Lenox Hill Hospital

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Lenox Hill Hospital
North Shore-LIJ Health System
Lenox Hill Hospital logo.png
A tall brick building with a dark green awning at street level reading "Lenox Hill Hospital Emergency Entrance". On the street in front are two ambulances and a sport-utility vehicle with flashers in the same color scheme with "Paramedics" on the side.
East 77th Street entrance to hospital
Geography
Location Upper East Side, Manhattan,
New York City, New York, United States
Coordinates 40°46′25″N 73°57′40″W / 40.77361°N 73.96111°W / 40.77361; -73.96111Coordinates: 40°46′25″N 73°57′40″W / 40.77361°N 73.96111°W / 40.77361; -73.96111
Organization
Care system Private
Funding Non-profit hospital
Hospital type Teaching
Affiliated university  • New York Medical College
 • New York University School of Medicine
 • Pace University Physician Assistant Program (Pace University)
Services
Beds 652
History
Founded 1857
Links
Website lenoxhillhospital.org
Lists Hospitals in New York

Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City, is a 652-bed, tertiary-care hospital and a teaching hospital of New York Medical College, SUNY Downstate College of Medicine, New York University College of Medicine, Long Island University, and Pace University. It was founded in 1857 as the German Dispensary.[1] It currently consists of ten buildings and has occupied the present site in Manhattan since 1905, when it was known as the German Hospital. The hospital is located on a city block bounded on the north and south by 77th and 76th Streets, and on the west and east by Park Avenue and Lexington Avenue. The subway station on the same block bears the hospital's name.

In 2007, the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital (MEETH) was incorporated into Lenox Hill Hospital. The hospital's president and chief executive office is Gladys George.

Contents

History [edit]

A colored postcared image of a building identified as the German Hospital with the mansard roof
Lenox Hill Hospital, 1868

On January 19, 1857, the German Dispensary was founded. On May 28, 1857 the facility opened to the public at 132 Canal Street. In 1862, the German Dispensary moved to larger quarters at 8 East Third Street to accommodate the 10,000 patients it treated each year. The hospital continued to grow, and in 1884 moved to 137 Second Avenue, at East 8th Street. The new three-story building was a gift of Anna Ottendorfer and Oswald Ottendorfer, who ran the German-language newspaper New Yorker Staats-Zeitung. By 1887, the German Hospital and Dispensary was treating 28,000 patients annually, mostly from the local Little Germany neighborhood around First and Second Avenues below 14th Street.[1]

In 1887, the hospital opened its nurses' training school with four young German-American women forming the first class. Until then, nursing attendants and charge nurses had been brought over from Germany.

In 1905, the hospital moved to the Upper East Side, at Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue) and 77th Street, at the same time that Manhattan's German community was increasingly abandoning Little Germany for the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side, within walking distance of the new hospital. The German Hospital had been leasing the mostly unused 77th Street site since 1865, when it was a swampy, goat-ridden tract of land, at an annual rent of $1. New York City deeded the square block to the hospital for $5000 in 1907. The Hospital had constructed a four-story building on site in December 1888, in order to add to its capacity from its downtown location. A five-story Training School for Nurses was added in February 1894 at 77th Street and Lexington Avenue. The New York Times noted in an 1899 editorial, "to be a graduate nurse of the German Hospital is a distinction and recommendation for good nursing."

In July 1918, the German Hospital was renamed Lenox Hill Hospital, tying it to the Lenox Hill section of the Upper East Side, in an effort to distance the institution from America's enemy in World War I. A movement in 1925 to restore the hospital to its former name, to appeal to potential donors of German descent, was eventually rejected by the board of trustees. It was said at the time that about 95 percent of the doctors, nurses and other employees of the hospital spoke German.

In February 1919, the hospital rejected a proposed merger with Columbia University.

In April 1931, the hospital completed a new $2.5 million 11-story building, with a facade made of light brick with limestone trim, on the 76th Street side of the hospital, replacing two apartment houses and several workshops. The pioneering children's division, founded by Dr. Abraham Jacobi, was housed on the 11th floor, with other patient rooms on the fourth through ninth floors, and operating rooms on the 10th floor. Another two-story building, containing a ward service, lecture hall and swimming pool was added next to the main building on the 76th Street side in 1936, at a cost of $150,000. By 1939, the Hospital had annually treated 12,115 patients with bed care, and another 23,099 visited the dispensary for treatment. Adding accident room patients, the Hospital treated over 53,000 people in 1939. Because some care was given for free or part-pay, the Hospital often ran an operating deficit, just as it did in 1939, when it lost $163,029, down from an over $200,000 loss the previous year, 1938. The Hospital's operating loss grew to $284,692 in 1945, then a record high. Due to a lack of funds, an anticipated additional new building was delayed for over 20 years, when a Second Century Development Program, designed to raise $10 million, was led by the Hospital's president, James Wickersham. Finally, on the Hospital's 100th anniversary, in 1957, it opened a $4.5 million 12-story building on Park Avenue at 77th Street, with a glass and aluminum facade, and a capacity of 180 patient beds. The new building, named the Wollman Pavilion, also housed a mental health unit, and an entire floor was allocated for research on speech and hearing disorders, epilepsy and hemophilia. In 1964, the Charles R. Lachman Community Health Center was added on the south side of East 77th Street, between the Wollman Pavilion and the William Black Hall of Nursing, which opened in 1962 (the School of Nursing closed in 1973). The Hospital opened its largest building, at 12 stories, in 1976, located at Park Avenue and 76th Street, replacing the Ottendorfer Dispensary, at a cost of $20 million. The modern brick masonry structure, with a fortresslike facade, stood in stark contrast in architectural style of the rest of hospital's buildings. The new building added 180 patient beds, for an overall capacity of 690 beds.

In December 1931 Winston Churchill, the future Prime Minister of Great Britain, was treated at Lenox Hill Hospital for eight days for injuries from when he was hit by a car while crossing Fifth Avenue (at 76th Street). On Lenox Hill Hospital's 100th anniversary, in 1957, he wrote, "I well remember the admirable care and attention I received ..."

In 1943, the hospital sent the medical unit to England to maintain station hospitals for military personnel. Throughout the remainder of World War II, Lenox Hill Hospital staff members served in all war theaters, including combat forces in the European theater of operations after D-Day to the present day War in Iraq.

In 1998, a jury awarded $49 million in an obstetrics case against Lenox Hill Hospital, which was one of the largest medical malpractice verdicts in New York City at that time.

Contributions to modern medicine [edit]

The hospital became a leading innovator in medical care, developing and implementing many standards and practices that would later become indispensable components of modern medicine. In 1897, the hospital installed one of the first X-ray machines in America. Ten years later, the hospital established the first physical therapy department in the country. In response to what was becoming a growing public health threat, Lenox Hill Hospital was the first general hospital in the United States to open a tuberculosis division. In 1973, the Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma becomes the first hospital-based center in the nation for the study of sports medicine.

Early on, Lenox Hill Hospital established itself as one of the nation’s leading hospitals for cardiac care. In 1938, the first angiocardiograph in the country was performed at Lenox Hill Hospital, and in 1955 the hospital became one of the first in New York City to open a cardiac catheterization laboratory. Ten years later, the hospital opened the first cardiac care unit in the metropolitan New York area. In 1978 the first coronary angioplasties in the country were performed at Lenox Hill Hospital and at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco. In 1994, Lenox Hill Hospital surgeons pioneered minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass surgery and in 2000, Lenox Hill Hospital was the first in the United States to perform endoscopic radial artery harvesting. In 2003, the first drug coated stent approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was implanted at Lenox Hill Hospital. Lenox Hill is also one of the first hospitals in the nation to acquire a state-of-the-art robotic cardiac system, which allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive heart bypass surgery.

In 2000, Lenox Hill Hospital became the sponsor of Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, an internationally renowned specialty hospital.

Continuing its tradition of care during times of crisis, Lenox Hill Hospital assembled a disaster team to care for casualties of the September 11 attacks at the World Trade Center in 2001. Emergency crews were sent to Ground Zero and supply runs to the area were conducted to aid the rescue workers. The hospital set up a free walk-in Crisis Counseling Center, staffed by the hospital’s psychiatrists and therapists and the blood donor center was expanded to accommodate the thousands of people who came to the hospital to give blood.

In 2007, Lenox Hill Hospital celebrated its 150th anniversary, and expanded its dedication to the New York City community by opening a brand-new, state-of-the-art Emergency Department, the Anne and Isidore Falk Center for Emergency Care at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Medical milestones and pioneers [edit]

Many important milestones in the advancement of medical knowledge have been made at Lenox Hill Hospital, including:

Many medical pioneers were early members of the hospital's attending staff. Among them were:

  • Henry Jacques Garrigues – introduced antiseptic obstetrics to North America
  • Willy Meyer, M.D. – performed some of the earliest pulmonary surgery in America
  • Abraham Jacobi, M.D. – the father of American pediatrics
  • Leo Buerger, M.D. – described the disease that bears his name
  • Carl Eggers, M.D., and Dewitt Stetten, M.D. – founding members of the American College of Surgeons
  • Franz Torek, M.D. – performed the first successful esophagectomy for carcinoma and also developed the surgical treatment of undescended testicles
  • William H. Stewart, M.D. – a former director of radiology, performed the first angiocardiogram in the United States in 1938.
  • Simon Stertzer, M.D. of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and Richard K. Myler, M.D. of St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco – performed the first coronary angioplasties in the United States on the same day, March 1, 1978

Today [edit]

Lenox Hill Hospital today provides a wide range of inpatient medical/surgical, obstetric, pediatric and psychiatric services. The hospital has both primary care and specialty outpatient clinics, an ambulance service and an emergency department. Special programs and services include interventional cardiology and a cardiovascular surgery program that are among the busiest and most highly regarded in the region; a New York State-designated AIDS center program; a high-risk neonatal care service; an active obstetric service; a growing ambulatory surgery program; a growing renal dialysis service; and a community health education and outreach program. Other licensed services include cystoscopy, diagnostic radiology services including CT and MRI scanning, nuclear medicine, and therapeutic radiology. Licensed outpatient services include primary care medicine, pediatrics, prenatal care and family planning, physical therapy, audiology, speech/language pathology, and social work. The hospital is licensed to provide both inpatient and outpatient adult mental health services. Its active ambulance service has as its primary territory 59th Street to 96th Street, from Central Park to the East River. Approximately 325,000 people a year receive care at Lenox Hill Hospital.

In 2007, it was ranked among the nation's top 50 hospitals in Heart and Heart Surgery (#15), Orthopedics (#26) and Neurology & Neurosurgery (#45) according to U.S. News & World Report's annual survey on America's Best Hospitals.[citation needed]

The hospital's building underwent masonry and roof restorations conducted by Merrit Engineering Consultants, P.C. from 2007-2009. Facade restoration, waterproofing, and structural steel repairs were also conducted.[2]

On May 19, 2010, the hospital announced that an agreement had been finalized for Lenox Hill Hospital to join the North Shore-LIJ Health System.

Notable patients [edit]

Comedian Joan Rivers gave birth to her daughter Melissa Rivers at the hospital in 1968. In 1986, singer-songwriter Lady Gaga was born in the hospital. Actress Sarah Jessica Parker gave birth to her son James there in 2002. Jane Krakowski and Tina Fey stated on the Today Show that they had their children there,.[3] In January 2012 Beyoncé Knowles gave birth to her daughter Blue Ivy Carter at the hospital. New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist's wife gave birth to their daughter in July 2012 at the hospital.

Other well-known people treated at the hospital include actress Elizabeth Taylor, singer Barry Manilow, singer Karen Carpenter, New York Jets defensive end Dennis Byrd following his spinal cord injury, the former General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, television journalist Mike Wallace, actress Peggy Cass, John F. Kennedy, Jr., boxer Rocky Graziano, singer Rosemary Clooney, New York socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor, conductor James Levine, first lady Pat Nixon, and actor James Cagney.

Notable deaths at the hospital [edit]

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