Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center
Encyclopedia
Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's) was a healthcare system, anchored by its flagship hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, locally referred to as "St. Vincent's". St. Vincent's was founded in 1849 and closed in 2010. It was a major teaching hospital
in the Manhattan
neighborhood of Greenwich Village
in New York City
.
Health Plan. St. Vincent's was the primary admitting hospital for those injured in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
. St. Vincent's was the 3rd oldest hospital in New York City
after The New York Hospital and Bellevue Hospital.
As a Catholic hospital, St. Vincent's was officially sponsored by the Sisters of Charity
and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
On April 6, 2010, the Board of Directors of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, headed by Alfred E. Smith IV
, voted to authorize the closure of St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan inpatient services including all acute, rehab, and behavioral health. The vote came after a six-month long effort to save the financially troubled institution. The remaining parts of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, including its nursing homes, home health agency, St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, and US Family Health Plan, will continue to operate without interruption, but these entities will be sold to other providers systems.
St. Vincent’s employees were notified of the hospital’s intent to close on April 7, 2010. On April 9, 2010, the hospital stopped accepting ambulances. It stopped accepting inpatient admissions and elective surgery on April 14, 2010, and the next day it began limiting emergency care to treating and releasing patients or transferring them to other hospitals if they needed to be admitted. On April 19, 2010, more than 1,000 staff were laid off, which represents approximately one-third of the hospital's workforce.
On April 14, 2010, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The petition, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, showed liabilities of more than $1 billion.
, whose religious congregation of the Daughters of Charity inspired the founding in Maryland in 1809 of the Sisters of Charity by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
, a native New Yorker and Roman Catholic convert. Forty years after its founding, four Sisters were dispatched to New York City to set up a charity hospital in the city to meet the demands of the poor and disadvantaged. What began as a humble thirty-bed hospital in a small brick house on West 13th Street of Greenwich Village
expanded over time to become a major medical and research center. It maintained its connection to the Roman Catholic tradition, and was sponsored by the Bishop of Brooklyn and the President of the Sisters of Charity of New York
. St. Vincent is the designated patron saint
of charities, hospital workers, hospitals, and volunteers.
The SVCMC network was formed in 2000, when St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, formerly the St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center of New York, merged with Catholic Medical Centers of Brooklyn and Queens and Sisters of Charity Healthcare on Staten Island, which included St. Vincent's Hospital (Staten Island), Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, St. John's Queens Hospital, Saint Joseph's Hospital in Queens, St. Mary's Hospital of Brooklyn, and Bayley Seton Hospital
in Staten Island. In 2003 St. Clare's Hospital was affiliated, and renamed St. Vincent's Hospital (Midtown), but it was closed on August 1, 2007. St. Mary's Hospital of Brooklyn closed on Sept 23, 2005; Mary Immaculate and St. John's closed on March 1, 2009.
In 2005, under financial pressure from its charity involvements, burgeoning administration costs, and rising health care costs, the SVCMC system filed for bankruptcy
. The system launched an aggressive reorganization effort, selling or transferring its money-losing facilities and focusing development on its main hospital, which allowed it to emerge from bankruptcy in the summer of 2007. In the name of modernizing and restructuring, it also announced plans to build a new Manhattan hospital across the street from the current facility, with a planned opening set for 2011. The plan had been a source of contention with several neighborhood groups, such as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
and the Municipal Art Society
, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the residential components of the plan in July 2009.
On January 27, 2010 it was announced that the hospital's financial situation had soured further and desperate measures would be required to keep the hospital open. The hospital reached out to Continuum Health Partners, a part of Beth Israel, and to Mount Sinai Medical Center to consider taking over ownership of the hospital, both of which ultimately declinied. Senators, city council members and congressional representatives all got involved in attempting to save the hospital. However, On April 6, 2010, the board of directors voted to close inpatient care services at St Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, and to sell its outpatient services to other systems. The emergency room stopped accepting ambulances on April 9, 2010 and the last baby was delivered on April 15, 2010. On April 30, 2010, at 8 AM, the emergency room at St. Vincent's closed, officially shutting down the hospital after 161 years of service to the residents of New York.
. It offered a well-respected residency and fellowship program, and also served as a clerkship facility for students of medicine, nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.
Residencies
Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine
, Pediatrics
, Combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics, Primary Care
, Neurology
, Neurosurgery
, Nuclear Medicine
, OB/GYN, Ophthalmology
, Orthopedics
, Pathology
, PM&R, Psychiatry
, Child Psychiatry, Radiology
, General Surgery
, Transitional.
Fellowships
Cardiovascular, Critical Care
, Endocrinology
, Gastroenterology
, Interventional Endoscopy, Geriatrics
, Hematology
/Oncology
, Infectious Disease
, Pulmonary.
Allied Health Programs
CPR, Advanced Life Support
, EMT
, Paramedics, Nuclear Medicine
Technology.
As one of the first institutions to address and treat HIV
and AIDS
in the 1980s, St. Vincent's HIV Center was one of the oldest, most experienced and most renowned HIV treatment programs in the US. It provided coordinated outpatient and inpatient primary care and case management services to HIV-positive adults, pregnant women, and children, and also provided HIV prevention services, AIDS education programs, HIV clinical research, and support groups. In addition, SVCMC developed the unique Airbridge Project, which coordinates care for HIV-positive patients who make frequent trips to Puerto Rico
.
Chinese Outreach Program
Due its close proximity to Chinatown, Manhattan
, two miles away, SVCMC has had close ties to the Chinese community throughout its history. In an effort to reach this underserved population, the hospital opened an independent Chinese-speaking inpatient unit, which employed physicians and nurses who spoke Cantonese
and Mandarin
. They also opened an outpatient facility in Chinatown, provided a free shuttle service from Chinatown to the hospital, and offered Chinese-focused healthcare services such as Acupuncture
and Chinese traditional meals.
Cystic Fibrosis Program
One of the most comprehensive and renowned CF programs in the city, the Saint Vincent's Cystic Fibrosis
therapy program offered care for patients with cystic fibrosis
and attracted patients from around the region.
Perinatal Hospice Center
The Perinatal Hospice was founded in 2007 to meet the needs of parents who discover early in pregnancy that their baby is nonviable outside the womb, and yet chose to carry their baby to term.
John J. Conley Department of Ethics
Closely linked to the Bioethics
Institute at New York Medical College
, The Conley Ethics Department was a leader in the study of clinical medical ethics and spirituality in healthcare. Chaired by Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, the department strove to integrate the biopsychosocial model
of healthcare within the SVCMC system.
Elizabeth Ann Seton Chapel
Because the hospital was founded and manned through much of its history by nuns, its hospital chapel was a primary focus of the hospital architecture, and was symbolically nested at the very center of the hospital. The Chapel, named for St Elizabeth Ann Seton
, offered daily Mass and refuge for patients and hospital staff.
Hospital Pet Care Program
Responding to the unique needs of an urban population, SVCMC instituted a program to help patients provide for the pet
s during their stay in the hospital. Animals were either walked and fed in patient's home, or were relocated to care facilities or short-term foster homes.
Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Comprehensive Cancer Center provided prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery of a variety of malignancies, with a focus on preventing inpatient stays through careful outpatient monitoring. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, even stem cell transplants were provided as day procedures, along with 24 hour emergency care.
Teaching hospital
A teaching hospital is a hospital that provides clinical education and training to future and current doctors, nurses, and other health professionals, in addition to delivering medical care to patients...
in the Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
neighborhood of Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
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...
.
History
It consisted of several hospital buildings and a number of outpatient facilities, had more than 1,000 affiliated physicians, including 70 full-time and 300 voluntary attending physicians, and trained more than 300 residents and fellows annually. It was the designated provider for New York and New Jersey members of the U.S. Department of DefenseUnited States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
Health Plan. St. Vincent's was the primary admitting hospital for those injured in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
. St. Vincent's was the 3rd oldest hospital 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...
after The New York Hospital and Bellevue Hospital.
As a Catholic hospital, St. Vincent's was officially sponsored by the Sisters of Charity
Sisters of Charity of New York
The Sisters of Charity of New York is a religious congregation of women in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated in particular to the service of the poor.-History:...
and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, which includes territory that was previously part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, was established as a separate diocese in 1853 when the City of Brooklyn was separate from New York City....
On April 6, 2010, the Board of Directors of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, headed by Alfred E. Smith IV
Alfred E. Smith IV
Alfred E. Smith IV, born May 24, 1951, served as Chairman of the Board of Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center. In December 2006, after 35 years on Wall Street, he retired from his position as Managing Director of Bear Wagner Specialists LLC, a specialist and member firm of the New York Stock...
, voted to authorize the closure of St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan inpatient services including all acute, rehab, and behavioral health. The vote came after a six-month long effort to save the financially troubled institution. The remaining parts of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, including its nursing homes, home health agency, St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester, and US Family Health Plan, will continue to operate without interruption, but these entities will be sold to other providers systems.
St. Vincent’s employees were notified of the hospital’s intent to close on April 7, 2010. On April 9, 2010, the hospital stopped accepting ambulances. It stopped accepting inpatient admissions and elective surgery on April 14, 2010, and the next day it began limiting emergency care to treating and releasing patients or transferring them to other hospitals if they needed to be admitted. On April 19, 2010, more than 1,000 staff were laid off, which represents approximately one-third of the hospital's workforce.
On April 14, 2010, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The petition, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, showed liabilities of more than $1 billion.
Former facilities
- St. Vincent's Hospital: a 758-bed tertiary care teaching hospital, at Seventh AvenueSeventh Avenue (Manhattan)Seventh Avenue, known as Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard north of Central Park, is a thoroughfare on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is southbound below Central Park and a two-way street north of the park....
and Greenwich AvenueGreenwich Avenue (Manhattan)Greenwich Avenue is a southeast-northwest avenue in Greenwich Village, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It extends from the intersection of 6th Avenue and 8th Street at its southeast end to its northwestern end at 8th Avenue between 14th Street and 13th Street...
on the border of Greenwich VillageGreenwich VillageGreenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
and ChelseaChelsea, ManhattanChelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
. It included:- Level I Trauma Center and Critical Care Center,
- Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center,
- Level III Neonatal ICU,
- The Pancreas & Biliary Center,
- Comprehensive Cancer Center (Now- Beth Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center),
- Comprehensive HIV Center, and
- Full service emergency departmentEmergency departmentAn emergency department , also known as accident & emergency , emergency room , emergency ward , or casualty department is a medical treatment facility specialising in acute care of patients who present without prior appointment, either by their own means or by ambulance...
. - Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and addiction services
- St. Vincent's Hospital (Westchester), a behavioral health facility, in Harrison, NY.
- Behavior Health Residential Services, a 500 bed community housing and case management program based at Bayley Seton Staten Island, with units in the five Bouroughs and Westchester.
- 4 skilled nursing facilities, including
- Bishop Mugavero Center for Geriatric Care in Brooklyn,
- Holy Family Home in BrooklynBrooklynBrooklyn 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 - St. Elizabeth Ann's Health Care & Rehabilitation Center in Staten IslandStaten IslandStaten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
. - Monsignor Fitzpatrick in Queens
- Pax Christi Hospice in Staten Island.
- SVCMC Home Health Agency, a comprehensive home care service providing care in all five boroughs of New York City.
- Several outpatient medical and substance abuse treatment centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, WestchesterWestchester County, New YorkWestchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...
and the BronxThe BronxThe Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
.
History
St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan was founded as a medical facility in 1849. Its namesake was St. Vincent de Paul, a seventeenth-century French priestPriesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
, whose religious congregation of the Daughters of Charity inspired the founding in Maryland in 1809 of the Sisters of Charity by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church . She established Catholic communities in Emmitsburg, Maryland....
, a native New Yorker and Roman Catholic convert. Forty years after its founding, four Sisters were dispatched to New York City to set up a charity hospital in the city to meet the demands of the poor and disadvantaged. What began as a humble thirty-bed hospital in a small brick house on West 13th Street of Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
expanded over time to become a major medical and research center. It maintained its connection to the Roman Catholic tradition, and was sponsored by the Bishop of Brooklyn and the President of the Sisters of Charity of New York
Sisters of Charity of New York
The Sisters of Charity of New York is a religious congregation of women in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated in particular to the service of the poor.-History:...
. St. Vincent is the designated patron saint
Patron saint
A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...
of charities, hospital workers, hospitals, and volunteers.
The SVCMC network was formed in 2000, when St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, formerly the St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center of New York, merged with Catholic Medical Centers of Brooklyn and Queens and Sisters of Charity Healthcare on Staten Island, which included St. Vincent's Hospital (Staten Island), Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, St. John's Queens Hospital, Saint Joseph's Hospital in Queens, St. Mary's Hospital of Brooklyn, and Bayley Seton Hospital
Bayley Seton Hospital
Bayley Seton Hospital is a hospital in Staten Island, New York City. it is primarily a psychiatric and social services outpatient hospital, operated jointly by Richmond University Medical Center and Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center.-Location:...
in Staten Island. In 2003 St. Clare's Hospital was affiliated, and renamed St. Vincent's Hospital (Midtown), but it was closed on August 1, 2007. St. Mary's Hospital of Brooklyn closed on Sept 23, 2005; Mary Immaculate and St. John's closed on March 1, 2009.
In 2005, under financial pressure from its charity involvements, burgeoning administration costs, and rising health care costs, the SVCMC system filed for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
. The system launched an aggressive reorganization effort, selling or transferring its money-losing facilities and focusing development on its main hospital, which allowed it to emerge from bankruptcy in the summer of 2007. In the name of modernizing and restructuring, it also announced plans to build a new Manhattan hospital across the street from the current facility, with a planned opening set for 2011. The plan had been a source of contention with several neighborhood groups, such as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation is a non-profit organization that seeks to preserve the architectural heritage and cultural history of several neighborhoods of New York City: Greenwich Village, the East Village, the Far West Village, the South Village, Gansevoort Market,...
and the Municipal Art Society
Municipal Art Society
The Municipal Art Society of New York, founded in 1893, is a non-profit membership organization that fights for intelligent urban planning, design and preservation through education, dialogue and advocacy in New York City....
, but the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the residential components of the plan in July 2009.
On January 27, 2010 it was announced that the hospital's financial situation had soured further and desperate measures would be required to keep the hospital open. The hospital reached out to Continuum Health Partners, a part of Beth Israel, and to Mount Sinai Medical Center to consider taking over ownership of the hospital, both of which ultimately declinied. Senators, city council members and congressional representatives all got involved in attempting to save the hospital. However, On April 6, 2010, the board of directors voted to close inpatient care services at St Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, and to sell its outpatient services to other systems. The emergency room stopped accepting ambulances on April 9, 2010 and the last baby was delivered on April 15, 2010. On April 30, 2010, at 8 AM, the emergency room at St. Vincent's closed, officially shutting down the hospital after 161 years of service to the residents of New York.
Medical Education
SVCMC served as one of two academic medical centers of New York Medical CollegeNew York Medical College
New York Medical College, aka New York Med or NYMC, is a private graduate health sciences university based in Westchester County, New York, a suburb of New York City and a part of the New York Metropolitan Area...
. It offered a well-respected residency and fellowship program, and also served as a clerkship facility for students of medicine, nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.
Residencies
Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
, Pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
, Combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics, Primary Care
Primary care
Primary care is the term for the health services by providers who act as the principal point of consultation for patients within a health care system...
, Neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery
Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...
, Nuclear Medicine
Nuclear medicine
In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs...
, OB/GYN, Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology
Ophthalmology is the branch of medicine that deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye. An ophthalmologist is a specialist in medical and surgical eye problems...
, Orthopedics
Orthopedics
Orthopedics is the study of the musculoskeletal system. The Greek word 'ortho' means straight or correct and 'pedics' comes from the Greek 'pais' meaning children. For many centuries, orthopedists have been involved in the treatment of crippled children...
, Pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
, PM&R, Psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, Child Psychiatry, Radiology
Radiology
Radiology is a medical specialty that employs the use of imaging to both diagnose and treat disease visualized within the human body. Radiologists use an array of imaging technologies to diagnose or treat diseases...
, General Surgery
General surgery
General surgery, despite its name, is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal organs, e.g., intestines including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland . They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft...
, Transitional.
Fellowships
Cardiovascular, Critical Care
Critical care
Critical care may refer to:* Critical care medicine or intensive-care medicine, a branch of medicine concerned with life support for critically ill patients* "Critical Care" , an episode of the TV series...
, Endocrinology
Endocrinology
Endocrinology is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions called hormones, the integration of developmental events such as proliferation, growth, and differentiation and the coordination of...
, Gastroenterology
Gastroenterology
Gastroenterology is the branch of medicine whereby the digestive system and its disorders are studied. The name is a combination of three Ancient Greek words gaster , enteron , and logos...
, Interventional Endoscopy, Geriatrics
Geriatrics
Geriatrics is a sub-specialty of internal medicine and family medicine that focuses on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults. There is no set age at which patients may be under the care of a geriatrician, or...
, Hematology
Hematology
Hematology, also spelled haematology , is the branch of biology physiology, internal medicine, pathology, clinical laboratory work, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases...
/Oncology
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with cancer...
, Infectious Disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
, Pulmonary.
Allied Health Programs
CPR, Advanced Life Support
Advanced Life Support
Advanced Life Support is a set of life-saving protocols and skills that extend Basic Life Support to further support the circulation and provide an open airway and adequate ventilation .-Components of ALS:These include:...
, EMT
Emergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
, Paramedics, Nuclear Medicine
Nuclear medicine
In nuclear medicine procedures, elemental radionuclides are combined with other elements to form chemical compounds, or else combined with existing pharmaceutical compounds, to form radiopharmaceuticals. These radiopharmaceuticals, once administered to the patient, can localize to specific organs...
Technology.
Mission
Drawing on its Roman Catholic heritage, SVCMC's emphasis was on patient-focused healthcare, with a special mission to provide care for the poor and disenfranchised.
"Respect: The basic dignity of the human person is the guiding principal in all our interactions, policies and procedures.
Integrity: Integrity is the consistency between the Catholic identity we profess and the ways in which we act it is that quality of truthfulness, which fosters trust.
Compassion: Compassion is the way we share deep concern, love and care toward each person.
Excellence: Excellence is our way of demonstrating that we can always be more, always be better."
Notable programs
St. Vincent's HIV CenterAs one of the first institutions to address and treat HIV
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
and AIDS
AIDS
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
in the 1980s, St. Vincent's HIV Center was one of the oldest, most experienced and most renowned HIV treatment programs in the US. It provided coordinated outpatient and inpatient primary care and case management services to HIV-positive adults, pregnant women, and children, and also provided HIV prevention services, AIDS education programs, HIV clinical research, and support groups. In addition, SVCMC developed the unique Airbridge Project, which coordinates care for HIV-positive patients who make frequent trips to Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
.
Chinese Outreach Program
Due its close proximity to Chinatown, Manhattan
Chinatown, Manhattan
Manhattan's Chinatown , home to one of the highest concentrations of Chinese people in the Western hemisphere, is located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City...
, two miles away, SVCMC has had close ties to the Chinese community throughout its history. In an effort to reach this underserved population, the hospital opened an independent Chinese-speaking inpatient unit, which employed physicians and nurses who spoke Cantonese
Standard Cantonese
Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a language that originated in the vicinity of Canton in southern China, and is often regarded as the prestige dialect of Yue Chinese....
and Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
. They also opened an outpatient facility in Chinatown, provided a free shuttle service from Chinatown to the hospital, and offered Chinese-focused healthcare services such as Acupuncture
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a type of alternative medicine that treats patients by insertion and manipulation of solid, generally thin needles in the body....
and Chinese traditional meals.
Cystic Fibrosis Program
One of the most comprehensive and renowned CF programs in the city, the Saint Vincent's Cystic Fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
therapy program offered care for patients with cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
and attracted patients from around the region.
Perinatal Hospice Center
The Perinatal Hospice was founded in 2007 to meet the needs of parents who discover early in pregnancy that their baby is nonviable outside the womb, and yet chose to carry their baby to term.
John J. Conley Department of Ethics
Closely linked to the Bioethics
Bioethics
Bioethics is the study of controversial ethics brought about by advances in biology and medicine. Bioethicists are concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, and philosophy....
Institute at New York Medical College
New York Medical College
New York Medical College, aka New York Med or NYMC, is a private graduate health sciences university based in Westchester County, New York, a suburb of New York City and a part of the New York Metropolitan Area...
, The Conley Ethics Department was a leader in the study of clinical medical ethics and spirituality in healthcare. Chaired by Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, the department strove to integrate the biopsychosocial model
Biopsychosocial model
The biopsychosocial model is a general model or approach that posits that biological, psychological , and social factors, all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of disease or illness...
of healthcare within the SVCMC system.
Elizabeth Ann Seton Chapel
Because the hospital was founded and manned through much of its history by nuns, its hospital chapel was a primary focus of the hospital architecture, and was symbolically nested at the very center of the hospital. The Chapel, named for St Elizabeth Ann Seton
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church . She established Catholic communities in Emmitsburg, Maryland....
, offered daily Mass and refuge for patients and hospital staff.
Hospital Pet Care Program
Responding to the unique needs of an urban population, SVCMC instituted a program to help patients provide for the pet
Pet
A pet is a household animal kept for companionship and a person's enjoyment, as opposed to wild animals or to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic or productive reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful...
s during their stay in the hospital. Animals were either walked and fed in patient's home, or were relocated to care facilities or short-term foster homes.
Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Comprehensive Cancer Center provided prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery of a variety of malignancies, with a focus on preventing inpatient stays through careful outpatient monitoring. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, even stem cell transplants were provided as day procedures, along with 24 hour emergency care.