Newton-Wellesley Hospital

Newton-Wellesley Hospital

Newton-Wellesley Hospital Logo
Location	2014 Washington St., Newton, Massachusetts, United States
Coordinates	42°19′58.26″N 71°14′46.33″W / 42.33285°N 71.2462028°W / 42.33285; -71.2462028Coordinates: 42°19′58.26″N 71°14′46.33″W / 42.33285°N 71.2462028°W / 42.33285; -71.2462028
Organization
Hospital type	Nonprofit, Community Teaching
Affiliated university	Tufts University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Emergency department	Level II trauma center
Beds	289[1]
Founded	1881 [2]
Website	http://www.nwh.org/
Lists	Hospitals in Massachusetts

Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH) is a community teaching medical center located in Newton, Massachusetts on Washington Street. It is affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School.

It is a member of Partners HealthCare, a network founded by Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The Hospital offers a range of medical, surgical and specialty care, including maternity services, a 24-hour emergency department and orthopedic, critical care and oncology inpatient units.^[3]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early Outpatient Department 1.2 Milestones 2 Facilities and current operations 3 Ratings 4 Clinical Centers 5 Notable Births 6 The early years 6.1 Nursing Early Years 7 Then and Now 8 Going Green 9 By the Numbers 10 External links 11 References

[edit] History

Newton-Wellesley Hospital, originally called Newton Cottage Hospital, was incorporated in 1881. The idea for the Hospital began when a local reverend, George W. Shinn, encouraged the mayor of Newton, Royal M. Pulsifer, to provide health care services for sick members of the community. The Hospital officially opened its doors on June 5, 1886 and admitted its first patient a week later. As a cottage hospital, Newton-Wellesley was built to serve the local population. It consisted of a complex of buildings, radiating from a central administrative building. Patients were cared for in windowed ward rooms, one story high.^[4]

[edit] Early Outpatient Department

In 1910, the Outpatient Department was opened at the Hospital. Most Outpatient Departments at the time consisted of a doctor and a nurse. But Newton-Wellesley offered a variety of services, each attended by a specialist. The Department had an orthopedic service, one of only two in the Boston community.^[4]

[edit] Milestones

• 1881 – Newton Cottage Hospital is incorporated.
• 1884 – Money is raised to purchase nine acres and to build a hospital.
• 1886 – The Cottage Hospital opens on June 5; a week later the first patient is admitted.
• 1888 – School of Nursing opens.
• 1890 – First baby is born in the Hospital.
• 1894 – Newton Cottage Hospital name is changed to Newton Hospital.
• 1898 – The Hospital opens its first operating room and recovery ward.
• 1902 – First X-ray machine is installed.
• 1910 – The Outpatient Clinics open, including an orthopedic service - one of only two in the Greater Boston area.
• 1918 – Tents and temporary buildings are erected to deal with the influenza pandemic and the influx of World War I wounded.
• 1920 – Medical record keeping begins - staff take notes about patients in the doctors' scrub room.
• 1924 – An official and expanded laboratory is established, performing blood counts and urinalyses.
• 1933 – Electrocardiograph machine added in the Hospital.
• 1939 – First blood bank established in the Hospital.
• 1945 – The Hospital changes its name to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
• 1955 – The Hospital Surgical Service installs its first pacemaker.
• 1965 – The birth of the Hospital's 50,000th baby is celebrated.
• 1986 – The first in-vitro baby is born at the Hospital.
• 1993 – The first cardiac catheterization procedure is performed.
• 1997 – Wikstrom Surgical Center opens, providing 16 operating rooms, pre-operative and post-anesthesia areas, and a permanent MRI suite.
• 1999 – Newton-Wellesley Hospital joins Partners HealthCare.
• 2001 – The Hospital affiliates with MassGeneral Hospital for Children.
• 2003 – Newton-Wellesley opens the Waltham Urgent Care Center.
• 2006 – The Hospital is named a Top 100 Hospital by Solucient for the fourth time in five years.
• 2007 – Maxwell Blum Emergency Pavilion opens.
• 2008 – Vernon Cancer Center breaks ground.^[5]

[edit] Facilities and current operations

There are 289 available beds and more than 17,000 discharges every year at Newton-Wellesley Hospital. On average, there are 56,000 visits in the Emergency Room yearly and more than 3,200 babies born. 14,000 surgical cases are seen each year.^[1] The Hospital employs approximately 2500 people.

The main campus of Newton-Wellesley is located at 2014 Washington Street, Newton, Massachusetts, near the intersection of Routes 16 & 128 (I-95), one mile south of the Mass. Pike (I-90). The closest MBTA stop is Woodland, two blocks from the Hospital on the D (Riverside) Branch of the MBTA Green Line.^[6]

An additional urgent care treatment facility is located offsite at the Waltham Urgent Care Center at 9 Hope Avenue in Waltham, MA.^[7] Laboratory Services also has offsite locations in Natick, Walpole, Waltham and Weston.^[8]

[edit] Ratings

NWH has received the Boston Business Journal's Best Places to Work Award in 2007 and 2008.^{[citation needed]} It consisently ranks as a Top 100 Hospital by Solucient, honored five times for this achievement. In 2008 it received the American Heart Association's 2008 Get With The Guidelines Silver Performance Achievement Award for coronary artery disease and the 2008 Gold Performance Achievement Award for stroke and 2008 Silver Performance Achievement Award for heart failure. Sixty-three physicians affiliated with the Hospital were named to the Best Doctors in America list for 2007-08 created by Best Doctors, Inc. and 11 Hospital physicians were named to Boston Magazine's 2008 Top Doctor's List. Its Center for Weight Loss Surgery received Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's 2008 Blue Distinction Center for Bariatric Surgery and the Community Newspaper Company's honored it as the #1 Gold Hospital - Regional favorite in the 2008 Readers Choice Awards.^[9]

[edit] Clinical Centers

Clinical Centers at Newton Wellesley include:

• The Auerbach Breast Center
• The Center for Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery
• The Center for Weight Loss Surgery
• The Kaplan Center for Joint Reconstruction Surgery
• The Manton Women's Imaging Center
• The Spine Center
• The Vernon Cancer Center (opening Summer 2009)

[edit] Notable Births

• Actor Jack Lemmon was born in an elevator at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in 1925.
• Matt LeBlanc, actor, from Friends and B.J. Novak, actor, from The Office were born at the Hospital.^[10]

[edit] The early years

• The cost to start Newton Cottage Hospital: $3,600 for land; $7,209 to construct the Hospital.
• Only 26 patients were cared for in 1886 - the first year the Hospital was opened.
• Chickens and cows grazed at the Hospital, providing fresh dairy for patients and staff. Extensive gardens were also on site.
• The first bequest Newton-Wellesley received was in 1886 for $250 from the estate of Eliza Kendall.
• In 1961, the Hospital begins use of electronic paging systems - thanks to the donations raised from a Valentine's Day Ball.^[11]

[edit] Nursing Early Years

• Nursing candidates at Newton Cottage Hospital in 1888 had to be between 23- and 35-years-old.
• They were not permitted to talk with any males within the Hospital gates.
• Their dress requirements included seersucker gingham with a linen collar and cuffs, a white cap and white apron.
• The School of Nursing closed in 1986 after graduating nearly 3,500 nurses in its 100 years.^[4]

[edit] Then and Now

• Patients stayed an average of four weeks during the first years at Newton Cottage Hospital. Today, the average patient stay at Newton-Wellesley is four days.
• There were three births at the Hospital in 1890. Today, there are more than 3,000 births every year at the Hospital.
• The Hospital was one of approximately 500 hospitals in the nation when it opened. There are 7,500-plus hospitals nationwide today.^[12]

[edit] Going Green

• Newton-Wellesley custodians no longer use old string mops - they have switched to microfiber models. This saves 200,000 gallons of water each year. The hospital is also using high-pressure steam to create some of its own electricity and is now using less toxic cleaning supplies.^[13]

[edit] By the Numbers

• Newton-Wellesley was the first community hospital in Massachusetts to offer PET/CT scans.
• There are more than 1000 physicians affiliated with Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
• The Hospital's Laboratory Services and Pathology Department perform more than 1.3 million lab tests every year.^[14]
• In 2008 there were 76,309 X-rays, 39,330 Ultrasounds, 45,408 Mammograms and 13,998 Endoscopy Procedures ^[1]
• In 2005, the Hospital's hundred-year-old Ellison Building, weighing 890 tons, was moved on 28 eight-wheeled dollies to a new location 220 feet away.^[15]

[edit] External links

• Newton-Wellesley Hospital Official Site
• Partners HealthCare Official Site

[edit] References