New York Downtown Hospital

New York Downtown Hospital (previously known as NYU Downtown Hospital) is a not-for-profit, acute (medical) care, teaching hospital in New York City and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan. Downtown Hospital operates 170 beds, and offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as community outreach and education.

It is also a leader in the field of emergency preparedness and disaster management. The Hospital serves the area’s diverse neighborhoods including Wall Street, Battery Park City, Chinatown, SoHo, TriBeCa, Little Italy, and the Lower East Side. It is the closest acute care facility to the Financial District, to the seat of the City government, and to some of New York’s most popular tourist attractions.

In 2005, Downtown Hospital discharged nearly 12,000 inpatients. The Hospital, an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, provides approximately 100,000 outpatient visits and 6,000 surgical procedures annually. In addition, as Lower Manhattan’s only Emergency Department, Downtown Hospital treats 32,000 patients annually in its Emergency Department and provides more than 5,000 ambulance transports.

The hospital was originally founded as The New York Infirmary in 1853 by Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the United States.

In 2006 the hospital introduced a new decontamination unit built as part of the $25 million Lehman Brothers Emergency Room. The project was begun after the terrorist attacks of September, 11 2001, when the hospital treated about 1,500 victims. Before construction of the new facility the hospital's small decontamination unit could handle about 20 patients an hour. The new unit can treat between 500 and 1,000 patients an hour. The design is based on the decontamination unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel.