History and Description

Recognized internationally for its excellence in patient care, its outstanding reputation in biomedical research, and its commitment to educating and training physicians, research scientists and other health care professionals, Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is a 793-bed teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School located in the heart of Boston's renowned Longwood Medical Area. Along with its modern inpatient facilities, BWH boasts extensive outpatient services and clinics, neighborhood primary care health centers, state-of-the art diagnostic and treatment technologies and research laboratories.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has deep and rich roots in medicine that date back to 1832. BWH formed in 1980 with the unprecedented merger of three of Boston's oldest and most prestigious Harvard teaching hospitals: the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital, and the Boston Hospital for Women. BWH's strength as an academic medical center continually evolves but stays true to its mission of the highest quality patient care and service, teaching the next generation of caregivers, and cutting-edge research and discovery. Throughout BWH, innovation is encouraged, and its history and traditions are cherished. BWH is a founding member of Partners HealthCare System, the largest integrated health care delivery network in New England. A top recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health – with an annual research budget of more than $537 million – BWH is internationally known for its clinical, translational, bench, and population-based research studies, including the landmark Nurses Health Study, Physicians Health Studies, and the Women's Health Initiative.

BWH continues to build on the legacy of its predecessors. It has been ranked on US News and World Report's Honor Roll of America's best hospitals for 18 consecutive years, and in 2010 ranked 11th. BWH was also recently recognized by the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) for being one of five top performing academic medical centers in the country in a special quality and safety benchmarking study.

BWH is always growing – not only measured by its physical plants – but through the countless patients it cares for and serves each year. Annual statistics for BWH include:

• Inpatient admissions totaled approximately 46,000.
• Ambulatory visits grew to more than 3.5 million.
• The Emergency Department treated 59,000 patients.
• As New England's largest birthing center, and a regional leader in high-risk obstetrics and newborn care, approximately 9,000 babies are born annually at BWH, and the Newborn Intensive Care Unit cares for more than 1,300 infants annually.
• BWH employs more than 15,000 people; 3,000 physicians, fellows and residents; more than 1,000 researchers; and 2,800 nurses.

In addition to being the regional leader in preeminent women's health services, BWH is also one of the nation's leading transplant centers, performing heart, lung, kidney, and heart-lung transplant surgery, as well as bone marrow transplantation. BWH is also nationally recognized for clinical and research excellence in cardiovascular medicine, neurosciences, arthritis and rheumatic disorders, orthopedics and cancer care through the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center.