About

A Hospital without Walls, the Primary Care Network

The Lutheran Medical Center and Lutheran Family Health Centers, a “network” of ambulatory care centers, encompass the Brooklyn communities of Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Park Slope, east Flatbush, and nearby areas. The goal is to provide community residents with comprehensive primary health care and education services which are culturally acceptable, accessible, and of the highest quality. The network comprises nine family-oriented health centers and multiple sites hosting special award winning programs in school health, adult education, early childhood activities, maternal and child health, mental health, alcohol and substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS services.

A Mission to Serve

With a continuing commitment to the highest standards of care, Lutheran Medical Center, a part of Lutheran HealthCare, believes that our primary reason for being is to serve our neighbors. Through values reflecting compassion, dignity, integrity, and service, Lutheran affirms its dedication to care for its neighbors and new immigrants. We define health as the total well-being of the community and its residents.

A Commitment to Community and Education

Founded in 1883 by Norwegian Lutheran Deaconess-Nurse, Sister Elisabeth Fedde, Lutheran HealthCare built a tradition of community service dedicated to compassionate care for struggling new immigrants in a neighborhood economically based on the Brooklyn waterfront. Lutheran works in partnership with its neighbors, each relying on the other as friends who care about and assist each other.

Lutheran HealthCare has achieved its goal to become a nationally recognized community-based teaching health care system. It includes Lutheran Medical Center–a 476 bed, Level I trauma hospital, the Augustana Lutheran Nursing Home, an innovative managed care program, the comprehensive Family Health Centers, and many outreach programs that are models in education, clinical care, and community service.

The Medical Center is the heart of a health system that anticipates and meets the rapidly changing needs of a multicultural community. Lutheran Medical Center, as part of an integrated health care system, understands a hospital not as just a collection of buildings, machines, and beds but as a staff of talented, creative, and committed people who serve the community as needed. Lutheran’s staff is culturally sensitive and linguistically competent, and many live in and near the communities it serves. At the same time, Lutheran developed an equal commitment to excellence in health professions education. In recent decades, Lutheran aggressively volunteered as a significant corporate presence in the community to stimulate renewal and constructive change, and to advocate for the health and well being of an entire urban area, Southwest Brooklyn.

A History of Breaking Boundaries

The Lutheran Medical Center Department of Dental Medicine is the nucleus for four postgraduate residency programs accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation of the American Dental Association. Organizationally, the department functions as a hospital-based multi-specialty interdisciplinary group practice. The General Practice Residency Program began in 1974; the Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry in 1988; the Advanced Specialty Education Program in Pediatric Dentistry in 1994. These programs started traditionally at Lutheran but evolved over time to reflect more effectively the mission of the hospital. Capitalizing on the Medical Center’s commitment to community service, oral health care and residency experiences moved beyond the hospital to the Lutheran Family Health Centers. The move occurred decades ahead of current trends. The network is one of the largest and most comprehensive dental programs of any community health center in the country. In 2005, the department added to its mix an Advanced Specialty Education Program in Endodontics.

For more than a decade, the Department of Dental Medicine has strengthened its commitment to care for underserved and never-served communities by forging alliances with community health centers and other providers beyond the New York metropolitan area. These alliances serve as catalysts for developing exciting models for residency training in general and pediatric dentistry. Residents in the Advanced Specialty Education Program in Pediatric Dentistry may choose to study in Brooklyn, NY; St. Joseph Hospital Pediatric Dental Center in Providence, RI; or the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, AK. Residents in the Advanced Education Program in General Dentistry (AEGD) may elect educational options in community health centers, private group practices, and Indian Health Service units in New York City and upstate New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maryland, Tennessee, Mississippi, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawai`i. Lutheran continuously explores new opportunities that may provide enriching educational experiences for residents.