Mount Sinai Medical Center (Chicago)

Mount Sinai Medical Center (Chicago)

Mount Sinai Medical Center is a 590-bed urban major hospital in Chicago, Illinois, with its main campus located adjacent to Douglas Park. The hospital was established in 1912 under the name Maimonides Hospital, with a mission of serving poor immigrants from Europe while providing training to Jewish physicians, primarily of Eastern European descent. After a period of financial difficulty, it closed in 1918, and was reopened as "Mount Sinai Hospital" in 1919, with 60 beds, and continuing its original purpose.

The second Jewish hospital to be established in the city, it differed from the earlier Michael Reese Hospital (which had been established primarily by German Jews) in that it was established by Eastern European Jews. Unlike other regional hospitals, it had a kosher kitchen.

Morris Kurtzon sought to provide the West Side community in Chicago a suitable hospital, one where Jewish doctors could practice without prejudicial practices excluding them. Buying with his own money the bankrupt Maimonides Hospital, he re-organized it under the name Mt. Sinai Hospital Association. He refused an attractive offer to sell the property to the University of Illinois, preferring to donate it to the entire community as beneficiary. The community responded to this gesture with a great effort to build up financial support for the new hospital. Although women had not traditionally been allowed to fully participate in many communities, the early history of Mt. Sinai included a strong presence of women among its supporters. Morris devoted a good deal of his time to planning and designing the new facility. The final hospital plans were done by Schmidt, Garden and Ericksen. GARCY began a program of designing custom equipment for the new hospital, much of it made of stainless steel.

The hospital is currently affiliated with Chicago Medical School and University of Illinois at Chicago. The hospital is a Level 1 Trauma center and a Chest Pain Center and is currently operating with a financial loss and an aging and damaged facility but even in its damaged state it serves as a vital part of the community many are worried that the hospital will have a similar fate as the excellent and larger Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. The hospital is a non-profit institution and provides Charity Care to 59% of their patients. Ruth Rothstein was the president of the hospital in the 1970s to the 1990s who resisted moving it to the suburbs.