguished staff, as well as to the lack of available openings at other hospitals for young doctors of the Jewish faith.
The School of Nursing brought an influx of student help to the wards, as well as a handful of graduate nurses to teach them, immensely improving and standardizing the quality of care given. Still, although founded in 1881, it was not until 1885 that the female nursing students were allowed on the male medical ward, and 1897 before they could work on the male surgical ward.
Women also came to the second Mount Sinai as doctors. Josephine Walter, MD became the first woman in this country to graduate from a formal two-year house staff program when she received her Mount Sinai diploma in 1885. Mary Putnam Jacobi, MD ran the Pediatric Division of the Dispensary, where the bulk of the other women appointees could be found. (The Directors would not allow Jacobi's husband, Abraham, to head both the in-patient and out-patient divisions.) The female presence remained small, and women were banned from the House Staff entirely from 1911-1922.
Changes in medicine and society were combining to make the hospital a more acceptable place for all classes of people: the increased range of treatments available, especially in the surgical realm with the gradual acceptance of antiseptic technique and improved anesthesia; the better facilities that hospitals were providing; and the lack of nursing care available at home lured more and more people to spend their period of illness on the wards or in one of the private rooms now found at the Hospital. A true portent of things to come.
THE THIRD MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL, 1904
On March 15, 1904, the new Mount Sinai Hospital at Fifth Avenue and 100th St. was dedicated. The expanded facilities (ten pavilions with 456 beds) were designed to provide the maximum amount of sunlight and fresh air, viewed as essential in providing a sanitary environment. The new larger hospital offered the opportunity for increased patient care programs, and also for the growth of medical education and research. Over the course of the first decades of the twentieth century, research and medical education would become recognized as essential elements of the Hospital's mission.
Patient care continued to change at the new Hospital. There were new procedures, new laboratory tests, and new specialists to diagnose and treat disease. The number of clinical departments grew as specialties received their own services: Otology (1909), Physical Therapy (1911), and Neurosurgery (1932). Other important divisions begun in these early years were: Social Work (1906), Dietetics (1905), a tuberculosis service (1912) as well as new laboratories and several clinics: the Cardiac Clinic (1915), the Diabetes Clinic (1917), Children's Health Class (1919), and a Mental Hygiene Clinic (1920).
Larger research facilities and an increased program were rewarded with many important results: Reuben Ottenberg's work on blood groups; the description of Brill's Disease; Richard Lewisohn's work on the citrate method for blood transfusion; A. A. Berg's work on gastric resections for ulcer; the Rubin Test; Moschcowitz Disease; the Shwartzman Phenomenon; Robert Frank's identification of female sex hormone; the identification of regional ileitis by Ginzburg, Oppenheimer and Crohn, and the description of Libman-Sacks Disease.
In what is a recurring theme in Mount Sinai's existence, six years after the move to 100th Street, plans for renovations and additions to the buildings were begun. In 1913, in the continuing search for adequate space, the decision to add seven more buildings was announced. Four buildings were completed by 1915, but World War I and the poor economy delayed the opening of the Guggenheim Pavilion (for private patients), the Einstein-Falk Pavilion, the Walter Children's Clinic, and the Blumenthal Auditorium until 1922.
The Great Depression deeply affected Mount Sinai. In 1928 another series of renovations was planned, yet could not be completed until 1937. In 1931, salaries were cut. Two years later, the Social Service Department opened an occupational therapy workroom to provide rehabilitation and moral support for unemployed patients. The next year, private nurses were given the option of working an eight or the customary twelve-hour shift. It was felt that shortening the hours of the shifts would make more jobs available.
The first half of the twentieth century also saw the devastation of two world wars. Mount Sinai was active in both war efforts. In 1918, 24 physicians, 50 nurses and 53 enlisted men, many from the Mount Sinai staff, joined together to form Mount Sinai's unit, Base Hospital No. 3, AEF, which served in France. On August 28, 1942, representatives of this unit passed their flag on to the leaders of the Third General Hospital, Mount Sinai's World War II group. They served in North Africa, Italy and France, before returning home in 1945.
Undergraduate medical education assumed a growing importance over the 20th century. Students from Columbia and New York University made use of Sinai's teaching material and clinical faculty into the 1960's when Mount Sinai's own school of medicine was formed. The provisional charter for The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Medicine was granted by the State in 1963. This was one of the only medical schools to be formed by a hospital since the early years of the century. Still, it was believed necessary for the Hospital to have a university affiliation in order to create a strong school so in 1967 an agreement was signed with The City University of New York. The first students were admitted in 1968 and an absolute charter was received that year for the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of The City University of New York. Mount Sinai's clinical excellence was recognized by the New York State Board of Regents when the new School was allowed to enroll both a first and a third year class in the first year. Today the School encompasses the post-graduate and house staff training programs of the Hospital, as well as maintaining a Graduate School for Biological Sciences, a Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D.-Ph.D.), and many Master and doctoral level degree programs. The Mount Sinai School of Medicine is currently affiliated with many different institutions around the Metropolitan area to provide a variety of practice settings for its educational programs, undergraduate and graduate.
One of the Medical School programs that was a sign of Mount Sinai's changing mission was the creation of a Dept. of Community and Preventive Medicine.
This Department has instigated many of Mount Sinai's efforts to reach out, define, and solve the health problems of our immediate community. The 1960s and 70's saw the beginning of other community programs, including Mount Sinai's Community Board, which continues today. In 1979 when Mount Sinai's first mission statement was drafted, this concern for the community was made explicit.
As the medical education and research components of the mission came to rest more firmly in Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the Hospital has continued its original mission of providing the highest quality patient care. With the tremendous changes in the healthcare marketplace, the Hospital and its Trustees have also continued the original commitment to maintaining a strong organization, financially able to ensure the future of Mount Sinai. After experiencing the financial worries of the 1970s, the Hospital re-tooled in the 1980s and did not produce the flow of red ink common to other New York hospitals. At the same time, plans were made to build a new patient pavilion to replace the original buildings from 1904. In 1992, the new Guggenheim Pavilion was dedicated. Designed by architect I. M. Pei, the building's design is reminiscent of the Hospital's 1904 design theme of "Light and Air".
In the 1990s, in keeping with changes in the healthcare environment, Mount Sinai began the creation of the Mount Sinai Health System, a group of affiliated but independent hospitals, nursing homes and group practices in the Tri-state area that work together to provide patients with increased access to specialty services and referrals to member institutions. In 1998, the Hospital took a much larger step with the creation of the Mount Sinai-NYU Medical Center and Health System. This merger, announced on July 17, linked together four hospitals: The Mount Sinai Hospital, the NYU Medical Center, the Hospital for Joint Diseases Orthopaedic Institute, and the NYU Downtown Hospital. As a part of this, on July 1, 1999, the School of Medicine changed university affiliations from The City University to New York University, but did not merge its operations with the New York University School of Medicine. In order to merge the hospitals only, Mount Sinai began the complex process of separating the medical school and hospital functions. After two years of effort, in 2001 it was decided to return to a campus-based organizational structure that would again emphasize the links between the hospitals and their medical schools and to begin dismantling the merger.
After the lapse of Mount Sinai-NYU Health, Mount Sinai endured a serious financial crisis. Outside experts were brought in to help right the organization and the institution underwent a series of changes in the upper level administration. One bright spot during these years was the June 24, 1999 purchase of the Western Queens Community Hospital (formerly Astoria General). It was renamed The Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens and works closely with Mount Sinai Manhattan to serve the people in its community.
The Mount Sinai Hospital today is a vibrant, financially stable institution with 1,170 beds, aligned with a medical school with a growing reputation, and a nationally competitive graduate school. These institutions work closely to ensure that they fulfill their mission, developed in the context of the Jewish tradition of scholarship and charity, of "advancing the art and science of medicine though clinical excellence."
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