Mount Sinai Medical Center

Name :

Mount Sinai Medical Center

Address  :

One Gustave L. Levy Place

Town  :

New York

State  :

New York

Country  :

USA

Post Code:

NY 10029-6574

Phone  :

212-241-6500

Web URL  :

Available

Email  :

NewsMedia@mssm.edu

Description

Mission Statement
The following Mission Statement states Mount Sinais 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 highquality 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

History

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 Sinais 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 Sinais 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 quotHebrewsquot 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 20000 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 mid1850s 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 1860s 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 1860s 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 18721904
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 335000 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 Hospitals 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 OutPatient 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 Sinais commitment to education although teaching was still not considered an official part of the Hospitals 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 twentysix 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 quotworthy poorquot 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 GenitoUrinary 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 xrayed with the new equipment that had just been developed

It was a time of great excitement at Mount Sinai a time when the early quotgiantsquot roamed the halls There was Bernard Sachs MD the Neurologist who described the first American case of TaySachs 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 1950s 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 twoyear 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 Jacobis husband Abraham to head both the inpatient and outpatient divisions The female presence remained small and women were banned from the House Staff entirely from 19111922

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 Hospitals 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 Childrens Health Class 1919 and a Mental Hygiene Clinic 1920

Larger research facilities and an increased program were rewarded with many important results Reuben Ottenbergs work on blood groups the description of Brills Disease Richard Lewisohns work on the citrate method for blood transfusion A A Bergs work on gastric resections for ulcer the Rubin Test Moschcowitz Disease the Shwartzman Phenomenon Robert Franks identification of female sex hormone the identification of regional ileitis by Ginzburg Oppenheimer and Crohn and the description of LibmanSacks Disease

In what is a recurring theme in Mount Sinais 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 EinsteinFalk Pavilion the Walter Childrens 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 twelvehour 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 Sinais 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 Sinais 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 Sinais teaching material and clinical faculty into the 1960s when Mount Sinais 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 Sinais 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 postgraduate and house staff training programs of the Hospital as well as maintaining a Graduate School for Biological Sciences a Medical Scientist Training Program MDPhD 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 Sinais changing mission was the creation of a Dept of Community and Preventive Medicine

This Department has instigated many of Mount Sinais efforts to reach out define and solve the health problems of our immediate community The 1960s and 70s saw the beginning of other community programs including Mount Sinais Community Board which continues today In 1979 when Mount Sinais 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 retooled 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 buildings design is reminiscent of the Hospitals 1904 design theme of quotLight and Airquot

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 Tristate 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 SinaiNYU 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 campusbased 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 SinaiNYU 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 1170 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 quotadvancing the art and science of medicine though clinical excellencequot