Carney Hospital

Carney Hospital is a community teaching hospital in Dorchester, Massachusetts, affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine and New England Medical Center. The hospital had its beginnings in 1863 in South Boston. It was the first Catholic hospital in New England. Among its first patients were American Civil War soldiers. In 1892 a Carney Hospital team performed the first abdominal surgery in Boston.

History
Carney Hospital was established in 1863 in South Boston by Sister Ann Alexis Shorb, a member of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, after she received $75,000 from Andrew Carney. The 40-bed hospital was the first Catholic hospital in New England. In 1877, the first outpatient department in Boston was established by the hospital in two adjacent houses, followed by the first skin clinic in Boston in 1891. The first abdominal surgery in USA was carried out in the hospital by John Homans in 1882. The same year, the first ovariectomy in Boston was carried out in Carney by Henry I. Bowditch. The first Catholic nursing school in New England was opened in 1892.

In 1920 the hospital introduced its Residency training programs. In 1950 the first plastic hip operation in the United States was performed by Dr. W.R. MacAusland at Carney Hospital. In 1953, the hospital moved from South Boston to its present location in Dorchester. The hospital became one of the first in USA to establish community health centers in 1973. Next year, Carney Hospital provided the first medical emergency rooftop helistop in Massachusetts. The hospital celebrated 125 years of service in 1988. After several months of deliberations, In 1997 the hospital became a member of Caritas Christi Health Care, the second largest health care system in New England, and was christened "Caritas Carney Hospital."

Present status
As of 2007, Caritas Carney Hospital is a 197-bed facility. Services include primary care medicine, a wide range of surgical specialties and subspecialties, inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, emergency medicine, critical care, pediatrics, cardiology, neurology, ambulatory surgery, and rehabilitative care service. The current Internal Medicine Residency Program is affiliated with the Tufts University School of Medicine.

It was reported in the Boston Globe on October 24, 2007, that due to a roughly $7 million shortfall in fiscal performance, Caritas Christi is considering closing or selling the hospital.