Beth Israel Medical Center
Encyclopedia
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Originally dedicated to serving immigrant Jews living in the tenement slums of the Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
, it was founded at the turn of the 20th century. The main hospital location is the Petrie Division at First Avenue
First Avenue (Manhattan)
First Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, running from Houston Street northbound for over 125 blocks before terminating at the Willis Avenue Bridge into The Bronx at the Harlem River near East 127th Street. South of Houston Street, the...
and 16th Street, and facing Stuyvesant Square
Stuyvesant Square
__notoc__Stuyvesant Square is a park in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located between 15th Street and 17th Street and Rutherford Place and Nathan D. Perlman Place, formerly Livingston Place. Second Avenue divides the park into two halves, east and west, and each half is surrounded by the...
. Other campuses included Beth Israel-Kings Highway Division in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
and Phillips Ambulatory Care Center at Union Square
Union Square (New York City)
Union Square is a public square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York.It is an important and historic intersection, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century; its name celebrates neither the...
.
It acts as University Hospital and Manhattan Campus for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Albert Einstein College of Medicine is a graduate school of Yeshiva University. It is a not-for-profit, private, nonsectarian medical school located on the Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus in the Morris Park neighborhood of the borough of the Bronx of New York City...
of Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
. The hospital is also a teaching hospital of St. George's University
St. George's University
St. George’s University is an independent international university in Grenada, West Indies, offering degrees in medicine, veterinary medicine, public health, the health sciences, nursing, arts and sciences, and business....
and the Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing
Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing
The Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing was founded in 1902 and chartered by the New York Board of Regents in 1904.It has been located at 776 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, NY since a move in 2005 from 310 East 22nd Street.-Academics:...
.
Beth Israel Medical Center is a member of the Continuum Health Partners
Continuum Health Partners
Continuum Health Partners is a hospital network in New York City.It consists of:*Beth Israel Medical Center*St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center*New York Eye and Ear InfirmaryIt was formed initially in 1997 by Beth Israel and St. Luke's-Roosevelt...
, a nonprofit hospital system that includes three other institutions: Roosevelt Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital
St. Luke's Hospital
St. Luke's Hospital may refer to:in Greece* St. Luke's Hospital in Ireland* St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny* St. Luke's Hospital, Rathgar, Dublinin Japan* St. Luke's International Hospitalin Malta* St. Luke's Hospital, Malta...
and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary
__notoc__The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, located at East 14th Street and Second Avenue in lower Manhattan, New York City, is one of the most prominent otolaryngology and ophthalmology hospitals in the world, providing primary inpatient and outpatient care in those specialties...
.
History
Beth Israel was incorporated in 1890 by a group of 40 Orthodox Jews on the Lower East SideLower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....
each of whom paid 25 cents to set up a hospital serving New York's Jewish immigrants, particularly newcomers. At the time New York's hospitals would not treat patients who had been in the city less than a year. It initially opened a dispensary
Dispensary
A dispensary is an office in a school, hospital or other organization that dispenses medications and medical supplies. In a traditional dispensary set-up a pharmacist dispenses medication as per prescription or order form....
on the Lower East Side. In 1891 it opened a 20-bed hospital and in 1892 expanded again and moved into a 115-bed hospital in 1902.
In 1929 it moved into a 13-story, 500-bed building at its current location at the corner of Stuyvesant Square
Stuyvesant Square
__notoc__Stuyvesant Square is a park in the New York City borough of Manhattan, located between 15th Street and 17th Street and Rutherford Place and Nathan D. Perlman Place, formerly Livingston Place. Second Avenue divides the park into two halves, east and west, and each half is surrounded by the...
. It purchased its neighbor the Manhattan General Hospital in 1964 and renamed the complex Beth Israel Medical Center, located at First Avenue and 16th Street in Manhattan.
By the 1980s it had long extended beyond its Jewish base. In 1988 it had the largest network of heroin-treatment clinics in the United States with 7,500 patients and 23 facilities.
It acquired Doctors Hospital on the Upper East Side in the 1990s, renaming it Beth Israel Medical Center-Singer Division, and Kings Highway Hospital Center in 1995, renaming it Beth Israel Medical Center-Kings Highway Division.
In 2004, Beth Israel Medical Center closed the Singer Division and consolidated its Manhattan inpatient operations at the main hospital campus, called the Petrie Division, on First Avenue at 16th Street in Manhattan.
As of 2010 Beth Israel Medical Center has residency training programs in nearly every major field of medicine including: Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Surgery, ENT, Oral Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Radiology, Family Medicine, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Neurology, Ophthalmology, Pathology, Psychiatry, Podiatry, and Urology. Continuum Health Partners which owns Beth Israel provides resident trainees with subsidized housing and a competitive salary.
In 2011 Huguette Clark died at the hospital at age 104. She left one million dollars to the hospital upon her death.