House of the Good Samaritan (Boston, Mass.)

The House of the Good Samaritan in Boston, Mass., was founded as a charitable hospital in 1860 by Anne Smith Robbins. It was established to care for chronically ill women and children who could not be helped in existing hospitals. It was the first hospital in Boston to admit patients with chronic illness. Under the leadership of Dr. Buckminster Brown, the House of the Good Samaritan opened the first orthopedic ward for children in the U.S. in 1864. In 1906 the Good Samaritan operated the first summer and winter tuberculosis camp in Massachusetts. By 1911 the city and state had taken over the responsibility for care of tuberculosis patients, so the Board of Managers voted to admit cancer patients, becoming the first hospital in Boston to admit women with incurable cancer. By 1929, the city and state provided facilities for the care of cancer, so the Good Samaritan again changed its focus to provide services to a group of patients for whom there was no existing care, children with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. In 1932 the Research Program for Rheumatic heart disease was started and the House of the Good Samaritan became known worldwide for its research into the cause and cure of the disease. In 1946 the Good Samaritan became affiliated with Children's Hospital, and on 15 Mar. 1967 it became legally incorporated into the Children's Hospital Medical Center.