Hartford Hospital is an 938-bed acute care

teaching hospital A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...

located in the South End of

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. Hartford Hospital was established in 1854. The hospital campus is located on Seymour Street in Hartford and is directly adjacent to the main campus of the

Connecticut Children's Medical Center Connecticut Children's Medical Center is a nationally ranked, independent, non-profit, pediatric acute care hospital located in Hartford, Connecticut. The hospital has 185 beds and is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of the University of Co ...

. Hartford Hospital was ranked #2 in Connecticut by U.S. News Best Hospitals and ranked #1 in the Hartford, Connecticut metro region by the same source. The hospital is a major

tertiary care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profess ...

facility for the statewide region and is state designated as a

Level I Trauma Center A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergen ...

, able to care for the most critically injured of patients. It has 45 operating rooms and one of the largest surgical caseloads in the United States. The emergency room receives over 100,000 visits per year.

History

The hospital was formed in 1854 after the State of

granted a charter for the Formation of Hartford Hospital following a boiler explosion and resulting fire at the Fales and Grey Car Works resulting in 19 deaths and 23 people seriously injured. 16 people were killed in a fire in 1961 that started as a result of a cigarette butt being dropped down a rubbish chute.

Jefferson House history

Originally located at 36 Jefferson Street in Hartford, the Old People's Home of Hartford offered the "elderly an alternative to the county poorhouse." The Connecticut Legislature authorized the facility by a Special Act in 1873 and opened its doors in December 1, 1884. Connecticut public documents described the home:

PRIVATE PROVISION FOR THE AGED
THE OLD PEOPLE'S HOME HARTFORD
LA Sexton MD Superintendent ''The Old People's Home is under the same management as the Hartford Hospital and was organized by an act of the General Assembly in 1873. An attractive three storied building of brick and stone was erected for the use of the Home on Jefferson Street opposite the Hospital grounds, and has accommodations for seventy persons. The rooms are large and well furnished and everything is provided which will insure to the occupants the comforts of a well-appointed home. Religious services are held every Sunday afternoon from October to July in an attractive and convenient chapel at the west end of the building.'' ''Residents in the Home must be citizens of Connecticut persons of good character not under sixty five years of age and in reduced circumstances. For several years applicants for admission have exceeded so greatly the means of the Home to support them that it has been necssary icto make the entrance fee $1,000 for permanent inmates. A few boarders are received at $7.00 per week and the Home is well filled at all times.''

The name was changed to Jefferson House in 1953. The home cared for and honored its commitment under the old life-care concept until 1979 when the last original resident died. It cared for 662 patients from 1884 to 1979. A new facility was constructed and opened in Newington, Connecticut in 1980, as a short-term rehabilitation facility.

Services

Helicopter ambulance

Hartford Hospital operates Connecticut's only

air ambulance Air medical services is a comprehensive term covering the use of air transportation, aeroplane or helicopter, to move patients to and from healthcare facilities and accident scenes. Personnel provide comprehensive prehospital and emergency and cri ...

service, LIFE STAR, which began operation in 1985 and operates one American Eurocopter BK-117

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

and one American Eurocopter EC-145. One helicopter is based at MidState Medical Center in Meriden, CT. and another is based at affiliated Backus Hospital in Norwich, Connecticut. LIFE STAR provides patient care and inter-facility transport between hospitals in New England and New York. In addition, LIFE STAR provides advanced life support scene response and transport for the most critically injured and medically unstable patients in Connecticut. These patients are taken to Level I or Level II

trauma centers A trauma center (or trauma centre) is a hospital equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds. A trauma center may also refer to an emergenc ...

across the state according to state regulations. The program averages 1,400 patient transports per year and plays a vital role in providing speedy access to trauma care for patients in outlying, rural areas.

Hyperbaric chamber

Hartford Hospital operates the second largest multi-place hyperbaric chamber in the Northeastern United States, second only to Phelps Memorial Hospital Center, in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Capable of treating up to ten patients at one time, this chamber treats both chronic wounds and emergencies, such as

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...

and

Necrotizing Fasciitis Necrotizing fasciitis (NF), also known as flesh-eating disease, is a bacterial infection that results in the death of parts of the body's soft tissue. It is a severe disease of sudden onset that spreads rapidly. Symptoms usually include red or p ...

Jefferson House

Jefferson House is a department of Hartford Hospital that has provided long-term care and rehabilitation services to seniors in the greater Hartford area for more than 120 years. Jefferson House is 104-bed

long-term care facility A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to i ...

, and serves approximately 92 residents.

Medical education

Hartford Hospital has trained physicians for over 160 years, through its

residency Residency may refer to: * Domicile (law), the act of establishing or maintaining a residence in a given place ** Permanent residency, indefinite residence within a country despite not having citizenship * Residency (medicine), a stage of postgra ...

and

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

programs. A number of training programs are offered to newly graduated physicians ( MD and DO), each of which is accredited by the

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) is the body responsible for accrediting all graduate medical training programs (i.e., internships, residencies, and fellowships, a.k.a. subspecialty programs) for physicians in the ...

Hospital rating data

The HealthGrades website contains the clinical quality data for Heart of the Hartford Hospital, as of 2021. For this rating section three different types of data from HealthGrades are presented: clinical quality ratings for thirty-one inpatient conditions and procedures, twelve patient safety indicators and the percentage of patients giving the hospital as a 9 or 10 (the two highest possible ratings). For patient safety indicators, there are the same three possible ratings. For this hospital safety indicators were rated as: *Worse than expected - 1 *As expected - 9 *Better than expected - 3 Percentage of patients who would definitely recommend this hospital - 76% Percentage of patients who on average rank are 70% Percentage of patients rating this hospital as a 9 or 10 - 72% Percentage of patients who on average rank hospitals as a 9 or 10 - 69%HealthGrades website, https://www.healthgrades.com/hospital-directory/connecticut-ct/hartford-hospital-hgstc4a28d46070025 . An independent national watchdog organization has ranked Hartford Hospital an "A" Safety Grade for the fall of 2021 (LEAPFROG Hospital Safety Grade). Hartford Hospital was among only eight hospitals in the State to receive this ranking.

References

External links

Official Website
{{authority control Hospital buildings completed in 1854 Buildings and structures in Hartford, Connecticut Teaching hospitals in Connecticut 1854 establishments in Connecticut Trauma centers