The first two steps towards the initiation of a five-point modernization and building program at the Montefiore Hospital here, which will cost $3,400,000, were announced today. The funds will be provided by the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York from its building fund, which was initiated in 1945 and will be continued in a campaign planned for this fall and winter.
The first two phases, involving a $900,000 program of modernization and repair, will be concentrated at the 639-bed hospital and its 230-patient sanatorium at Bedford Hills, N.Y. These phases will correct building deterioration and obsolescence and increase the hospital’s operating capacity. The hospital has undertaken the construction of two one-story wings. One of these units will house operating rooms to help meet the hospital’s surgical case load, which has Jumped from 800 in 1943 to 1,812 in 1948. The second building will contain X-ray facilities for diagnostic examinations, which rose from 10,000 six years ago to 40,000 last year.
The Montefiore Hospital is the nation’s only voluntary general hospital for the treatment of patients with prolonged illness, with the concept that so-called incurable diseases in many cases respond favorably to medical and surgical care.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
