Jacobi Medical Center - History

History

At the turn of the century, the area where Jacobi Medical Center would ultimately be established was known for the Morris Park Racecourse built by millionaire John A. Morris in 1889.

In the early 20th century however, a fire destroyed the grandstand, and the racetrack closed. Much of the land was divided up and sold for residential development. In 1949, a 64-acre (260,000 m2) parcel was purchased by the New York City Department of Hospitals to establish a tertiary care facility and teaching hospital with a campus-like health care environment - one which would be located well away from urban congestion, traffic noise and fumes. This campus of healthcare services - originally called the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center - would provide both a hospital for acute care (Jacobi Hospital) as well as an adjacent and affiliated hospital for tuberculosis care (Van Etten Hospital - also known as Building #5, currently part of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Block Research Pavilion). Bronx-native architect Anthony J. DePace has been linked to a 1960 building here.

The desire to create a pristine and peaceful setting was motivated in large part by the lengthy treatment protocol required for tuberculosis patients at that time. The site selection was also the function of another timely consideration: the tensions of the Cold War. With its easy access to highways, railways, navigable waterways and airports, the site was ideally suited for use as a large war-time evacuation center, and its placement in an outer borough with plans calling for the creation of vast sub-basements were deliberate measures to avoid fallout from a possible nuclear attack.

Following several years of construction, Van Etten Hospital, named in honor of Dr. Nathan B. Van Etten, a well-known Bronx practitioner with deep concern for the sick poor, opened in September 1954 with 500 beds. About one year later on November 1, 1955, Jacobi Hospital, named for Dr. Abraham Jacobi, world-renowned pediatrician and advocate of quality infant care, opened its doors with 898 beds.

Although coincidental, Yeshiva University had at this same time secured a charter with the NYS Board of Regents to establish a new medical school. When it came time for site selection, University advisers recommended establishment of the school adjacent to and affiliated with the new municipal hospital in the Bronx, construction of which was by then well underway. Hospital representatives similarly found the arrangement an attractive one. As a result, an affiliation agreement was created between the new Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, a mutually beneficial teaching, research, and patient care relationship which continues, albeit in a different form, to this day.

“Arriving on July 1, 1955, a typically hot and humid New York day, I was privileged to be one of the first two post-doctoral fellows in the newly-created Department of Medicine at the College, and became one of the first physicians at Jacobi,” reminisced Dr. Ernst R. Jaffe, Distinguished University Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, Einstein College of Medicine. “Although conceived independently, these institutions were born simultaneously and have grown up in a most successful symbiotic relationship. It was exciting to care for patients in this brand new medical center and to participate in what was to become a legacy of excellence in medical education, patient care, and biomedical research.”

From early on, Jacobi’s medical accomplishments and innovations in patient care were many. In the 1950s, it was the first municipal hospital which provided an emergency room staffed with pediatric house officers as well as medical house officers. Van Etten, its chronic care affiliate, established several new protocols for the treatment of tuberculosis patients, most notably the eventual elimination of the face masks which had heightened patients’ fear and isolation, and the establishment of the first Home Care Program for tuberculosis in NYC. Jacobi’s clinicians in pediatrics made significant contributions in diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease in children, identified congenital abnormalities which caused renal tubular acidosis in children, and were the first to describe a seriously prolonged jaundice in infants. Jacobi psychiatrists were the first to create a psychiatric day hospital in a municipal facility, allowing patients to receive treatment during the day while living at home. Applicants for medical training programs vied for coveted residencies with Jacobi’s Department of Medicine, which over the years has produced physicians who have become leaders of American medicine as medical school deans and as department chairmen and chiefs of service at numerous medical centers throughout the country.

In the 1960s, surgeons at Jacobi performed the world’s first successful clinical coronary artery bypass surgery: on May 2, 1960, Robert Goetz, performed a right internal thoracic artery-to-right coronary artery anastomosis using a tantalum ring in a 38-year-old man. Cardiac catheterization on postoperative day 14 showed a patent stented anastomosis. The patient was anticoagulated with warfarin and remained free of angina for a year. He died at Jacobi on June 23, 1961, of a posterior wall myocardial infarction. Autopsy was not performed, and the long-term patency of the anastomosis was not established. They established the first NIH Clinical Research Center for the care and study of critically injured patients in the country. The Center’s work with severely burned patients led it to develop a new, highly effective method of hyperalimentation which was quickly adapted in burn protocols world-wide. Its research also prompted the use of germ-free isolators in the Operating Room and at the bedside to prevent infection. Using this brand new technology, Jacobi obstetricians delivered the first “germ-free” baby in the world. The Center also studied and successfully treated patients with serious metabolic and genetic disorders, such as atherosclerosis and Wilson’s Disease. Jacobi anesthesiologists developed the Gertie Marx Spinal Needle, a standard still used today for administration of the epidural block during labor. Jacobi neurologists isolated chemical markers which made it possible to identify carriers of Tay Sachs disease, a deadly genetic disorder.

Over the course of the next few decades, Jacobi continued to make significant contributions, particularly in the areas of emergency medicine, trauma surgery, burn care, and AIDS research and treatment. It was at Jacobi that the first clinical application of the use of the CO2 laser in burn patient care was made. Jacobi’s Burn Unit was one of the first to use advanced burn care products such as artificial skin. Jacobi founded the first Emergency Medicine (EM) residency in New York City, a program which is also one of the oldest and most respected EM training programs in the country. Jacobi’s Emergency Department (ED) was one of the first in NYC with a full-body CAT scanner. Jacobi was the first hospital in NYC to offer a paramedic training program. Jacobi surgeons were the first to use mechanical staples in the U.S., and the first to use mini-computers to monitor blood circulation and lung function. Its work in AIDS care and research led Jacobi to the establishment of the first hospital-based pediatric AIDS Day Care Program in the U.S.

Today, with 23,000 admissions and more than 400,000 outpatient visits annually, Jacobi Medical Center and its legacy of superior subspecialty care continues to play a vital role in the provision of health services in New York City. Treating more than 115,000 patients each year, its Level 1/Trauma Emergency Department is one of the busiest in the city. Jacobi’s Pediatric ED was lauded by New York Magazine as one of just four of the best pediatric EDs in NYC. Jacobi is the lead agency of the Bronx Emergency Preparedness Coalition, a powerful consortium of providers and first responders created in the aftermath of 9/11. The Burn Unit is one of just three in NYC, and the spacious, 8-patient walk-in Hyperbaric Chamber is unique to the area in its ability to allow patients to be accompanied by clinicians during treatment. Jacobi’s Neonatal ICU is a NYS-designated Regional Perinatal Center, one of only 17 state-wide. The state has also recognized Jacobi’s Stroke Center as a NYS Designated Center for both emergency stroke care and stroke treatment and recovery. And Jacobi (along with its sister facility, North Central Bronx Hospital) was the first hospital in NYC to go Green.

Jacobi is a leader and innovator in information technology. It was the first HHC facility to utilize the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), a fully digitized image storage, retrieval and display system which eliminates the need to produce or store diagnostic film. It also utilizes Voiceover, a platform which captures speech-entered clinical notes, translates them into text, and stores them in the electronic patient file. Its powerful and sophisticated information technology systems have earned Jacobi the prestigious Most Wired award for the past four consecutive years.

Jacobi’s close ties to medical education and research have been integral to the excellence of the health care it provides. Through its continued affiliation with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Jacobi assures patients of care protocols which are based on the latest advances in medical knowledge and clinical training. “A key feature of the close relationship between Jacobi and the medical school has been the hospital’s role as a site for teaching students, residents and fellows,” observed Dr. Milford Fulop, Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Vice Chairman for Academic Affairs, Einstein College of Medicine, “and it remains to this day a major site for teaching medical students how to care for patients.” In fact, through two 100-year lease agreements with the College, 18 acres (73,000 m2) including the Van Etten building have been leased to AECOM for the construction of new medical school facilities for research, education, and student and faculty housing.

“The ambience of Jacobi has not changed over the past fifty years,” remarked Bertrand M. Bell, M.D., Distinguished University Professor, AECOM, and longtime Attending Physician, Jacobi Medical Center. “While our patient population may have changed, physicians continue to care for patients with that same respect, joy and collegial spirit of synergetic cooperation. I still look forward to coming to work each day, to interact with staff and take care of patients. Jacobi has always been and still is a wonderful place to care for those in need, as well as to teach the next generation of doctors.”