Boston Medical Center

BMC was founded in July 1996 through the merger of Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center.[4] The merger also led to the creation of Boston HealthNet, a network of community health centers associated with BMC, and WellSense Health Plan, a Medicaid Managed Care Organization.

Boston City Hospital was the first municipal hospital in the United States, opening in 1864.[5] Boston University School of Medicine opened in 1873, combining the New England Female Medical College with the medical staff of the Massachusetts Homeopathic Hospital.[6]

In 2017, Boston Medical Center announced that it had received a $25 million gift, the largest in its history and the largest gift for substance use disorders for any hospital, from Eilene and John Grayken.[7] The donation created the Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine at BMC.

From 2015 through 2018, BMC undertook a campus redesign project to update clinical spaces, improve efficiencies, and better serve patients. This project included the closure of the Newton Pavilion and the relocation of the services previously in the building to other parts of the hospital campus.[8] In 2022, BMC began the second part of the campus redesign project to add 70 new inpatient beds, as well as outpatient clinical space.[9]

Boston Medical Center’s main campus is located in Boston’s historic South End. It serves patients from across the Greater Boston area at the main campus and through programs and services in the communities where its patients live.[10]

BMC offers care in four primary care practices (Adult Primary Care, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, and Geriatrics) and more than 70 specialties and subspecialties, including seven areas that have been named US News high performers.[11]

As a Level I Trauma Center, the hospital is the busiest center for trauma and emergency services in New England, and the 11th busiest emergency department in the U.S.[12] It additionally serves as the affiliate hospital for the nationally renowned Boston EMS, which provides emergency care for more than 650,000 nighttime and 1.2 million daytime residents of and visitors to Boston - responding to more than 125,000 calls each year.[13]

BMC provides care for a diverse patient population, with nearly 30% speaking a language other than English as their primary language. Of these patients, almost half speak Spanish, followed by Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, and Vietnamese. In order to ensure effective communication between the staff and patients, the hospital operates one of the oldest and most extensive interpreter services programs, utilizing 60 professional medical interpreters and language facilitators available to help patients in over 150 languages.[14]

BMC partners with 12 community health centers that provide outreach, prevention, primary care and specialty care, and dental services at sites located throughout Boston and in nearby communities.[15]

In 2022, BMC was the 18th largest recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health among independent U.S. hospitals, receiving over $334.4 million in annual research funding across the medical campus. The hospital’s researchers currently oversee 661 research projects, including both laboratory-based research and clinical research programs in a wide variety of areas.[16]

• Ryan, Andrew, "Old morgue finds new life as a clinic for homeless", The Boston Globe, May 31, 2008

• Boston Medical Center Documentary By Rachel Gotbaum. WBUR. 2006 audio documentary on the 10th anniversary of the merger, describing history and innovative programs of BMC. (RealAudio)