Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest
teaching hospitals in the United States.[2] It is located in
East Harlem in the
New York City borough of
Manhattan, on the eastern border of
Central Park stretching along
Madison and
Fifth Avenues, between East 98th Street and East 103rd Street.[3] The entire Mount Sinai health system has over 7,400 physicians, as well as 3,919 beds, and delivers over 16,000 babies a year.
In March 2023, the hospital was ranked 23rd among over 2,300 hospitals in the world and the best hospital in
New York state by Newsweek.[4] Adjacent to the hospital is the
Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital which provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region.[5][6]
History
At the time of the founding of the hospital in 1852, other hospitals in New York City discriminated against
Jewish people both by not hiring them to treat patients, and by prohibiting them from being treated in the hospitals' wards.[7]Orthodox Jewish philanthropist
Sampson Simson (1780–1857) founded the hospital to address the needs of New York City's rapidly growing
Jewishimmigrant community. It was the second Jewish hospital in the United States, after the
Jewish Hospital, located in
Cincinnati, Ohio, which was established in 1847.[8]
The Jews' Hospital in the City of New York, as it was called until adopting its current name in 1866,[9] was built on West 28th Street in Manhattan, between
Seventh and
Eighth Avenues, on land donated by Simson. It opened two years before Simson's death. Four years later, it was unexpectedly filled to capacity with soldiers injured in the
American Civil War.[10][11]
The Jews' Hospital felt the effects of the escalating Civil War in other ways, as staff doctors and board members were called into service. Dr. Israel Moses served four years as lieutenant colonel in the
72nd New York Infantry Regiment;[12]Joseph Seligman had to resign as a member of the board of directors, as he was increasingly called upon by
President Lincoln for advice on the country's growing financial crisis.[13][14]
The
New York Draft Riots of 1863 also strained the hospital's resources, as it struggled to tend to the many wounded.
More and more, the Jews' Hospital was finding itself an integral part of the general community. In 1866, to reflect this new-found role, it changed its name. In 1872, the hospital moved uptown to the east side of
Lexington Avenue, between East 66th and East 67th Streets.[15][16]
20th century
Now called Mount Sinai Hospital, the institution forged relationships with many physicians who made contributions to medicine, including Henry N. Heineman, Frederick S. Mandelbaum,
Bernard Sachs, Charles A. Elsberg,
Emanuel Libman, and, most significantly,
Abraham Jacobi, known as the father of American pediatrics and a champion of construction at the hospital's new site on Manhattan's
Upper East Side in 1904.[17]
The hospital established a school of nursing in 1881. Created by Alma deLeon Hendricks and a small group of women, Mount Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses was taken over by the hospital in 1895. In 1923, its name was changed to Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. This school closed in 1971 after graduating 4,700 women and one man in the last class. An active alumnae association continues. Since 2013, the nursing school of the Mount Sinai Health System has been
Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing (PSON).[18]
The early 20th century saw the population of New York City explode. That, coupled with many new discoveries at Mount Sinai (including significant advances in
blood transfusions and the first endotracheal
anesthesia apparatus), meant that Mount Sinai's pool of doctors and experts was in increasing demand. A $1.35 million ($44,000,000 in current dollar terms) expansion of the 1904 hospital site raced to keep pace with demand. The opening of the new buildings was delayed by the advent of World War I. Mount Sinai responded to a request from the
United States Army Medical Corps with the creation of Base Hospital No.3. This unit went to France in early 1918, and treated 9,127 patients with 172 deaths: 54 surgical and 118 medical, the latter due mainly to
influenza and
pneumonia.
World War II
Two decades later, with tensions in Europe escalating, a committee dedicated to finding placements for doctors fleeing
Nazi Germany was founded in 1933. With the help of the
National Committee for the Resettlement of Foreign Physicians, Mount Sinai Hospital became a new home for a large number of émigrés. When World War II broke out, Mount Sinai was the first hospital to throw open its doors to
Red Cross nurses' aides; the hospital trained many in its effort to reduce the
nursing shortage in the United States. Meanwhile, the president of the medical board, George Baehr, M.D., was called by
President Roosevelt to serve as the nation's chief medical director of the
Office of Civilian Defense.[19]
These wartime roles were eclipsed, however, when the men and women of Mount Sinai's 3rd General Hospital set sail for
Casablanca, Morocco, eventually setting up a 1,000-bed hospital in war-torn Tunisia. Before moving to tend to the needs of soldiers in
Italy and
France, the 3rd General Hospital had treated more than 5,000 wounded soldiers.[20]
Among the innovations at Mount Sinai were performing the first blood transplant into the vein of a
fetus in 1986, and the development of a technique for inserting radioactive seeds into the
prostate to treat cancer in 1995.[21]
21st century
At Mount Sinai the staff performed the first successful composite
tracheal transplant, which was performed at the hospital in 2005.[21]
Dr. Jack M. Gorman, formerly Department Chairman of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai, engaged in a long-term inappropriate sexual relationship with a patient prior to October 2005.[22]
In January 2013
David L. Reich was the first
openly gay medical doctor named interim president of Mount Sinai Hospital as reported by The New York Times.[23] In October of the same year he was named president.[24][25]
In August 2016
Dennis S. Charney, the dean of the medical school, was shot and wounded as he left a deli in his home town of
Chappaqua, New York. Hengjun Chao, a former Mount Sinai medical researcher who had been fired by Charney for
research misconduct in 2010, was convicted of attempted second degree murder and two other charges in 2017, and received a sentence of 28 years.[26][27][28][29]
In 2017, Dr. David H. Newman, a former emergency room physician at Mount Sinai Hospital, was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing four female patients in the emergency room between 2015 and 2016, including touching their breasts.[30][31]
Three doctors were convicted of violating anti-
kickback laws by accepting bribes disguised as speaker fees to write prescriptions to a highly addictive
fentanylopioid painkiller. Gordon Freedman, an anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai, was convicted in December 2019 in Manhattan federal court.[32][33][34] Alexandru Burducea, a pain management doctor and anesthesiologist who previously worked at Mount Sinai, was sentenced in January 2020 to 57 months in prison.[32][33][34] Dialecti Voudouris, who specialized in
oncology and
hematology at
Lenox Hill Hospital and Mount Sinai, was sentenced in 2020 to time served.[35][36]
In April 2019, a lawsuit was filed against
Mount Sinai Health System and several employees of the hospital and the Icahn School's Arnhold Institute for Global Health.[37] The suit was filed by eight current and former doctors and employees for alleged age and sex discrimination and based on a list of other allegations.[38] The school denied the claims.[37]
Dr. David Reich, president and COO of the hospital, announced in March 2020 that the hospital was converting its lobbies into extra patient rooms to "meet the growing volume of patients" with
coronavirus.[39][40]
Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital (KCH) at Mount Sinai is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care
children's hospital located at the Mount Sinai campus in
Manhattan,
New York City,
New York. The hospital has 102 pediatric beds.[41] It is affiliated with
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and is a member of the Mount Sinai Health System. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region.[5][6]
Employment
As of 2019[update], the entire Mount Sinai Health System had over 7,400 physicians, 2,000 residents and clinical fellows, and 42,000 employees, as well as 3,815 beds and 152 operating rooms, and delivered over 16,000 babies a year.[1]
Leon Black donated $10 million in 2005 to create the Black Family Stem Cell Institute.[45]
Emily and
Len Blavatnik made a $10 million gift in 2018 to establish The Blavatnik Family Women's Health Research Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and The Blavatnik Family – Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai.[46]
Carl Icahn donated $25 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center for advanced medical research in 2004; a large building primarily devoted to research was renamed from the "East Building" to the "Icahn Medical Institute."[47][48] In 2012, Icahn pledged $200 million to the institution.[49] In exchange, the medical school was renamed the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the genomics institute led by
Eric Schadt was renamed the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology.
Frederick Klingenstein, former CEO of
Wertheim & Co., and wife Sharon Klingenstein donated $75 million in 1999 to the medical school, the largest single gift in the history of Mount Sinai medical school at the time, to establish an institute for scientific research and create a scholarship fund.[50]
Henry Kravis and wife Marie-Josée Kravis donated $15 million to establish the "Center for Cardiovascular Health" as well as funding a professorship.
Samuel A. Lewis, NYC political leader and philanthropist who served for 21 years (1852–1873) as the first director, then honorary secretary, and finally chairman of the executive committee.
Hermann Merkin gave $2 million in dedication of the
kosher kitchen at the hospital.
Derald Ruttenberg donated $7 million in 1986 to establish the Ruttenberg Cancer Center at Mount Sinai and later contributed $8 million more.[51]
Martha Stewart donated $5 million in 2007 to start the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai Hospital. The center promotes access to medical care and offers support to caregivers needing referrals or education.[52]
James Tisch and wife Merryl Tisch donated $40 million in 2008 to establish The Tisch Cancer Institute, a state-of-the-art, patient-oriented comprehensive cancer care and research facility.[53][54]
Valentín Fuster (born 1943), director of Mount Sinai Heart, The Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health, The Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Eric M. Genden, Isidore Friesner Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, and Professor of Neurosurgery and Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is Chair of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Executive Vice President of Ambulatory Surgery, and Director of the Head and Neck Institute at the Mount Sinai Health System. Named one of the most innovative surgeons alive today, in 2006 he became the first surgeon ever to perform a successful jaw transplant.
Irving B. Goldman (1898–1975), first president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 1964
Jonathan L. Halperin (born 1949), director of Clinical Cardiology in the Zena and Michael A. Wierner Cardiovascular Institute
Michael Heidelberger (1888–1991), immunologist regarded as the father of modern immunology
Helen S. Mayberg (born 1956), founding director of the Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics
John Puskas, performed the first totally thoracoscopic bilateral pulmonary vein isolation procedure[60]
David L. Reich, academic anesthesiologist, president and chief operating officer of Mount Sinai, chair of the department of anesthesiology, Horace W. Goldsmith Professor of Anesthesiology.
Jonas Salk (1914–1995), inventor of the
polio vaccine, worked as a staff physician at Mount Sinai after medical school[61]
Milton Sapirstein (1914–1996), clinical psychiatrist. Sought "to mesh the advances being made in neurobiology in the 1940s with psychoanalytic concepts."[62]
Samin Sharma (born 1955),
interventional cardiologist, co-founder of the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute, Jaipur, and director, Dr. Samin K. Sharma Family Foundation Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
^Communications, Emmis (May 25, 2019).
"Cincinnati Magazine". Emmis Communications.
Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved October 27, 2020 – via Google Books.