Montefiore Medical Center (New York City). Jewish philanthropists founded Montefiore Medical Center in 1884 to aid chronically ill people, then calling the hospital the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids. Throughout the 1920s, the hospital blossomed as a highly accessible and diverse healthcare provider in its borough and has maintained that role since.
Comprised of four hospitals with a total of 1,491 beds, Montefiore has approximately 93,000 admissions each year. It is the academic medical center for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and home to the second-largest residency program in the country. Montefiore also employs more than 1,600 physicians. The hospital's history is one of the country's more diverse, as it accepted black medical residents in the 1930s when such integration was rare. U.S. News & World Report ranked Montefiore seventh overall in New York in 2013-14. The hospital also secured top 50 spots from the publication for three specialties.
Montefiore has shown an unwavering dedication to the well-being of the Bronx. The system — the largest employer in the borough — works with community partners at every level, from neighborhood health fairs to a partnership with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The hospital has a refined focus to improve community access to fresh foods and reduce healthcare disparities. For instance, it recently took the lead in two important advocacy efforts: One promoting the use of reduced fat milk in the schools and another for legislation requiring all patients be educated about breast reconstruction after mastectomy to reduce the disparities found to exist between low- and high-income patients.
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