Deborah Heart and Lung Center Celebrates 100th Anniversary

On May 19, 2022

Deborah Heart and Lung Center celebrated its 100th anniversary yesterday, marking the hospital’s founding in 1922, and subsequent incorporation the following year.

Deborah President and CEO Joseph Chirichella commented, “One hundred years ago, our founder Dora Moness Shapiro, was determined to help those who could not afford the cost of healthcare. Dora was a pioneer in healthcare, recognizing that health disparities create barriers to accessing care. This drive gave rise to a 100-year legacy of caring that has since allowed Deborah to heal 2.3 million patients, reaching patients from every state in the U.S. and from 87 countries throughout the world, without ever billing a patient for care provided at the hospital. These extraordinary statistics prove how one person’s dream to make the world a better place can create a powerful surge of immense good.”

He added, “Everyone who has worked here, volunteered at the hospital, or helped fundraise in support of the Deborah mission that allows for equal access for all patients, regardless of ability to pay, has played an important role in Deborah’s history. We are all so proud of the hospital we have helped create, and are proud to celebrate its 100th anniversary this year.”

The Deborah Story — 100 Years of Care

Deborah Heart and Lung Center was founded by New York City philanthropist Dora Moness Shapiro in 1922, as a place of healing for tuberculosis (TB) sufferers. Tuberculosis, caused by bacteria and easily spread from person to person, was rampant among New York City’s poor largely because of their living and working conditions, which were often cramped, with no indoor plumbing and improper ventilation. At the time, the only relief from TB was fresh air, a high calorie diet, and relaxation, so Shapiro sought a rural location within driving distance of New York City to provide refuge for those less-fortunate individuals who could otherwise not afford this care. Shapiro found her hospital in the “healing airs” of the Pine Barrens, purchasing a small group of cottages where a physician was already treating TB patients in Browns Mills, New Jersey. She then hired the physician, and soon Deborah was treating patients.

To fund her founding principle, “there is no price on life,” Shapiro in 1923 incorporated the Deborah Jewish Consumptive Relief Society, whose fundraising supported Shapiro’s vision that no patient would be turned away from care because they could not pay. One hundred years later, today’s Deborah Hospital Foundation — and its legion of volunteers — continues this tradition.

Transition to Heart and Lung Specialists

By the 1950s, antibiotics were widely used to treat TB. During a 30-year span, Deborah physicians and staff had become experts in treating diseases of the chest. Building on the Foundation that Shapiro built, Deborah transitioned from a tuberculosis sanatorium to a specialty hospital in 1957.

The hospital’s transformation into a world-class specialty heart and lung center was spearheaded by the work of Charles Bailey, MD. Dr. Bailey, a pioneering heart surgeon, performed the first open-heart surgeries in New Jersey on July 28, 1958 on a 36-year-old woman and 3-year-old boy.

In recognition of his revolutionary techniques, Dr. Bailey was featured on the cover of Time magazine in an article titled, “Inside the Heart, Newest Advances in Surgery,” which introduced the world to the work being done by Dr. Bailey at Deborah.

Providing Care to the Community

Over time, the hospital grew and expanded from a single cottage, to a 55-acre medical campus, with partner medical practices located in Atlantic, Burlington, Mercer, and Ocean counties in New Jersey, expanding access to care and adding services that relate to heart and lung disease, including vascular surgery, diabetes care, sleep medicine, wound care and rehabilitation services.

Additional milestones in the hospital’s expansion included the creation of a clinical research program in 1981, collaboration on the establishment of an emergency room in 2010, and the construction of a 60,000 square foot, 3-story medical office building in 2018 offering services needed in the community, including physical therapy, pharmacy, podiatric medicine, urgent and primary care, obstetrics and gynecology, pain management and a comprehensive ambulatory surgery center scheduled for opening in late 2022.

The Next 100 Years

Deborah has furthered its commitment to patients in the region, having commenced a $108 million capital investment project. Aimed at meeting quality of care, privacy and comfort standards consistent with the offerings of a world-class specialty hospital, the project recently began construction.

This project will result in the addition of three new floors to the main building of the hospital creating new all-private patient rooms, the renovation of existing patient rooms, and the addition of bedside technology and decentralized work stations for medical staff.

There are also plans for a new state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab, a new state-of-the-art electrophysiology lab and an updated pharmacy clean-room. Once completed, the investment in new infrastructure and inclusion of forward-looking technology positions Deborah Heart and Lung Center as a leader in care for the next 100 years.

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