Hadassah Medical Center

Hadassah Medical Center
Hadassah in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem, the second campus of the Hadassah Medical Center
Geography
Location	Jerusalem, Israel
Coordinates	Coordinates: 31°47′50″N 35°14′31″E / 31.79722°N 35.24194°E / 31.79722; 35.24194
Organisation
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Patron	Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America
Services
Beds	1,000
History
Founded	1934
Links
Website	http://www.hadassah.org.il
Lists	Hospitals in Israel

Hadassah Medical Center (Hebrew: מרכז רפואי הדסה‎‎) is a medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its declared mission is to extend a "hand to all, without regard for race, religion or ethnic origin."

The hospital was founded by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which continues to underwrite a large part of its budget today. The Medical Center ranks as the sixth-largest hospital complex in Israel. Across its two campuses, Hadassah Medical Center has a total of 1,000 beds, 31 operating theaters and nine special intensive care units, and runs five schools of medical professions.

The Hadassah organization was established in 1912 in New York City to provide health care in Ottoman-ruled Jerusalem. In 1913, Hadassah sent two nurses to Palestine. They set up a small public health station in Jerusalem to provide maternity care and treat trachoma, a dreaded eye disease rampant in the Middle East. During the First World War the Ottoman authorities suspected Jews of sympathies with the enemy and in 1915 the Hadassah Nurses station had to closed down due to official pressure.

In 1918, Hadassah established the American Zionist Medical Unit (AZMU), manned by 45 medical health professionals. The AZMU helped to establish six hospitals in Palestine which were then turned over to municipal authorities. The Meir Rothschild Hospital opened in Jerusalem in 1918. That year, Hadassah also founded a nursing school to train local personnel and create a cadre of nurses.

In 1919, Hadassah organized the first School Hygiene Department in Palestine to give routine health examinations to Jerusalem school children. During the Arab riots of 1920, Hadassah nurses cared for the wounded on both sides. Henrietta Szold moved to Jerusalem that year to develop community health and preventive care programs.