Bellevue Hospital

Bellevue Hospital, municipal hospital, in New York City. America's oldest public hospital, Bellevue developed from a "Publick Workhouse and House of Correction" commissioned in 1734. The establishment changed sites several times before 1811, when the site upon which it now stands was purchased. In 1860 the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, the first of its kind in the United States, was founded. The first nurses' training school in the United States was established there in 1873 and grew into one of the best-known nursing schools in the nation. The largest U.S. city hospital, Bellevue is a noted psychiatric therapy and research center. Other programs of note include radiation therapy and physical and occupational rehabilitation programs. Until 1968, Bellevue was affiliated with the medical schools of Columbia Univ. (from 1882), New York Univ. (1882), and Cornell Univ. (1898); in that year Columbia and Cornell withdrew, leaving the hospital in sole affiliation with the New York Univ. School of Medicine.