The hospital's main campus is located in Boston's
West End, surrounded by various
Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) buildings. MEEI and MGH are both Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals; the MGH departments of Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology are actually departments at MEEI, and both hospitals tend to refer patients to one another. Despite this organizational and physical closeness, MEEI is a separate organization from MGH, with its own Board of Directors and executive team. notwithstanding this distinction, maps will often show the entire area labeled as "Massachusetts General Hospital". However, they are both members of
Mass General Brigham. Consisting of a 13-story tower (12 numbered floors + the S (Surgical) Floor), the current main building was completed in 1973. It houses 42 inpatient beds. The transit stop serving the two hospitals is "
Charles/MGH" on the MBTA
Red Line train. The signs at the train station (which was rebuilt and opened in 2007) have smaller printing reading "Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary" in addition to the prominent "Charles/MGH" signs, and "Mass Eye and Ear Infirmry" is announced in some newer trains.
C. Stephen Foster developed the first ocular immunology service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. The main campus is also home to the Norman Knight Hyperbaric Medicine Center, which provides 24-hour emergency treatment for smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning, and diving injuries such as decompression sickness ("the bends"). Treatment for problem-wound healing is also conducted in the center. ==History==