Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (Saint Vincent's), is a healthcare system anchored by its flagship hopital, St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan, locally referred to as "St. Vincent's", a major teaching hospital in the New York City neighborhood of Greenwich Village.

It consists of several hospital buildings and a number of outpatient facilities, has more than 1,000 affiliated physicians, including 70 full-time and 300 voluntary attending physicians, and trains more than 300 residents and fellows. It is the designated provider for New York and New Jersey members of the U.S. Department of Defense Health Plan. St. Vincent's was the primary admitting hospital for those injured in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. St. Vincent's is the 3rd oldest hospital in New York City after The New York Hospital and Bellevue Hospital.

The official hospital church sponsorship is with the Sisters of Charity and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn

Facilities

• St. Vincent's Hospital is a 758-bed tertiary care teaching hospital, at Seventh Avenue and Greenwich Avenue on the border of Greenwich Village and Chelsea. It includes:

• *Level I Trauma Center and Critical Care Center,

• *Comprehensive Cardiovascular Center,

• *Level III Neonatal ICU,

• *The Pancreas & Biliary Center,

• *Comprehensive Cancer Center,

• *Comprehensive HIV Center, and

• *Full service emergency department.

• *Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric and addiction services

• St. Vincent's Hospital (Westchester), a behavioral health facility, is in Harrison, NY.

• *Behavior Health Residential Services, a 500 bed community housing and case management program based at Bayley Seton Staten Island, with units in the five Bouroughs and Westchester.

• 3 skilled nursing facilities, including

• * Bishop Mugavero Center for Geriatric Care in Brooklyn,

• * Holy Family Home in Brooklyn, and

• * St. Elizabeth Ann's Health Care & Rehabilitation Center in Staten Island.

• Pax Christi Hospice in Staten Island.

• SVCMC Home Health Agency, a comprehensive home care service providing care in all five boroughs of New York City.

• Several outpatient medical and substance abuse treatment centers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester and the Bronx.

History

St. Vincent's Hospital (Manhattan) has served as a medical facility for more than 150 years. Its namesake is St. Vincent de Paul, a sixteenth-century French priest whose Daughters of Charity inspired the creation of the Sisters of Charity by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. In 1849, four order nuns were dispatched to New York City on instructions from Mother Seton to set up one of the only charity hospitals in the city. What began as a humble 30-bed hospital in a small brick house on 13th Street of Greenwich Village has expanded over time to become a major medical and research center. It has maintained its connection to the Roman Catholic tradition, and is sponsored by the Bishop of Brooklyn and the President of the Sisters of Charity. Of interest, St. Vincent is the designated patron saint of charities, hospital workers, hospitals, and volunteers.

The SVCMC network was formed in 2000, when St. Vincent's Hospital (Manhattan), formerly the St. Vincent Hospital and Medical Center of New York, merged with Catholic Medical Centers of Brooklyn and Queens and Sisters of Charity Healthcare on Staten Island, which included the newly renamed St. Vincent's Hospital (Staten Island), Mary Immaculate Hospital in Queens, St. John’s Queens Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital in Brooklyn, and Bayley Seton Hospital in Staten Island. In 2003, St. Clare’s Hospital, renamed St. Vincent’s Hospital (Midtown), was affiliated and closed on August 1, 2007. Mary Immaculate and St. John's closed on March 1, 2009.

In 2005, under financial pressure from its charity involvements, burgeoning administration costs, and rising health care costs, the SVCMC system filed for bankruptcy. The system launched an aggressive reorganization effort, selling or transferring its money-losing facilities and focusing development on its main hospital, which allowed it to emerge from bankruptcy in the summer of 2007. In the name of modernizing and restructuring, it also announced plans to build a new Manhattan hospital across the street from the current facility, with a planned opening set for 2011. This plan has been a source of contention with the surrounding neighborhood, with many local residents and community groups, such as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and the Municipal Art Society, concerned about demolishing eight buildings in the middle of the Greenwich Village Historic District as well as what would go up in its place and the precedents such a case would set. Despite neighborhood concerns, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the residential components of the plan in July 2009.

Medical Education

SVCMC serves as one of two academic medical centers of New York Medical College. It offers a complete and well-respected residency and fellowship program, and also serves as a clerkship facility for students of medicine, nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy.
Residencies
Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Nuclear Medicine, OB/GYN, Ophthalmology, Orthopedics, Pathology, PM&R, Psychiatry, Child Psychiatry, Radiology, General Surgery, Transitional.
Fellowships
Cardiovascular, Critical Care, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Geriatrics, Hematology/Oncology, Infectious Disease, Pulmonary.
Allied Health Programs
CPR, Advanced Life Support, EMT, Paramedics, Nuclear Medicine Technology.

Mission

Drawing on its Roman Catholic heritage, SVCMC's emphasis is on patient-focused healthcare, with a special mission to provide care for the poor and disenfranchised.

"Respect: The basic dignity of the human person is the guiding principal in all our interactions, policies and procedures.
Integrity: Integrity is the consistency between the Catholic identity we profess and the ways in which we act it is that quality of truthfulness, which fosters trust.
Compassion: Compassion is the way we share deep concern, love and care toward each person.
Excellence: Excellence is our way of demonstrating that we can always be more, always be better."

Notable programs

St. Vincent's HIV Center
As one of the first institutions to address and treat HIV and AIDS in the 1980s, St. Vincent's HIV Center is one of the oldest, most experienced and most renowned HIV treatment programs in the US. It provides coordinated outpatient and inpatient primary care and case management services to HIV-positive adults, pregnant women, and children, and also provides HIV prevention services, AIDS education programs, HIV clinical research, and support groups. In addition, SVCMC developed the unique Airbridge Project, which coordinates care for HIV-positive patients who make frequent trips to Puerto Rico.
Chinese Outreach Program
Due its close proximity to Chinatown, Manhattan, two miles away, SVCMC has had close ties to the Chinese community throughout its history. In an effort to reach this underserved population, the hospital has opened an independent Chinese-speaking inpatient unit, has employed physicians and nurses who speak Cantonese and Mandarin, and has employed certified medical interpreters. They have also opened an outpatient facility in Chinatown, provide a free shuttle service from Chinatown to the hospital, and offer Chinese-focused healthcare services such as Acupuncture and Chinese traditional meals.
Cystic Fibrosis Program
One of the most comprehensive and renowned CF programs in the city, the Saint Vincent's Cystic Fibrosis therapy program offers care for patients with cystic fibrosis and attracts patients from around the region.
Perinatal Hospice Center
The Perinatal Hospice was founded in 2007 to meet the needs of parents who discover early in pregnancy that their baby is nonviable outside the womb. Rather than terminate the pregnancy, these parents choose to carry their baby to term. The Perinatal Hospice helps parents facilitate their deliveries.
John J. Conley Department of Ethics
Closely linked to the Bioethics Institute at New York Medical College, The Conley Ethics Department has become a leader in the study of clinical medical ethics and spirituality in healthcare. Chaired by Dr. , the department aims to integrate the biopsychosocial model of healthcare within the SVCMC system.
Elizabeth Ann Seton Chapel
Because the hospital was founded and manned through much of its history by nuns, its hospital chapel is a primary focus of the hospital architecture, and is symbolically nested at the very center of the hospital. The Chapel, named for St Elizabeth Ann Seton, offers daily Mass and refuge for patients and hospital staff.
Hospital Pet Care Program
Responding to the unique needs of an urban population, SVCMC instituted a program to help patients provide for the pets during their stay in the hospital. Animals are either walked and fed while they stay at home, or are relocated to care facilities or short-term foster homes.
Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Comprehensive Cancer Center assists with every aspect of cancer care, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery, with a focus on preventing inpatient stays through careful outpatient monitoring. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, even stem cell transplants are provided as day procedures, although the Center is also equipped to provide immediate emergency care. It has the only treatment area in New York City that is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.