Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital
Partners HealthCare
Geography
Location	75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Organization
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	Harvard Medical School
Services
Emergency department	Level I trauma center
Helipad	FAA LID: MA39
Beds	793
History
Founded	1980
Links
Website	http://www.brighamandwomens.org
Lists	Hospitals in Massachusetts

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH, "The Brigham") is the largest hospital of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts, US. It is Harvard Medical School's second largest teaching affiliate, with 793 beds. With Massachusetts General Hospital, it is one of the two founding members of Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare provider in Massachusetts. In 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked it as the #6 hospital in the United States.

Core service lines

• Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center: The center brings together a cancer institute and a hospital, creating 13 specialized disease centers.
• Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center.
• Brigham and Women’s Orthopedic and Arthritis Center: They specialize in research and therapies for bone and joint disease and injury.
• Brigham and Women’s Neurosciences Institute: The BWH Neurosciences Institute offers treatments for all diseases of the nervous system. The institute integrates neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry and neuroradiology, with advanced research and clinical trials.
• Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health: BWH specializes in high-risk obstetric care, newborn intensive care, infertility services, complex gynecologic surgery, and gender-specific care.
• Osher Center for Integrative Medicine including chiropractic care.

Quality and safety

In the early 1990s, BWH pioneered Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) to prevent medication errors. BWH has received patient safety awards for its electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR) and bar-coding system, which places barcodes on patients’ medications, name bands and nurses’ badges. A nurse scans all three barcodes before administering a medication to ensure that each patient receives the correct medication and dosage at the correct time.

The orthopedic surgery department focused on patients' satisfaction for those who received knee and hip replacements. Leaders in the department included John Wright, Mary Anne Kenyon, and Carolyn Beagan, but they gave little attention to holding costs down.

Research

In 2009 the BWH Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) received $485 million in research support from all sources. For over a decade, it has been one of the two hospitals receiving the most National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding among independent hospitals in the United States. It employs over 3,300 researchers.

BRI has worked on regenerative medicine, designing nanoparticles to attack different types of cancer, and starting a clinical trial for a type of Alzheimer’s disease vaccine. BWH research also includes population studies including the Nurses’ Health Study and Physicians’ Health Study.

The 21st century has seen dramatic shifts in the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to lung carcinomas, beginning with the discovery of EGFR mutations and their role in directing management with targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Since 2003 this has reshaped the approach at the molecular diagnostic testing center at the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

History

221 Longwood Avenue, formerly the Boston Lying-In Hospital building, part of Brigham and Women's Hospital but separate from the main building at 15-75 Francis Street; view from Longwood Avenue

Former site of the Free Hospital for Women across the street from Olmsted Park. This institution was absorbed into Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Brigham and Women's represents the 1980 merger of three Harvard-affiliated Boston hospitals:

• Peter Bent Brigham Hospital established in 1913
• Robert Breck Brigham Hospital established in 1914
• Boston Hospital for Women established in 1966 as a merger of:
  • Boston Lying-In Hospital established in 1832 as one of America’s first maternity hospitals
  • Free Hospital for Women established in 1875

In 1954, the hospital became the location for the first ever successful kidney transplant, performed by Joseph Murray, on Richard Herrick.

After a 10-year affiliation with Faulkner Hospital in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston, BWH merged with the community hospital in 2012 to form Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital.

External links

• Official Brigham and Women's Hospital website