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Historical Background

The history of Bellevue Hospital Center can be traced through the changing health needs of the community it serves.

The Montgomerie Charter of 1731 provided for the building of a "Public Workhouse and House of Correction" to cost eighty pounds and fifty gallons of rum. In this building, at the site of the present New York City Hall, a single room was set aside for the care of the indigent. Following a yellow fever outbreak in 1794, the old almshouse was relocated to a new site on Chambers Street. That facility proved inadequate to deal with the epidemic, so the city acquired an estate about three miles from town, far enough away to isolate the infected.

The estate, "Belle Vue," gave its name to the hospital later built on this site. In 1811, the city bought additional land adjoining the hospital, and the Honorable De Witt Clinton, then Mayor of New York, laid the cornerstone for a new set of almshouse buildings. In light of the War of 1812, the hospital was not completed until 1826. In 1847 the facilities were opened to medical students for the first time.

The annals of Bellevue reveal other important contributions to American healthcare. Dr. Valentine Seaman established at the almshouse the first inpatient ward in New York City. Dr. David Hosack performed the first tying of the femoral artery in America at Bellevue. Dr. Wright Post made the first successful ligature of the subclavian artery. At Bellevue, Dr. Stephen Smith inaugurated the series of public health reform movements that swept the country after the Civil War. The first hospital-based horse and buggy ambulance service was established at Bellevue in 1869 by Dr. Edward L. Dalton. The first school of nursing in the nation was opened here in 1873. The nation's first outpatient department, the Bureau of Medical and Surgical Relief for the Outdoor Poor, was also established at Bellevue.

Psychiatric care has been provided at Bellevue since 1898. In 1932, Dr. David Wechsler joined the Department of Psychiatry and created the first NYU-Bellevue clinical psychology internship. During his tenure at Bellevue, Dr. Wechsler also originated the Wechsler-Bellevue and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales, originally published in 1939 and 1955, respectively.

The Bellevue Clinical Psychology Internship Program began with two interns. After World War II, with an increased need for psychologists and as greater opportunities for training became available, the number of interns in the program increased to six. At present, there are fourteen interns in four different tracks enrolled in the NYU-Bellevue Clinical Psychology Internship Program. The internship program, supported by the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and the New York University School of Medicine, also maintains affiliations with the NYU Child Study Center and Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center.

Today, Bellevue Hospital occupies a 25-story, multi-million dollar patient care facility, located directly behind the original Bellevue. A new Ambulatory Care Pavilion opened in 2005, and serves as the main point of entry into the hospital campus. Containing over 400 exam rooms, wired with state-of–the art medical information-management systems and housing the new Bellevue Hospital Cancer Center, the Pavilion is located on First Avenue between 27 th and 28 th Street.

Annually, Bellevue treats 26,000 inpatients and handles nearly 400,000 outpatient clinic visits, while providing another 65,000 days of home care to over 200 patients. Bellevue's world-famous Emergency Service treats another 100,000 people each year, approximately 50,000 in the Adult Emergency Services, 35,000 in Pediatric Emergency Services, and 15,000 in Psychiatric Emergency Services.

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