Lahey Clinic Hospital

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Lahey Clinic
Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Massachusetts
Location
Place Burlington Massachusetts, (US)
Organization
Care System Medicare/Medicaid/charity
Hospital Type Teaching/Specialist
Affiliated University Tufts University School of Medicine
Services
Emergency Dept. Trauma certification level II
Beds 293
History
Founded 1923
Links
Website Homepage
See also Hospitals in the United States

The Lahey Clinic is a not-for-profit teaching hospital founded in 1923 by Dr. Frank H. Lahey.

Contents

[edit] About Lahey Clinic

In 1923, medical clinics were not common in the United States. In those times, doctors made house calls, often with a horse and buggy.[1] If there were problems that the family doctor could not handle, the patent would be referred to a specialist or transported to a hospital. Both the specialists and the hospitals were usually located in faraway cities. Many specialists could only be reached by train because they were located in New York or Chicago. Dr. Lahey’s idea, which was new at the time, was to create a clinic where all kinds of specialists worked at the same place. Today’s Lahey Clinic is much larger than the original so it is not all in one building anymore, but the concept remains

Since the Lahey Clinic specializes in oncology (cancer therapy), some patients are very sick, and may even die. These patients are treated with compassion in addition to the normal high level of competence. This is part of a longstanding culture acquired by those doctors and specialists working at Lahey.[2] See this end of life resource guide for patients with terminal illnesses.[3]

Lahey Clinic has been well known for a long time. In 1940, an article was written about it in Time Magazine.[4] The article described the history of the clinic and Dr. Lahey's election as the new president of the American Medical Association. At the time of the article, the Lahey Clinic was located in downtown Boston. Dr. Frank H. Lahey, the clinic's founder was Franklin D. Roosevelt's personal physician[5] and during beginning WWII, was Chairman of the Directing Board of the Procurement and Assignment Service for the United States Army.[6] He ran the clinic for over forty years.

For 55 years, from 1925 to 1980, the Lahey Clinic, where outpatients were seen, was located at 605 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts, with surgeries performed at New England Baptist, New England Deaconess, and Peter Bent Brigham hospitals. In November 1980, the Lahey Clinic moved 11 miles northwest to its present location in Burlington, Massachusetts.

[edit] Capabilities

Lahey Clinic has more than four-hundred physicians and nearly five-thousand nurses, therapists, and other support staff. Since there are on-staff physicians for virtually every specialty, a patient’s medical needs are almost always met without the patient having to transfer to other facilities for specialized treatment.[2]

Lahey Clinic provides advanced research and medical education as part of the Tufts University School of Medicine.[7] In addition, many physicians hold teaching assignments at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine. The Clinic maintains residency and fellowship programs for more than one-hundred students as well.[2][7]

[edit] Facilities

The Burlington, Massachusetts center provides ambulatory care, serving more than 3,000 patients each day plus a 293-bed hospital. The Level II Trauma Center is at this location as well. The north shore facility, in Peabody, Massachusetts, serves more than 800 outpatients each day and includes a 10-bed hospital. Both locations have 24-hour emergency departments.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Doctors making house calls with horse and buggy. Retrieved on January 17, 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d Lahey Clinic website. Retrieved on December 12, 2006.
  3. ^ End of life resource guide. Retrieved on December 12, 2006.
  4. ^ Time Magazine article about Lahey Clinic and Dr. Lahey. Retrieved on January 16, 2007.
  5. ^ New York Times article on a court order returning a secret memorandum. Retrieved on January 16, 2007.
  6. ^ Procurement, 1941-45: Medical, Dental, and Veterinary Corps. Retrieved on January 16, 2007.
  7. ^ a b Tufts University website. Retrieved on December 12, 2006.
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