Lincoln Hospital (Bronx)

NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln
NYC Health + Hospitals
View of the hospital from East 149th Street
Map of New York City
Geography
Location	234 East 149th Street, Bronx, NY, United States
Coordinates	40°49′N 73°55′W / 40.817°N 73.917°W / 40.817; -73.917Coordinates: 40°49′N 73°55′W / 40.817°N 73.917°W / 40.817; -73.917
Organization
Funding	Public hospital
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	Weill Cornell Medical College
Network	NYC Health + Hospitals
Services
Emergency department	Level I trauma center
Beds	362
History
Founded	1839
Links
Website	nychhc.org/lincoln
Lists	Hospitals in the United States
Other links	Hospitals in New York

NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, formerly Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center and also known as Lincoln Hospital is a full service medical center and teaching hospital affiliated with Weill Cornell Medical College, in the South Bronx area of the Bronx, New York City. The medical center is municipally owned by NYC Health + Hospitals.

Lincoln is known for innovative programs addressing the specific needs of the community it serves, aggressively tackling such issues as asthma, obesity, cancer, diabetes and tuberculosis. Staffed by a team of more than 300 physicians, the hospital has an inpatient capacity of 347 beds, including 20 neonatal intensive care beds, 23 intensive care beds, 8 pediatric intensive care beds, 7 coronary care beds, and an 11-station renal dialysis unit. With over 144,000 emergency room visits annually, Lincoln has the busiest single site emergency room in New York City and the third busiest in the nation.

Lincoln Hospital was founded in 1839 as the "The Home for the Colored Aged" by a group of prominent philanthropists known as the "Society for the Relief of Worthy Aged Indigent Colored Persons." The hospital's function gradually became the most important aspect of the operation, and in 1882, the name was changed to "The Colored Home and Hospital."

In 1895, after more than half a century of occupying various sites in Manhattan, the Board of Trustees purchased a large lot in the South Bronx—then a semi-rural area of the city—at the corner of 141st Street and Southern Boulevard. A new hospital was built; its facilities included the latest developments in medical care. The dedication took place on April 29, 1899. The hospital became a general hospital open to all people without regard to color or creed, although it maintained its founding connection as an institution dedicated to the relief and advancement of black people. During the hospital's reorganization and eventual occupation of the new site, its name was changed to Lincoln Hospital, in honor of president Abraham Lincoln.

Because of the increasing demand for services required by a more densely populated South Bronx—and a decreasing supply of philanthropic funds—in 1925 the Board of Trustees decided to sell Lincoln Hospital to the Department of Public Welfare of the City of New York. The great outflow of physicians to the armed forces during World War II and the drastic socioeconomic decline in the area that followed took their toll on Lincoln Hospital. With the loss of jobs from industrial restructuring, many middle-class residents left. At the same time, there was new immigration of mostly poor, rural people from the southern regions of the United States, the Caribbean, and countries of Latin America. The hospital enjoyed a resurgence in the 1970s as one of the finest institutions for the care of the sick and the training of professionals in the newly formed New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation.