As one of the largest medical facilities of NYC, Jacobi houses the Bronx's only burn unit and Level I trauma center.

With its easy access to highways, railways, navigable waterways and airports, Jacobi was built on a site ideally suited for use as a large war-time evacuation center, and its placement in an outer borough with plans calling for the creation of vast sub-basements were deliberate measures to avoid fallout from a possible nuclear attack.

Following several years of construction, Van Etten Hospital opened in September 1954 with 500 beds, named in honor of Dr. Nathan B.

[4] Although coincidental, Yeshiva University had at this same time secured a charter with the New York State Board of Regents to establish a new medical school.

When it came time for site selection, university advisers recommended establishment of the school adjacent to and affiliated with the new municipal hospital in the Bronx, construction of which was by then well underway.

As a result, an affiliation agreement was created between the new Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the hospital campus, a mutually beneficial teaching, research, and patient care relationship which continues to this day.

Van Etten, its chronic care affiliate, established several new protocols for the treatment of tuberculosis patients, most notably the eventual elimination of the face masks which had heightened patients' fear and isolation, and the establishment of the first Home Care Program for tuberculosis in NYC.

Jacobi neurologists isolated chemical markers which made it possible to identify carriers of Tay–Sachs disease, a deadly genetic disorder.

Over the course of the next few decades, Jacobi continued to make significant contributions, particularly in the areas of emergency medicine, trauma surgery, burn care, and AIDS research and treatment.

[11] The Jacobi Hyperbaric Medicine Service provides care for both inpatient and ambulatory patients in a large facility featuring a spacious, 23-foot long chamber.

Operating around the clock, the Hyperbaric Medicine Service provides life-saving care for burn patients and smoke inhalation injuries.

In addition, Jacobi is the designated New York City Referral Center for the Diver's Alert Network, providing emergency care for decompression sickness.

It also treats patients with gas gangrene and acute air embolism, and is widely used on an elective basis to promote wound healing from radiation injuries, compromised skin grafts, diabetic ulcers, and osteomyelitis.

[14] On January 25, 2022, at approximately 12:30 p.m., an armed man entered the hospital's emergency waiting room, reporting asthma issues.

[16] This, in part, helped the police arrest a man named Keber Martinez for the shooting shortly before midnight the same day.