Jacobi Medical Center (NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi) is a municipal hospital operated by NYC Health + Hospitals in affiliation with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The facility is located in the Morris Park neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. It is named in honor of German physician Abraham Jacobi, who is regarded as the father of American pediatrics.
Founded in 1955 as Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, the hospital opened concurrent with the opening of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. This was the first time a medical school and municipal hospital entered into a formal affiliation agreement at the same time they were both built—and their relationship continues to this day. Jacobi is a primary clerkship site for 3rd- and 4th-year medical students from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Jacobi offers residency training programs in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Radiology. It also offers many joint residency programs with Montefiore Medical Center.
Jacobi provides health care for some 1.2 million Bronx and New York City area residents. It is one of the 11 acute care hospitals of NYC Health + Hospitals and a partner in the North Bronx Healthcare Network with the North Central Bronx Hospital. As one of the largest medical facilities of NYC, Jacobi houses the Bronx's only burn unit and Level I trauma center. The hospital also houses a Level III neonatal intensive care unit and FDNY EMS Station 20 (formerly NYC*EMS Station 23). Jacobi had over 320,000 clinical visits and over 100,000 emergency department visits in 2016. Jacobi also houses one of only two Snakebite Treatment Centers in the tri-state area.
The Jacobi Hyperbaric Medicine Service provides care for both inpatient and ambulatory patients in a large facility featuring a spacious, 23-foot long chamber. This room-like chamber is one which patients and medical support staff can actually walk into. It can comfortably accommodate up to nine patients at a time. Operating around the clock, the Hyperbaric Medicine Service provides life-saving care for burn patients and smoke inhalation injuries. In addition, Jacobi is the designated New York City Referral Center for the Diver's Alert Network, providing emergency care for decompression sickness. It also treats patients with gas gangrene and acute air embolism, and is widely used on an elective basis to promote wound healing from radiation injuries, compromised skin grafts, diabetic ulcers, and osteomyelitis. NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi was awarded $10M in Fiscal Year 2023 capital funding through Council Member Marjorie Velázquez and New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to replace the hospital's hyperbaric chamber and expand Hyperbaric Medicine services. The allocated $10M will provide a new hyperbaric chamber that will be larger, measuring about 25.5 feet long and 8 feet in diameter, allowing the hospital to accommodate more patients. The current chamber can treat nine patients plus two staff members. However, the replacement will be able to treat 13 patients plus two staff members.
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 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 was originally called the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, providing acute care at Jacobi Hospital as well as adjacent tuberculosis care at Van Etten Hospital (which is currently Building 5 of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Block Research Pavilion).
Although built on a spread-out campus, the site selection for Jacobi as also the function of the tensions of the Cold War. With its easy access to highways, railways, navigable waterways and airports, Jacobi was built on a site 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.