National Jewish Health is a Denver, Colorado academic hospital/clinic doing research and treatment in respiratory, cardiac, immune and related disorders. It is an internationally respected medical center that draws people from many countries to receive care. Founded in 1899 to treat
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
,
[National Jewish Hospital Records](_blank)
"University of Denver" it is
non-sectarian
Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group.
Academic sphere
Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian include Adelp ...
but had funding from
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peopl ...
until the 1950s.
The hospital, originally named as the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives has been renamed many times, including as National Jewish Hospital (1925-1964), National Jewish Hospital and Research Center (1965-1977), National Jewish Hospital and Research Center/National Asthma Center (following a 1978 merger with the National Asthma Center), National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine (1986-1996). and National Jewish Medical and Research Center (1997-2008). In July 2008, it was renamed National Jewish Health.
Tuberculosis brings people to Colorado
By the late 19th century,
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
and the
American Southwest
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, N ...
had become famous for the health benefits of a dry, sunny climate. At that time, the only known treatment for
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
was clean air and sunshine and hundreds of people with tuberculosis descended upon Denver in hopes of finding a miracle cure for what was then the nation’s leading cause of death. Consequently, many people with tuberculosis spent their last dollars coming to Colorado. By the 1890s, it was estimated that one out of every three residents of the state was there for
respiratory
The respiratory system (also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for gas exchange in animals and plants. The anatomy and physiology that make this happen varies grea ...
reasons. However, no facilities existed to provide treatment or shelter to these victims. In Denver, victims of tuberculosis were literally dying in the streets as
boarding houses often banned "lungers," as they were called.
Planning and building, 1893
It was obvious that the Denver community at large was not sympathetic to the plight of tuberculosis sufferers, and many, including prominent Denver resident
Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Frances Wisebart Jacobs (March 29, 1843 – November 3, 1892) was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Jewish Bavarian immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She married Abraham Jacobs, the partner of her brother Jacob, and came west with him ...
stated that "we can't blacken the name of the city" by making it a refuge for those with tuberculosis.
Frances Wisebart Jacobs, known as "Mother of Charities", recognized the need for a tuberculosis hospital. After joining forces with a young rabbi, William Sterne Friedman, the two raised enough money to buy some land and erect a building.
On October 9, 1892, the hospital’s cornerstone was laid and drew huge crowds. "The exercises yesterday were attended by several thousand people of all denominations, and the cable and electric car lines were taxed to full capacity, while the route to the site was lined with carriages."
The original hospital was completed (but not yet opened) in 1893 and was to be named the "Francis Wisebart Jacobs Hospital" after its founder, but she died of pneumonia before the hospital opened.
["The Birth of a Hospital", by Milton Louis Anfenger, 1942, Milton L. Anfenger publisher]
Due to the combination of the "
Silver Crisis of 1893" and a
national depression, the hospital did not open and sat vacant for six years until Rabbi Friedman approached
B'nai B'rith
B'nai B'rith International (, from he, בְּנֵי בְּרִית, translit=b'né brit, lit=Children of the Covenant) is a Jewish service organization. B'nai B'rith states that it is committed to the security and continuity of the Jewish peopl ...
, a national
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
organization, and persuaded them to raise the required operating funds on an
annual
Annual may refer to:
* Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year
**Yearbook
** Literary annual
* Annual plant
* Annual report
* Annual giving
* Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco
* Annuals (b ...
basis.
Early operation 1899-1950s
When the hospital opened on December 10, 1899, it had a new name; National Jewish Hospital for Treatment of Consumptives (consumption is an old name for tuberculosis that describes how the
contagious
Contagious may refer to:
* Contagious disease
Literature
* Contagious (magazine), a marketing publication
* ''Contagious'' (novel), a science fiction thriller novel by Scott Sigler
Music
Albums
*''Contagious'' (Peggy Scott-Adams album), 1997
* ...
illness
wastes away or consumes its victims). B'nai B'rith continued to support the hospital until the early 1950s.
Despite its name, National Jewish treats all comers and emphasizes giving care to those who can't pay. At the ground-breaking on October 9, 1892, it was noted that "…''
ain
Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where it ...
knows no
creed
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
The ea ...
, so is this building the prototype of the grand idea of
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...
, which casts aside no stranger no matter of what
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
or
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...
. We consecrate this structure to humanity, to our suffering fellowman, regardless of creed''."
National Jewish adopted the motto: "''None may enter who can pay -- none can pay who enter''"
The hospital opened with a capacity of 60 patients with the goal of treating 150 patients a year.
In the beginning, a six-month limit on patient stays was imposed and only patients in the early stages of tuberculosis were to be accepted. In reality, however, many chronic sufferers were admitted and, after a few months, they lifted the six-month limit.
Treatment of tuberculosis at the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives was in line with other turn-of-the-20th-century
sanatoria
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...
: plenty of fresh air, plenty of food, moderate exercise, and close scrutiny of every aspect of patients' lives. Good food was very apropos: even today poor nutrition is a risk factor for tuberculosis.
Patients could expect to sleep outside, or with their heads outside, every night, and were all but gorged with food. In 1911, the annual report records that $3,631 was spent on eggs (roughly $94,888.89 in 2016) for just 120 patients.
Asthma and allergies, 1950s- present time
In the mid-1950s National Jewish Hospital maintained its tuberculosis work and built on its pulmonary focus to branch out into asthma and related respiratory ailments. About mid-century, the hospital had the nation's only large inpatient program for adults with asthma; a pediatric program was added in the 1960s.
["Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology"]
"1989; 83:17-25"
In 1978, the hospital, then called the National Jewish Hospital and Research Center, merged with the National Asthma Center (NAC). The NAC had originally been founded in 1907 as a home for Jewish children of tuberculosis patients, changed its name in 1928 to the National Home for Jewish Children in Denver, in 1953 to the Jewish National Home for Asthmatic Children at Denver and in 1957 to the Children's Asthma Research Institute and Hospital (CARIH). In 1973, the name National Asthma Center was adopted. At the time of the merger, it was a national residential treatment facility for children with intractable asthma and a research hospital.
Present mission
National Jewish Health has no formal ties to any religious or quasi-religious institution and gets no funding from B'nai B'rith. Until 1968, the institution only accepted patients without
health insurance
Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...
; all care was free. Care is still free or heavily
subsidized
A subsidy or government incentive is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from the government, the ter ...
.
''U.S. News & World Report'' has ranked National Jewish Health as #1 or #2 every year that the pulmonology category has been included in the rankings (since 1997). Of those years, National Jewish Health has been ranked in the #1 spot for 17 of those years as the leading U.S. respiratory hospital.
Current departments include:
*
Allergy
Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derma ...
*
Asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...
*
Behavioral Health
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health ...
*
Cardiology
Cardiology () is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart d ...
*
Environmental
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
and
Occupational Health
Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at wor ...
*
Gastroenterology
Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- “belly”, -énteron “intestine”, and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract ...
*
Immunology
Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see there ...
*
Mycobacterial
''Mycobacterium'' is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae. This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis ('' M. tuberculosis'') and ...
and
Infectious Disease
An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...
*
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...
*
Pathology
Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...
*
Pulmonology
Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek suffix "study of"), pneumology (, built on Greek πνεύμων "lung") or pneumonology () is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract. ...
*
Radiology
Radiology ( ) is the medical discipline that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide their treatment, within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiat ...
*
Rheumatology
Rheumatology (Greek ''ῥεῦμα'', ''rheûma'', flowing current) is a branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis and management of disorders whose common feature is inflammation in the bones, muscles, joints, and internal organs. Rheumatolog ...
*
Sleep Medicine
Sleep medicine is a medical specialty or subspecialty devoted to the diagnosis and therapy of sleep disturbances and sleep disorder, disorders. From the middle of the 20th century, research has provided increasing knowledge and answered many ...
The hospital operate
Morgridge Academyon its main campus for kindergarten through eighth-grade children who are challenged with chronic illness.
Th
smoking cessation program has helped millions of people via internet and phone to quit tobacco.
These are among National Jewish's collaborations with health care institutions:
Saint Joseph Hospital Denver
Mount Sinai - National Jewish Health Respiratory Institute New York
Philadelphia
People
*
Rabbi William S. Friedman
*
Frances Wisebart Jacobs
Frances Wisebart Jacobs (March 29, 1843 – November 3, 1892) was born in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, to Jewish Bavarian immigrants and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She married Abraham Jacobs, the partner of her brother Jacob, and came west with him ...
*
Kimishige Ishizaka
was a Japanese immunologist who, with his wife Teruko Ishizaka, discovered the antibody class Immunoglobulin E (IgE) in 1966–1967. Their work was regarded as a major breakthrough in the understanding of allergy. He was awarded the 1973 Gairdn ...
, PhD and his wife
Teruko Ishizaka
was a Japanese scientist and immunologist who along with her husband Kimishige Ishizaka discovered the antibody class Immunoglobulin E (IgE) in 1966. Their work was regarded as a major breakthrough in the understanding of allergy, and for this ...
MD
*
John Kappler, PhD
*
Philippa Marrack
Philippa "Pippa" Marrack, FRS (born 28 June 1945) is an English immunologist and academic, based in the United States, best known for her research and discoveries pertaining to T cells. Marrack is the Ida and Cecil Green Professor and chair of ...
, PhD
*
Seraphine Eppstein Pisko
*
Cecile Rose, MD
*
Andrew Speaker
Accomplishments
* Ranked as one of the top two hospitals in pulmonology every year since ''U.S. News & World Report'' included this category in its annua
“Best Hospitals”survey
* Ranked in the top 1 percent of hospitals in the nation b
HCAHPS* Among the top 8 percent of organizations funded for research by th
NIH providing patients access to the latest clinical trials
See also
*
Asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...
*
Atopic dermatitis
Atopic dermatitis (AD), also known as atopic eczema, is a long-term type of inflammation of the skin (dermatitis). It results in puritis, itchy, red, swollen, and cracked skin. Clear fluid may come from the affected areas, which often thickens o ...
*
COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce mu ...
*
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a rare genetic disorder that affects mostly the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. Long-term issues include difficulty breathing and coughing up mucus as a result of frequent lung infections. O ...
*
NTM
*
Tuberculosis management
Tuberculosis management describes the techniques and procedures utilized for treating tuberculosis (TB).
The medical standard for active TB is a short course treatment involving a combination of isoniazid, rifampicin (also known as Rifampin), py ...
References
External links
National Jewish HealthSaint Joseph Hospital Denver
Mount Sinai - National Jewish Health Respiratory Institute New York
Philadelphia
''Who Speaks for the Negro'' Vanderbilt documentary website
{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1899
Hospitals in Colorado
Jewish medical organizations
Jews and Judaism in Colorado
Tuberculosis sanatoria in the United States
Buildings and structures in Denver
1899 establishments in Colorado