St. Vincent's Medical Center (Bridgeport)

St. Vincent's Medical Center is a 397-bed acute care Catholic hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

The hospital is now controlled by Ascension Health, the nation's largest Catholic and largest nonprofit health system, which is in turn controlled by several religious orders, including the Daughters of Charity which founded St. Vincent's.

Size and services
The hospital has a medical staff of 450 physicians and has a total of more than 1,800 employees.

St. Vincent's Web site says the institution has "one of the largest angioplasty programs in New England," a bariatric-surgery Center, and extensive cancer and orthopedic services.

The hospital also has a "contemporary" Family Birthing Center with private rooms for labor, delivery and recovery, a private bathroom and sleeping accommodations for the father, and an entertainment center.

Psychiatric services include an on-site psychiatric unit for acute care and the Hall-Brooke Behavioral Health Services (formerly the independent Hall-Brooke Hospital) an inpatient and outpatient behavioral health facility in Westport, Connecticut.

The hospital founded St. Vincent's College, which offers degrees in nursing and other health-related fields, and a Graduate Medical Education Program.

St. Vincent's is affiliated with two medical schools — Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York Medical College. The hospital's affiliation with Columbia is in conjunction with its membership in the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System.

History
Founded by the Daughters of Charity religious order, the hospital was incorporated on May 19, 1903 and opened its doors on June 28, 1905 as a 75-bed building. More than 70 patients had been treated by the end of that first day.

On Easter Sunday, April 17, 1976, a new hospital building opened just behind the original one. That day, William J. Riordan, then president and chief executive officer of the hospital, directed the transfer of 209 patients to the new structure, a 440,000 square-foot building nearly twice the size of the old one.

When the move was made to the new building, the hospital's name was changed from St. Vincent's Hospital to St. Vincent's Medical Center.