Description
Tufts Medical Center is a downtown Boston hospital occupying space between Chinatown and the Boston Theater District.
The hospital is a center for biomedical research and is the principal teaching hospital for Tufts University School of Medicine where all full-time Tufts MC physicians hold faculty appointments; the center is connected to Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. Tufts Medical Center is subdivided into a full-service adult hospital and the Tufts Children's Hospital (originally a floating ship but presently on shore). Tufts Medical Center's president and CEO is Michael Tarnoff, MD. Tufts Medical Center is based in Boston, MA but also has satellite locations in areas including Quincy, Chelmsford, Framingham, and others. The hospital also has partnerships with Lawrence General Hospital and Lowell General Hospital and MelroseWakefield Hospital.
History
Tufts Medical Center's origins date back to 1796 when the Boston Dispensary was established as the first permanent medical facility in New England, and one of the first in the United States. Early donors included Paul Revere.
In 1894, the Boston Floating Hospital was established by a Congregational minister, the Rev. Rufus Tobey. At the time, many believed in the cleansing and therapeutic qualities of sea air to improve health, and Tobey had heard of a hospital ship for children in New York. For the next 33 years, two successive ships were home to the hospital for children in Boston Harbor. In 1931, after the second Floating Hospital for Children ship was destroyed in a fire, the hospital was relocated to a permanent building onshore.
New England Medical Center was established in 1930 as a union of the Boston Dispensary, the Boston Floating Hospital for Children, and the Trustees of Tufts College. The Pratt Diagnostic Clinic was added in 1946, and in 1950 when Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts University School of Dental Medicine relocated to Chinatown the name was expanded to New England Medical Center Hospital.
In 1968 it was renamed Tufts-New England Medical Center (Tufts-NEMC) to reflect the growing relationship between the hospital and the university. In 1970, the NEMC board met with the Tufts Trustees to outline a cooperative agreement which remained in effect until the late 1970s when tensions between the organizations resulted in "Tufts" being dropped from the name.
After a tense period of competition between the organizations during the 1980s, the NEMC board reached an agreement with the Tufts Trustees in 1991 and the name was changed back to Tufts-New England Medical Center. The affiliation agreement they adopted still stands. The children's hospital still reflects its legacy in its name: Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center.
Former Tufts Medical Center President and CEO Ellen Zane said the "added benefit of our new name is that it is shorter and easier to say and remember." The tag line for the advertising of the new name was "We've done a little surgery on our name."
Tufts University's president, Anthony P. Monaco, M.D., Ph.D., and TUSM Dean Harris M. Berman, M.D. serve on the Medical Center's Board, with Dr. Wagner serving on TUSM's Board of Advisors.
Tufts Medical Center is a partner with Tufts University in the Clinical and Translational Research Institute, funded by a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Strike
On July 12, 2017, approximately 1,200 nurses, who were members of the Massachusetts Nurses Association, went on a one-day strike to protest staffing levels, wages, and retirement benefits. The action became a lockout when some of the striking nurses were told they could not return to work for a period of four days.
