It was intended to provide more accessible and personal health care to the surrounding communities of Williamsburg, Fort Greene, Bushwick, Greenpoint, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.

[5] The hospital was named after Richard M. Woodhull, the original landowner of the immediate area and credited with having laid out the Village of Williamsburg into an actual city.

[6] In 2018, the hospital's emergency room served nearly 110,000 patients and received $5 million in capital funds to add 5,000 square feet.

Later that year, Woodhull was granted full accreditation after New York City's Health and Hospitals Corporation appealed that decision and corrected most of its deficiencies.

By 2002, Woodhull had completely reversed its poor inspection findings of the 1990s, receiving the highest scores assigned to any hospital, public or private, and fully complying with standards for quality patient care and safety.