Barnes-Jewish Hospital

This article is about Barnes Hospital. For other uses, please see Barnes (disambiguation)

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is consistently rated one of the top hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. In 2007, it was ranked 9th-best medical center overall.^[1] Barnes-Jewish Hospital is a member of BJC HealthCare. Barnes-Jewish is the largest hospital in Missouri and is the largest private employer in the St. Louis metropolitan area. As of 2006, it employs 9,373 people, 1,707 of which are physicians. It is responsible for the education of 921 interns, residents, and fellows. Barnes-Jewish has 1,228 beds, 53,907 inpatient admissions a year, and has 77,847 emergency department visits in 2006. Nearly 17000 surgeries were performed at Barnes in 2006. The hospital is the adult teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine.

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Rankings and Achievements

Barnes-Jewish Hospital has earned a place on U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll of America’s best hospitals for the past 15 years. Barnes-Jewish is home to 14 specialties ranked among the best nationally including cancer; digestive disorders; ear, nose and throat; eyes; gynecology; heart and heart surgery; hormonal disorders; kidney disease; neurology and neurosurgery; orthopedics; psychiatry; respiratory disorders; rheumatology; and urology.

Cancer Care - The Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine is the only National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in Missouri within a 240-mile radius of St. Louis. Siteman offers a multidisciplinary team of more than 300 clinicians and medical researchers.

Heart Care - The Washington University Heart Care Institute at Barnes-Jewish Hospital has pioneered many procedures, from ablation therapies to valve repair and replacement, and permanent implantation of ventricular assist devices. Patients have been among the first to benefit from advanced angioplasty techniques, coronary bypass procedures, valvuloplasty and heart transplantation.

Lung Care - Advanced treatment areas include lung cancer surgery; esophageal cancer surgery (including Barrett's esophagus); lung volume reduction surgery to treat COPD; transcervical thymectomy to treat myasthenia gravis; lung transplantation; and lung nodule monitoring.

Transplant Services - Barnes-Jewish Hospital has the only comprehensive transplant center in the region offering heart, heart and lung, lung, double lung, kidney, liver, pancreas, islet cell and bone marrow transplants. In addition to achieving outcomes that meet or beat national averages, the transplant program is known for quality and continuity of care.

Orthopedics - The Washington University specialists at Barnes-Jewish offer adult reconstruction and joint replacement, sports medicine, and trauma services. The sports medicine specialists care for two of St. Louis’ professional teams: the St. Louis Rams and the St. Louis Blues.

Neurological Care - Highlights include a Neurosurgery/Neuroradiology Center for managing cerebral aneurysms and arteriovenous malformations; Gamma Knife Center for minimally invasive treatment of brain tumors; comprehensive care for epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular disease, dementia and stroke; stereotactic neurosurgery; and deep brain stimulation for movement disorders.

The Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology - The Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University provides full diagnostic procedures including computed tomography, magnetic resonance and positron emission tomography, nuclear medicine and interventional radiology. The Institute has pioneered many radiological milestones, becoming one of the first in Missouri to combine PET and CT scanning.

Trauma Care - Barnes-Jewish Hospital has the only American College of Surgeons-verified level-one trauma center in the region.

Advancing Medicine - At Barnes-Jewish, patients have access to leading-edge treatments as a result of research from the third-ranked medical school in the nation. As one of the leading recipient of National Institutes of Health grant money for medical research funding, Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital offer bench-to-bedside research and treatment including:

-A Washington University surgeon performed the first U.S. surgery to restore voice to a patient with an artificial larynx at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

-Innovative spinal cord injury treatments including brain imaging to verify recovery, and a neurologic rehabilitation program for spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and stroke.

-Barnes-Jewish's lung transplant program is one of the world’s largest with more than 860 transplants, including the world’s first double-lung transplant.

-Washington University heart surgeons at Barnes-Jewish Hospital developed procedures such as robotic heart surgery, off-pump (beating heart) surgery and the Cox-MAZE procedure for atrial fibrillation.

-The world’s first removal of a patient’s kidney through laparoscopic surgery was performed at Barnes-Jewish. More recently, the mini-nephrectomy procedure, which provides significant health benefits to the living donor and the recipient, was developed there.

History of the hospital

Barnes-Jewish was formed by the 1996 merger of two hospitals, Barnes Hospital and The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, which were built in proximity to each other on the eastern edge of Forest Park.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is the result of a merger of two of the most respected and renowned medical institutions in the United States – Barnes Hospital and The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis.

Before the 1996 merger, each institution had established a rich tradition of medical excellence and exceptional care. Together, they continue to build on that tradition, making Barnes-Jewish Hospital the best American medicine has to offer.

Challenges posed by managed care, cuts in government spending and other factors led to new affiliations and mergers in the 1990s. In 1992, Barnes formalized its affiliation agreement with the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis. In 1993, the two hospitals joined with Christian Health Services to form BJC Health Systems – the first healthcare system in the country to integrate academically based hospitals and a system of community hospitals serving a broad urban, suburban and rural area.

In January 1996, Barnes and Jewish Hospitals merged to form Barnes-Jewish Hospital. The merger built on the original affiliation by combining all of the attributes of the hospitals into a single organization led by on board of directors and one management team.

In the meantime, the medical advances continued. Dr. Ralph Clayman performed the nation's first laparoscopic nephrectomy – removal of a kidney through minimally invasive technique – in 1990. Dr. Susan E. Mackinnon performed the country's first nerve transplant on a 12-year-old Indiana boy in 1993. And Dr. Todd Howard, Dr. Jeffrey Lowell and Dr. Surendra Shenoy performed the country's first adult liver transplant using a living donor unrelated to the recipient in 1996, shortly after the Barnes-Jewish merger.

In the new century, Barnes-Jewish continues to lead the way in medicine. Some examples:

--The opening of the Center for Advanced Medicine and the Siteman Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center.

--The thoracic surgery program continues to be the leading center in the country, performing lung volume reduction surgery, lung-sparing cancer surgeries and running a clinic to manage pulmonary nodules.

--The orthopedic department, nationally-recognized for joint replacement and spinal surgeries, is charged with caring for the elite athletes on St. Louis's professional football and hockey teams – the Rams and Blues.

--Barnes-Jewish Hospital made news worldwide with a procedure in which Dr. Randall Paniello restored a young woman's voice by building a new larynx from skin taken from her arm.

--Barnes-Jewish is one of only a handful of hospitals in the world offering dorsal rhysotomy surgery to improve the gait of adults with cerebral palsy.

These examples illustrate why Barnes-Jewish Hospital is consistently ranked among the top 10 in the United States and its Washington University physicians are frequently cited as among the best in the country.

Barnes Hospital

Barnes Hospital opened on December 7, 1914 at its current location on Kingshighway Boulevard. It was established by the bequest of Robert A. Barnes upon his death in 1892.

Robert Barnes died a wealthy man -- and a visionary. Barnes had come to the boomtown St. Louis in 1830 as a penniless orphan. He worked his way from store clerk to bank president. He lent a young immigrant Adolphus Busch money to start the brewery now known as Anheuser-Busch.

Barnes married into a prominent local family, but his heart was broken when the couple's two children died in infancy. Barnes died in 1892, two years after his wife. With no heirs, he left a bequest of $850,000 to build “a modern general hospital for sick and injured persons, without distinction of creed…”

Barnes had named several of the city's most astute businessmen as his trustees, and placed the proposed hospital under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, a denomination known for its wise use of donations to aid the poor.

By 1912, through investments, the endowment had increased to more than $2 million. The trustees bought property near Forest Park and hired the renowned architect Theodore Link- best known for his design of St. Louis Union Station – to design the hospital building.

Before ground was ever broken, Barnes Hospital entered into a contract to be the teaching hospital for the Washington University School of Medicine, ensuring that the hospital would be staffed by Washington University faculty and would serve as a home for medical education, research and leading-edge medical care. The affiliation between Washington University and Barnes Hospital was “vital to fulfill the three principal functions of an ideal hospital – care of the sick, the adequate training of medical men of the future and the advancement of medical knowledge,” said Methodist Bishop Eugene Hendrix. The affiliation influenced Link to add laboratories, exam rooms and operating rooms to the hospital's design.

Barnes Hospital opened Dec. 7, 1914, with 250 beds and 26 patients.

From the hospital's first birth (a baby girl born on Dec. 9) and first surgery (an appendectomy performed by surgeon-in-chief Dr. Fred Murphy, assisted Dr. Ernest Sach, the first full-time professor of neurosurgery in the United States) excellence in patient care and innovative treatment have marked the hospital's history.

Staff members from Barnes Hospital, St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University school of Medicine formed a medical hospital that served in France during World War I. While in France, Dr. Vilray P. Blair was helping to develop a new surgical discipline– plastic surgery.

Barnes Hospital dealt with the deadly Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918.With more than 700 patients admitted during the peak of the outbreak, Barnes had a death rate of less than four percent, remarkable for the Spanish flu.

In 1919, Dr. Evarts A. Graham became surgeon-in-chief. Throughout his long career, he basically established the discipline of chest surgery. His innovations included in 1925 developing a method to image the gallbladder by x-ray, paving the way for successful gallbladder surgery. He also was the first surgeon to remove an entire lung successfully.

In 1920, Barnes was one of the first hospitals in the country to treat diabetic patients with insulin, and received a gift of $10,000 from John D. Rockefeller to fund the treatment.

An encephalitis epidemic hit St. Louis in the summer of 1933. At that time, no one had a clue to the cause, incubation period, duration or transmission mechanisms. An entire floor at Barnes was opened for encephalitis patients. This was the first opportunity for a teaching hospital to study the disease on such a large scale. Researchers at Barnes and Washington University found a virus carried by the Culex mosquito caused the encephalitis. As a result, mosquito population control measures adopted nationwide helped reduce encephalitis outbreaks.

Barnes became the first hospital in the country to install a complete electronic data processing system after administrator Dr. Frank Bradley observed a similar system while serving as an advisor on the Los Alamos project.

In the 1950s, the hospital and staff expanded, adding inpatient beds and specialized clinics. During these years, Barnes added another first – first hospital in the country to paint the walls green – thought to be more soothing and easier on the eyes – than the traditional bright white.

In the early 1960s, Barnes became only the third hospital in the country to use the heart-lung bypass machine during open-heart surgery.

The hospital built a cyclotron in 1963 to enhance radiologic imaging and radiation treatments at the hospital. Also that year, Dr. William Newton performed the first kidney transplant in the Midwest.

Seventeen-story Queeny Tower, named for benefactor Edgar Monsanto Queeny, opened in 1965. The Tower pioneered a new approach to patient care – treating the patient as a whole person, not merely a bundle of medical needs.

During this time, Barnes was also earning a national reputation for burn and trauma care, with an innovative burn treatments and a dedicated burn center under the direction of Dr. William Monafo.

In 1975, Barnes became one of only five hospitals in the US performing bone marrow transplants, and only the second center to have a whole-body EMI scanner. By 1979, Barnes had become the fourth largest private hospital in the country.

In 1980, the first positron emission tomography (PET) scanner was developed at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and housed in the Barnes cardiac care unit, where it was used to determine the extent of patients' heart damage.

The first heart and liver transplants were performed at Barnes Hospital in 1985. In 1987, the lung transplant team was created at Barnes Hospital.

Jewish Hospital

Jewish Hospital was created in 1902 on a different site on Delmar Boulevard by the leaders of the St. Louis Jewish community. It moved to its current location two blocks away from Barnes Hospital in 1927.

The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis had been a vital force in caring for the community and furthering medical science since 1902.

Although the hospital was built with funds raised by the Jewish community in St. Louis, the hospital's board of directors, comprised of the city's Jewish leaders, pledged that the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis would “afford medical and surgical care and nursing to sick or disabled persons of any creed or nationality.” Jewish Hospital was the institution the wave of new immigrants turned to for medical care.

This dedication to the entire St. Louis community resulted in an almost- immediate expansion to the hospital, then located on Delmar Boulevard. In addition to a larger facility, Jewish Hospital brought a number of medical innovations to St. Louis. Dr. Maurice Frankenthal was the first surgeon in St. Louis to use rubber gloves while operating. The hospital also opened a dispensary downtown – analogous to today's outpatient centers.

Jewish Hospital established a Training School for Nurses, with its first graduating class in 1905. It went on to educate more than 4,000 nurses, and its legacy lives on today in the Barnes-Jewish College of Nursing.

The hospital board bought property on Kingshighway, just two blocks from Barnes Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital, to build a facility that would meet the ever-increasing need for expansion.

When it opened in 1927, the new hospital was hailed for its elegant design and functional innovations, winning the Modern Hospital of the Year award from the American Hospital Association. Its notable features included an audible nurse call system with speakers in each patient room, open-air balconies for treating patients with tuberculosis and state-of-the-art operating rooms.

In 1944, Jewish Hospital became one of the first in the country to use penicillin to treat patients and 1950, became the first in the city to have a radioisotope laboratory.

Medical research has always been integral to Jewish Hospital's mission, having a chief of research since 1919. Through the years, Jewish Hospital physicians have been known especially for their research in gastrointestinal disorders, rehabilitation and cardiology and cardiac surgery.

In 1955, the medical and surgical divisions at Jewish Hospital received association status at the Washington University School of Medicine. In 1963, the hospital was accepted as a major affiliate of Washington University.

Jewish Hospital was the first to treat tumors at or near the skin surface with a combination of hypothermia and radiation treatments. It became the region's first multi-disciplinary center for the treatment of breast, colorectal, lymphoma, thoracic and head-and-neck cancers.

The hospital performed the first successful in vitro fertilization in Missouri in 1983, and opened St. Louis' first Multiple Birth Center, offering medical support for women having more than one baby.

Orthopedic surgeons at Jewish Hospital were renowned for taking care of the athletes on St. Louis' professional sports teams – the baseball and football Rams and St. Louis Blues hockey team.

Jewish Hospital's tradition of care extended to its own staff. It was the first hospital in the city to adopt a 40-hour work week for its employees and offer them Social Security.

Siteman Cancer Center

The Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine is an international leader in cancer treatment, research, prevention, education and community outreach. It is the only cancer center in Missouri and within a 240-mile radius of St. Louis to hold the prestigious Comprehensive Cancer Center designation from the National Cancer Institute and membership in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Parent institutions Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine also are nationally recognized, with U.S. News & World Report magazine consistently ranking the hospital in the top 10 and the medical school in the top five.

Siteman offers the expertise of more than 350 Washington University research scientists and physicians who provide care for nearly 6,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients and more than 32,000 follow-up patients each year. A full range of advanced diagnostic and treatment services are available for patients with all types of cancer, many of them provided in a state-of-the-art outpatient facility that opened in 2001. Siteman also offers patients access to support services throughout their care. Satellite facilities are conveniently located near the campus of Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital in Creve Coeur and at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital in St. Charles County.

Scientists and physicians affiliated with Siteman hold $130 million in cancer research and related training grants. The results of basic laboratory research are rapidly incorporated into treatment advances. This process is enhanced by patient access to more than 350 clinical studies, including many collaborative efforts with other leading cancer centers throughout the country.

In addition to treatment and research programs, Siteman pursues an active outreach program of cancer screening and education that involves tens of thousands of individuals annually throughout the St. Louis region.

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