Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital

Yale New Haven Hospital (abbreviated YNHH) is a 1,541-bed hospital located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the Yale New Haven Health system. YNHH includes the 168-bed Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, the 201-bed Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and the 76-bed Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, making it one of the largest hospitals in the world and the largest in Connecticut. It is the primary teaching hospital for Yale School of Medicine and Yale School of Nursing.

The hospital is a Magnet hospital and is accredited by the Joint Commission.[1] It is also a Level I trauma center for adult and pediatric patients. It operates a pediatric critical care transport team including registered nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians who transfer pediatric patients from smaller community hospitals to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital.[2]

In 2017, YNHH was once again ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best hospitals in the United States. [3] Yale New Haven ranked among the best in the nation in 9 medical specialties: psychiatry (#11); geriatrics (#15); pulmonology (#19); ear, nose and throat (#22); neurology & neurosurgery (#28); diabetes & endocrinology (#29); urology (#29); kidney disorders (#31); and gastroenterology & GI surgery (#33). YNHH is the only hospital in Connecticut to be ranked in the national listings in any of the 16 medical specialties.

In 2017, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital was ranked by U.S. News & World Report in 8 pediatric specialties:[4] cancer (#28); cardiology and heart surgery (#42); diabetes and endocrinology (#4); gastroenterology (#32); neonatology (#29); neurology and neurosurgery (#38); pulmonology (#39) and urology (#45).

On September 12, 2012, YNHH acquired the assets of the Hospital of Saint Raphael (HSR), making it a single hospital with two main campuses.

In 2013, the hospital had more than 1,100,000 outpatient and emergency visits and 80,500 inpatient discharges. Yale New Haven Hospital is the second largest employer in New Haven, Connecticut, with more than 11,000 employees and has a physician base of more than 4,800 university-based and community physicians practicing more than 100 medical specialties.[1]

The history of Yale New Haven Hospital extends back to 1826 when the General Hospital Society of Connecticut was chartered as the first hospital in Connecticut and the fourth voluntary hospital in the nation. The hospital rented temporary quarters and raised US$5,000 toward the purchase of land and construction. A new 13-bed hospital opened in 1833 on seven and a half acres of land bordered by Cedar Street and Howard, Davenport and Congress avenues. The original building, called the State Hospital, was designed by prominent New Haven architect Ithiel Town and cost US$13,000. In 1862, the State Hospital was converted to a military hospital to care for Union soldiers during the American Civil War. The hospital was renamed to the Knight United States Army General Hospital in honor of Jonathan Knight, the president of the board of trustees. Some attending physicians moved with the civilian patients to temporary quarters on Whitney Avenue. After the Civil War, the hospital was turned over to the General Society of Connecticut in 1865. The hospital converted back to its original name of State Hospital. The Connecticut Training School, the third training school for nurses in the United States, was opened by the hospital in 1873. In 1884, the hospital’s name was changed to New Haven Hospital to reflect the name that was widely being used by the residents of New Haven.

Yale School of Medicine and New Haven Hospital formalized their relationship in 1913. U.S. medical education, which had begun as a simple apprenticeship system, evolved to become a formal educational plan based on alliances between medical schools and hospitals. This was the start of what is now known as the Yale New Haven Medical Center. Their first motorized ambulance was purchased by New Haven Hospital in 1914.[5]

In 1945 the hospital changed its name to Grace-New Haven Hospital after it affiliated itself with nearby Grace Hospital. On July 6, 1946, U.S. President George W. Bush was born at the hospital. In 1951, the New Haven Dispensary formally merged with Grace-New Haven Hospital. The New Haven Dispensary had opened in 1871 as the city’s first outpatient clinic. In 1965, a more formal agreement with the Yale School of Medicine resulted in another name change to Yale–New Haven Hospital. 1993 saw the opening of the Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital becoming the first full-service children’s hospital in Connecticut, including the first children’s emergency department. The Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital was opened in 2000, after the purchase of the Yale Psychiatric Institute. Today, YNHH is a 1,541-bed private, nonprofit facility that ranks among the premier medical centers in the nation. Yale New Haven is the largest acute care provider in southern Connecticut and one of the Northeast’s major referral centers.