In days past, as the weather warmed up, thoughts of the staff and residents would turn to St. Luke’s annual Field Day outing at New Jersey’s Englewood Country Club, held every summer.
During Field Day, the usual barriers of position, age, and authority were disregarded during an afternoon of hotly contested athletic events (softball, golf, and tennis, etc.), followed by a very casual dinner.
Evening offerings were often films created by actor/director wannabe’s, Drs. Harry Roselle and Theodore Robbins and the various colleagues they could rope in to help. One year’s offering was a Dr. Kildare meets Dracula at St. Luke’s horror flick titled, “Anemia of Uncertain Origin.” Another was a spy thriller called “Aardvark,” imitated the popular 1960s TV comedy, ‘Get Smart,’ in which Mervin Long, Secret Agent 95.6, battled Aardvark, a Fu Manchu-type enemy who developed an infamous blood sludging device; Agent Long would unvaryingly save the day at the last moment.
Each year’s outing was documented with a panoramic photograph of attendees. These photos are usually between four and six feet long, and have proven to be a challenge to store in the Archives! We have over fifteen of these images, which arrived tightly rolled up, requiring re-hydrating in a makeshift hydrating tank before flattening for storage. They are available for viewing for those who wish to walk down memory lane. (Notice that the attached photo was cut in two in order to be printed in the former newsletter, The News of St. Luke’s. The image on top is the left half and the image below is the right side. Recognize anyone?)
Unfortunately, one year in the early 1970s the event was cancelled when it was discovered that those of the Jewish faith were excluded as members to the club, and it was not picked up again in following years.
The trials of life can crush one’s spirit or force one to overcome and create something exceptional out of the rubble. Mary Breckinridge, a 1910 St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing alumna, is a fine example of later. Born into a Kentucky family of influence and means, Breckinridge was well educated and well-traveled. She was married in 1904 and widowed by 1906, at age 26. She then completed St. Luke’s nursing program and worked teaching French and hygiene in an Arkansas women’s college. In 1912, she married the president of that school and had two children with him, but her daughter was premature and did not survive; her son died suddenly two years later at age four.
Additional struggles broke the marriage beyond repair and she left her husband in 1918 and worked as a public health nurse while awaiting a posting with the American Red Cross in France. She arrived there after the armistice of WW I and helped to initiate a program to provide food and medical assistance for children, nursing mothers, and pregnant women. While in France, she also spent time in England, observing the conditions of children and mothers there, and became convinced that American women in rural areas would benefit from the help of trained midwives. Ad educational visit to Scotland demonstrated how to provide medical care to a dispersed population.
Returning to the United States, she relocated to Leslie County, Kentucky, which had the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. Here Breckinridge, pictured left, introduced nurse-midwives into the region with the founding of The Frontier Nursing Service in 1925, eventually bringing maternal and neonatal death rates down well below the national average. In 1929, The Frontier Nursing Service staff started the American Association of Nurse-Midwives, a precursor of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, and the first American school of midwifery in New York in 1932. Mary Breckinridge served as director of the FNS until her death on May 16, 1965.
In today’s world, the only way to check into a hospital, without an emergency, is for a doctor to arrange for some kind of test or surgical procedure. But in the 19th century, hospitals functioned a bit like today’s walk-in clinics, at least in regards to admission. A person could come to the Hospital, speak with the Admitting Physician and request treatment for ‘X’ problem. But there were rules governing who would be accepted or refused.
By 1859, St. Luke’s published the first of their annual reports, which included reports from the Board President, The Pastor/Superintendent and the House Staff, along with lists of donations, occupations and diseases of those treated, and the publication of rules – for staff for patients and for visitors, and for Admission. Admission rules separated out patients with certain diseases. Those with contagious diseases were refused admission – this was a common practice for private hospitals at this time. The 1904 annual report is the first year the Hospital reported which applications were declined under the Rules of Admission, and their numbers. Ten persons were declined admission due to contagions like Erysipelas, scarlet fever and scabies.
Another group – the chronic or incurable – included paralytics, rheumatics, the mentally ill, incurable cancer patients, and those with an opium habit or delirium tremens, where also refused admission. Chronic cases in acute attack might be accepted, but were discharged once they returned to the ordinary health of one in that condition. Incurable cases might be admitted, but “only at the discretion of the Executive Committee of the Hospital.” These were also probably discharged as soon as they regained what was ordinary health for that condition. In 1904, 128 cases were refused admission to St. Luke’s for one of these reasons.
One exception to the rules was pulmonary consumptives (tuberculosis). In the 19th century, consumption was considered a hereditary disease, rather than a contagious one. The 1859 report of the Board of Managers, explains, “To provide for the incurably ill, particularly of this class, was one of the objects of the Hospital, and therein to supply an urgent want in the community… there was no resort for consumptives, so numerous in our climate, that St. Luke’s, as a church institution, felt bound to open to them her doors.“
The woman’s tuberculosis ward at St. Luke’s Hospital, circa 1900
The Pastor’s report often notes the comfort, and at times cure, these patients received, and their expressions of gratitude. In 1891, nine years after the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Dr. Robert Koch, St. Luke’s accepted control over the House of Rest for Consumptives in the Tremont section of the Bronx, eventually moving all its patients to the main hospital and selling the property to support their care. Throughout the years annual reports note that consumptives made up to a quarter of the total census of patients in any given year.
These rules on admission disappeared early in the 20th century as hospitals’ ability to recognize and control germs was established, and as out-patient clinics opened to treat patients that might not have been admitted to the Hospital’s care in prior years.
As we plan the new year ahead of us, we recognize the historic achievements of Mount Sinai and honor the tremendous work undertaken by the Icahn School of Medicine and the Health System.
You will notice that there are fewer references to our deep history in this year’s milestones because we have grown at a super exponential rate in the past 25 years.
1850 (175 years ago)
St. Luke’s Hospital Board filed incorporation paperwork, and the charter for the hospital was signed.
David Kearny McDonogh, MD, born into slavery, was the first Black American Ophthalmologist. He changed his middle name in honor of his mentor, John Kearny Rodgers, MD (founder of the New York Eye Infirmary, now the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, with Edward Delafield, MD). They worked together for 11 years at the New York Eye Infirmary.
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary depicted decades later in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated, 1875
1875 (150 years ago)
The Mount Sinai Hospital’s formal Outpatient Dispensary Staff was established with Mary Putnam Jacobi, MD, heading the Children’s Clinic and Paul F. Mundé, MD, leading the Gynecology Clinic. Medicine and Surgery also created separate outpatient clinics.
Mary Putnam Jacobi, MD (1842-1906)Paul F. Mundé, MD (1846-1902)
1900 (125 years ago)
The Mount Sinai Hospital established the first Neurological Service in a New York hospital.
Early Neurology Chiefs (left to right): Morris Bender, MD (1951-1974), Bernard Sachs, MD (1900-1924), and Israel Wechsler, MD (1938-1950)
The Mount Sinai Hospital Dermatology Service was created under Sigismund Lustgarten, MD.
The Mount Sinai Hospital purchased its first X-ray machine, which was placed in the corner of a synagogue.
Gold medal awarded to The Mount Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses (later renamed The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing in 1923) at the Paris Universal Exposition, for excellence.
Graduate pin, circa 1890s to 1922
1925 (100 years ago)
To allow for continuous support, The Mount Sinai Hospital created a permanent fund to provide an endowment for research.
The Daly’s Astoria Sanatorium was founded, which became Mount Sinai Queens in 1999.
Dental outpatient clinic opened at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
1950 (75 years ago)
Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West) established its Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
J. William Littler, MD, established hand surgery as the first-of-its-kind service at Roosevelt Hospital.
The Mount Sinai Hospital Trustees agreed to staff the health facility at Carver Houses, a public housing project on Madison Avenue across from the hospital.
The Mount Sinai Hospital’s Anesthesiology Department was founded when Milton Adelman, MD, became Director. The residency program, which grew to five residents, replaced all but one of the nurse anesthetists.
1975 (50 years ago)
St. Luke’s Hospital (now Mount Sinai Morningside) opened the first hospital-based hospice program, and second hospice program of any kind, in the United States for the terminally ill, under the direction of Chaplain Carlton Sweetser and Samuel Klagsbrun, MD.
St. Luke’s Hospital created the first National Institutes of Health-funded obesity research center under Theodore B. VanItallie, MD.
The Institute of Computer Science, led by Aran Safir, MD, and the Department of Biostatistics, led by Harry Smith, Jr., PhD were established at The Mount Sinai Hospital to conduct research, provide training and offer consulting services. Worked on “developing computerized medical consultation systems and consultation networks” and “computer-based health care delivery systems.”
The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Continuing Education in Nursing was formed using the charter of the recently closed The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. The first classes were held in 1976.
The Radiology Department at the Mount Sinai Medical Center (now the Mount Sinai Health System) received a new Delta scanner, allowing it to do CT scans for the first time.
Eugene Friedman, MD, introduced laser beam surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center using a CO2 laser knife.
A sports medicine program was established by the Department of Orthopedics at Mount Sinai Medical Center under the leadership of Burton Berson, MD.
1995 (30 years ago)
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) Consortium for Graduate Medical Education (GME) was established with the assistance of a two-year grant from the New York State Education Department. Barry Stimmel, MD, was named the Dean.
Three Internal Medicine residents partnered with one of the nurses at Internal Medicine Associates to start the Mount Sinai Visiting Doctors Program, one of the largest and most recognized home-based primary care programs in the country. [link to 1885 visiting physicians milestone last year]
Then-First Lady Hillary Clinton visited the Beth Israel Medical Center (later named Mount Sinai Beth Israel), focusing on breast cancer treatment for Medicare recipients.
The Department of Human Genetics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine became the first approved residency program in Medical Genetics in the country.
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary established New York City’s first hospital-based hearing aid dispensary.
Alex Stagnaro-Green, MD, Dean of Student Affairs, founded the Office of Research Opportunities for students of Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
2000 (25 years ago)
The Morningside Clinic, a new home for HIV outpatient services, opened under St. Luke’s Hospital.
The Mount Sinai Hospital Department of Urology announced a new Prostate Health Center endowed by the family of Barbara and Maurice A. Deane.
Mount Sinai Department of Medicine created a hospitalist program.
A Division of Family Medicine was created within Mount Sinai’s Department of Preventive Medicine.
An Integrative Medicine Center for Health and Healing was created at Beth Israel Medical Center.
Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Human Resources Department launched the New Beginnings program as new employee orientation.
The Robert and John M. Bendheim Parkinson’s Disease Center (now the Robert and John M. Bendheim Parkinson and Movement Disorders Center) was established in the Department of Neurology.
Beth Israel Medical Center became the first institution in Manhattan to perform a robotic-assisted cardiothoracic procedure.
2005 (20 years ago)
Researchers at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt constructed a hybrid form of HIV that could be replicated in conventional lab mice, marking the first time non-genetically altered rodents were productively infected with a form of the virus.
Trustee Leon D. Black committed $10 million to Mount Sinai School of Medicine to establish the Black Family Stem Cell Institute. Directed by Gordon Keller, PhD, it integrated research in embryonic stem cells, developmental biology, and adult stem cell biology.
The Beatrix Hamburg Medical Student Training Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry sponsored by The Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, was created in the Department of Psychiatry, offering training programs that expose medical students to the field of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The Mount Sinai Hospital was the first hospital in New York State to use the Berlin Heart pump to keep a little girl alive for two weeks until she received a heart transplant. The pump was still experimental in the United States.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center signed a new agreement with the New York State Nurses Association giving nurses a new starting salary of $68,003.
The Parental Loss and Bereavement Program (The Mount Sinai Hospital), directed by Claude M. Chemtob, PhD, and coordinated by Joan Roth, PhD, was established in the Department of Psychiatry as a new clinical service for parents who lose a child of any age, for any reason, and for surviving siblings.
Mrs. Henry J. (Catherine) Gaisman endows the Catherine and Henry J. Gaisman Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center.
Martha Stewart announced a generous gift to create The Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai, a new site for the outpatient clinical practice of geriatric medicine.
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine created the Center for Global Health to focus on the “needs of underserved populations, both at home and abroad.”
The Department of Surgery created a Global Surgical Health program as part of the general surgical residency.
The Asian Services Program was established at Beth Israel to meet the health needs of the Asian American community by providing easy and seamless access to high quality inpatient and outpatient care to bridge gaps in patient care through extensive community outreach, particularly in Chinatown’s Chinese community.
The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary created the Sleep Center.
2010 (15 years ago)
After a magnitude 7 earthquake in Haiti, Mount Sinai sent a team of 20 to National Hospital in Port Au Prince, which included surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, a pediatrician, OR techs, and support staff. Led by surgeon Ernest Benjamin, MD, the team returned home after seven days, having performed over 120 surgical procedures, helping to establish record-keeping systems, and delivering 4,000 pounds of medical supplies.
The first Mount Sinai School of Medicine Postdoctoral Symposium is held with Nobel Prize-winning Harold Varmus, MD, as speaker.
Dianne LaPointe Rudow, DNP, joined Mount Sinai Medical Center to head the nation’s first multi-organ Living Donor Wellness Center.
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary founded The Shelley and Steven Einhorn Clinical Research Center to discover a new generation of treatments and diagnoses for degenerative eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.
Mount Sinai School of Medicine created the Drug Toxicity Signature Center, with a grant of $11.6 million from the NIH, to develop cell signatures that could be used to predict the effects of certain drugs and drug combinations.
The Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory in the Department of Preventive Medicine was dedicated in recognition of the late Senator’s tireless efforts to address children’s environmental health concerns during almost 30 years in Congress. The Lautenberg Laboratory brought together a team of physicians and researchers to analyze threats to pediatric health from air pollution and household chemicals, as well as social stressors and nutrition.
Beth Israel Medical Center was the first hospital in New York City to be recognized as national leaders in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Healthcare Equality Index (HEI).
2015 (10 years ago)
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary opened a new state-of-the-art laser vision correction facility as part of comprehensive ophthalmology services offered through the hospital.
The dissolution of The Mount Sinai Alumni, Inc. was approved by New York State. The Alumni relations function was transferred to the Office of Alumni and Development.
The Mount Sinai Health System established The Spine Hospital at Mount Sinai (now Mount Sinai Spine), the first of its kind in New York City. Located at The Mount Sinai Hospital, it offers fully integrated, personalized care for spinal disorders by leading spine experts using the newest technologies and proven treatments.
The Phillips Beth Israel School of Nursing (now Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing), previously affiliated with Pace University, offered the entire curriculum under its own New York State Board of Regents accreditation.
The Mount Sinai Health System announced that Mount Sinai Beth Israel Brooklyn would now be known as Mount Sinai Brooklyn. The change was an important part of Mount Sinai Health System’s overall brand strategy, intended to establish a concise, community-oriented identity for our hospital campuses. For a history of Mount Sinai Brooklyn, check out this post.
The Women in Medical Scientist Training Program (WiMSTP), a student-run organization with an aim to advocate for and support the success of women in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai through mentorship and educational efforts, was founded.
WiMSTP in August, 2016
As a result of the activism and advocacy of medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Racism and Bias Initiative was launched to explicitly address and undo racism and bias in all areas of medical school, and to center racial justice, health equity, and underrepresented voices and experiences of all medical education colleagues within the Department of Medical Education.
The Mount Sinai − National Jewish Health Respiratory Institute officially opened.
An OncoEndocrinology Clinic was established with Emily Gallagher, MD, PhD, as its first director, to provide evaluations and care for oncology patients.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced the creation of the Mount Sinai Institute for Systems Biomedicine to develop new transdisciplinary approaches for basic and translational research, facilitating precision medicine. Founding Director Ravi Iyengar, PhD, sought to use convergent approaches to integrate cell biology and human physiology with pathophysiology and electronic medical records using computational models.
The Blau Center for Children’s Cancer and Blood Disease at Kravis Children’s Hospital opened.
Master of Science in Biostatistics program began at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Graduate School Biomedical Sciences.
The Mount Sinai Health System announced the creation of the Institute for Liver Medicine.
Mount Sinai Youth Advisory Council was created to enhance the delivery of care at The Mount Sinai Kravis Children’s Hospital; works with Child Life Program.
Dean Dennis S. Charney, MD, announced the creation of the Center for Spirituality and Health within the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Led by Deborah Marin, MD, the Center develops clinical, educational, and research activities designed to enhance our understanding of the significant role spirituality plays in the prevention of and recovery from physical and mental illnesses.
2020 (five years ago)
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced the establishment of the Institute for Genomic Health. Eimear Kenny, PhD, was appointed Director of the Institute, and Noura Abul-Husn, MD, PhD, as Clinical Director.
On March 7, Mount Sinai West admitted the first COVID-19 patient in the Health System.
On June 2, 2020, Mount Sinai employees showed solidarity with those protesting the killing of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement in Minnesota. In a broadcast email, leadership announced “at 3 pm, we will show support for our community; support for our Black colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors; and support for those who are peacefully protesting the killing of George Floyd, and so many others before him. At 3:05 pm, we will begin nine minutes of silence, representing how long Mr. Floyd was unable to breathe. Please follow proper masking and social distancing rules during this event.”
Mount Sinai announced that surgeons performed the first-ever spinal tethering surgery in New York City to correct idiopathic scoliosis—a sideways curvature in the spine—in children and adolescents.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai announced the creation of an Institute for Health Equity Research. The new Institute will be dedicated to examining the causes and magnitude of health and health care disparities impacting nonwhite, low-income, immigrant, uninsured, LGBTQ+, and other populations across all ages, abilities, and genders. Carol Horowitz, MD, was appointed as Director of the Institute, with Lynne Richardson, MD, as Co-Director.
Emma K. T. Benn, DrPH, MPH, founded the Center for Scientific Diversity at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, an initiative of the Dean’s Office and the Institute for Health Equity Research to foster, develop, and assess empirically supported practices that promote and enhance scientific innovation, diversity, and equitable advancement within the biomedical investigator workforce.
“There are so many changes and incidents that occur in an institution of this magnitude in the course of a year, and which together combine to make the total picture, that it is difficult within the time at my disposal, and within the bounds of your patience, to choose those that will most truly reflect its life.”
In the 1940s several of the hospitals in our system started monthly newsletters to keep the staff informed of hospital events and interesting news of individual staff members. They were created on 8×11 paper and featured colorful covers that represented the holiday or season of the month. In celebration of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the Aufses Archives would like to present some of the covers, and related articles for your enjoyment.
This 1954 cover from the News of St. Luke’s (aka Mount Sinai Morningside), includes familiar harvest and pilgrim themes for the holiday. Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing published their own newsletter called Cap and Bib. This 1955 holiday issue features a family-sized gobbler!This News of St. Luke’s depicts a turkey getting its pre-holiday turkey trot checkup!Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing later changed its newsletter’s name to Plaid Communique , and this 1969 issue highlights a connection between thankfulness and medical care.This 1949 issue of Mount Sinai Hospital’s The Capsule depicts charming graphics and relates a lovely story of gratefulness expressed during the holiday season.
Hospital decorations, even then, were kept to a minimum on the floors, but dinning rooms often had holiday-themed centerpieces on tables, turkey dinners with all the fixings in staff cafeterias and on patient trays, which also included pumpkin or apple pie for dessert. St. Luke’s Hospital’s chapel also featured a altar centerpiece reflecting the autumn/ Thanksgiving season (below).
Newsletters featuring colorful covers, staff stories, photographs, and hospital news were very popular through the 1940s, 50s, and early 60s. However, in the mid-1960s the format of the newsletters changed to a newspaper format with a header across the top and news stories on the first page, instead of covers like these displayed above. Staff continued to be well informed about hospital events, the activities of various departments, and important news about colleagues, but sadly some of the charm of the early newsletters was lost in the transition.
From the staff at The Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., MD Archives to all our colleagues and readers, Happy Thanksgiving and our best wishes for the following holiday season and New Year!
