USA > Illinois > Cook County > Growth of Cook County; a history of the large lake-shore county that includes Chicago, Vol. I > Part 16
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This prompted Clayton F. Smith, then board president, to appoint a citizens committee to look into the hospital situation. The committee's report, submitted after a year's study, included rec- ommendations that were strikingly similar, even in wording, to those made by the newspaper. Major physical improvements at County hospital followed, even tho money still was scarce because the depres- sion had not yet ended.
FRANK SMITH Another was the series printed by the Chicago Tribune dur- ing March of 1955 in which Reporter Robert Wiedrich graph- ically described County hospital conditions, both good and bad.
This added to the mounting pressure for improvements, as did other analytical stories written by Edward D. "Dynamite" Sokol of the Chicago American, Thomas Buck and Ray Quisno of the Tribune, and Joe Weresch, Robert Herguth, and Jack Lind of the Chicago Daily News.
Other newspaper reporters whose writings at one time or another within recent years have contributed to improvements at County hospital have been Robert Rankin of the Sun-Times, Marjorie Minsk, Pearl Rubins and Sy Adelman of the City News Bureau, and the modest (?) author of this history who
1. Frank Smith, 56, famed reporter and war correspondent, died Jan. 10, 1960, shortly after this history had gone to press. This historian, feeling keenly the loss of a close personal friend and former newspaper cohort, was glad he had shown Smith, in advance, the manuscript of this book. Always appreciative, Frank thanked the author for the above mention.
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has covered County affairs for some 28 years as a reporter for the City News Bureau and the original Chicago Sun, and later as public relations director for the county board.
Nor should one fail to mention the science writers, such as Roy Gibbons of the Tribune, Robert S. Kleckner of the Sun- Times, and Arthur J. Snider of the News. Late in 1958, in fact, Snider carried a series of articles on Psychopathic hospital, which is a division of County hospital.
The Snider articles were proclaimed by many, including President Ryan and Dr. Vladimir G. Urse, superintendent at Psychopathic, as being "constructive and exceptionally well written." An outgrowth of the Snider series was the renaming of the Psychopathic hospital.
On Feb. 2, 1959, the county board adopted a resolution introduced by President Ryan, changing the institution's name
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Recuperating from illnesses, these young patients at Children's hospital (division of County hospital) are happy to be entertained by their visitor, Fran Allison of radio and TV fame.
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to the Cook County Hospital Mental Health Clinic. The Ryan resolution explained:
"A definite social consciousness and awareness of the un- favorable connotation which attaches to the present name of the hospital has developed in recent years, and has led to the general thought and feeling that a much better public reac- tion would be obtained if the name were changed."
New Outpatient Clinic
Among immediate plans for County hospital improvements, to be paid for with proceeds from the sale of the 1957 bond issue of $12,800,000, is a four-story, new Fantus outpatient clinic.
Costing an estimated $3,500,000 when fully equipped, it will provide for 400,000 outpatient visits a year and will re- place the present, outmoded and inadequate Fantus clinic (519 S. Wolcott st.) which provides but 200,000 outpatient visits annually. Contracts for construction of the new building were awarded by the county board on April 28, 1959, work was to start immediately, and the structure was expected to be com- pleted within about 18 months.
Its plans (see accompanying picture ) were drawn by Richard W. Prendergast, county architect, following many conferences with President Ryan, Warden Fred Hertwig of County hos- pital, and Dr. Karl A. Meyer, medical superintendent of all county institutions.
The building will have its entrance at 621 S. Winchester ave., altho one wing of the L-shaped structure will face on Harrison st., one-half block west of the main building at County hospital.
"Outpatients," Ryan explained, "are the destitute ill who are in need of medical treatment, but who are not sufficiently ill to be accorded bed space in our always overcrowded County hospital."
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Architect's sketch of forthcoming new Fantus Outpatient Clinic for County hospital, expected to be completed by late 1960.
The clinic is named in honor of the celebrated Dr. Bernard Fantus, now deceased, who, as a County hospital doctor, in 1937 established at the hospital the first blood bank in America.
Recently another project of magnitude was being pro- pounded. The medical staff at County hospital recommended a new, $5,000,000 laboratory for County hospital. Dr. Meyer, proposing it, said:
"We, as one of the great teaching hospitals, need such a laboratory. Otherwise we could become a second rate hospital. If we are going to stand in the vanguard of progressive medi- cine, we must have better laboratory facilities."
Dr. Meyer said the laboratory could be built on the site of the old McCormick building on Wood street, across from County hospital's main building. The McCormick structure, county owned, comprises a portion of the Hektoen research institute. Hektoen, Dr. Meyer said, would not suffer because plans are afoot to enlarge the Durand building portion of the institute with privately collected funds.
County hospital, at present, uses county morgue facilities as
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a research laboratory, but these over-crowded quarters are needed by the coroner for autopsies, some 600 of which are performed yearly in suspected criminal cases.
"The coroner actually should perform from 3,000 to 4,000 autopsies a year," Dr. Meyer declared. "We do not know but what a few of the deaths, now written off as natural causes, were actually criminal."
President Ryan said that if the proposed laboratory is to be constructed, its cost must be borne from the proceeds of a future bond issue, yet to be submitted to the voters for approval.1
Consultant Retained
In August of 1958 the county board retained Julian W. Baer, personnel management consultant, who resides in Evan- ston, to make job studies at the Cook County School of Nurs- ing, and later directed him to make similar studies at County hospital.
Early in 1959 it was indicated that Baer, with a small staff, might eventually be assigned to make similar studies at Oak Forest hospital and possibly in all other county institutions and departments. If the Baer group makes a complete job reclassification thruout the county, the study could take three or four years, it was said.
In explaining the retention of Baer, Commissioner John J. Duffy, chairman of the board's finance committee, stated:
"Cook county's activities have grown to such enormous pro- portions that an elected commissioner no longer has time to properly analyze the thousands of detailed operations within departments. We need studies and specific reports and recom- mendations to guide us in establishing policies of conduct and in preparing our annual budgets."
1. An additional $9,500,000 in County hospital improvement bonds was ap- proved at public referendum Nov. 3, 1959, thereby assuring construction of the laboratory, together with other needed improvements.
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As a further aid in this activity the county board, in adopt- ing its 1959 corporate (housekeeping) budget, created a budgetary division within the county comptroller's office.
This new division, costing $70,000 the first year, and em- ploying a staff of 10 budget analysts and other personnel, was to be under the able direction of Chief Deputy County Comp- troller Charles R. Hodgman. ,
Working in conjunction with the Baer group, it was to supply detailed information of all types to the finance committee which prepares the county's annual budgets.
Creation of the budgetary divi- sion met with the approval of the Civic Federation, watchdog over public expenditures.
"This group can perform a serv- C. R. (DICK) HODGMAN Deputy County Comptroller ice greatly needed by the county," declared Joseph V. O'Neil, director of public relations for the federation.
O'Neil, sometimes termed by board members as the county's "sixteenth commissioner," recommended, however, that the division at some future date be placed directly under the super- vision of the president of the county board rather than under the comptroller.
The Illinois Training School For Nurses and The Cook County School Of Nursing
Prior to 1880 County hospital nurses, mostly untrained, were selected at random and nursing service was poor. That year, however, the board of commissioners of Cook county authorized the newly formed Illinois Training School for
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Nurses to use County hospital facilities in the training of nurses and, in return, the school was to supply the nursing staff for the hospital. This the school did until September of 1929 when it transferred its properties and records to the University of Chicago and discontinued operating as a school.
Successor to The Illinois Training School for Nurses was the present Cook County School of Nursing. Relationship of this School of Nursing to County hospital is somewhat unique. The school is operated by a board of 36 directors, all out- standing citizens who donate their services.
Each year the board of commissioners of Cook county con- tracts with the school's board of directors for the school to furnish the nursing service for County hospital, and the county, in turn, appropriates the money with which to operate and maintain the school, the Nurses Residence, and pay the salaries of all employed by the school.
The 1959 appropriation for this purpose was $10,351,563 and the number employed by the school was 2361.
Annual budget hearings conducted by the county board's finance committee, of which Commissioner John J. Duffy is chairman, in the past have been marked by lengthy and some- times heated debates in which representatives of the school plead for greatly increased appropriations. The county com- missioners, while granting increases that are absolutely neces- sary to meet rising costs, always point out that it is the tax- payers' money they are spending, and there is a limit to what taxpayers can afford.
The result at times has been an uneasy truce, but the school continues to operate and supply excellent nursing service, and its able administrators manage in friendly fashion to "make do" with the funds appropriated.
Executive director of the school is Robert S. Petersen. Miss Frances L. A. Powell is in charge of nursing service and nursing education. O. H. Ehrhardt, Jr. is business manager.
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In 1959 the members of the school's board of directors were:
Helmer A. Melum, president
Virgil Martin
Edwin C. Austin (PP) Stuart S. Ball Hamilton K. Beebe
John J. McDonough
George B. Mckibbin (PP)
Dr. Karl A. Meyer
Brownell T. Bradstreet
Mrs. John Nash Ott, Jr.
Robert J. Bushelle
Ross I. Parker
Mrs. William B. Campbell
Mrs. Graham Penfield (PP)
Philip R. Clarke, Jr.
Charles A. Rovetta (PP)
Mrs. Thomas R. Coyne
Dr. H. N. Sanford
Mrs. John Dern
Warren F. Sarle
Mrs. H. C. Dormitzer
Arthur W. Schultz
Fletcher M. Durbin
Albert L. Seidel (PP)
Anthony Eastman
R. J. Spaeth
Mrs. N. Maury Goodloe (AM)
Walter F. Straub
Mrs. Joseph O. Hanson
Mrs. Frank Sulzberger
Fred A. Hertwig (AM)
Reuben Thorson
Edwin R. Keeler (PP)
Mrs. Ernest B. Tomlinson
Alfred D. Kohn
Miss Zella von Gremp
Mrs. Bruce MacLeish
Mrs. Frances B. Watkins
Note: PP denotes past president, HM, honorary member, and AM, associate member.
Because both the Illinois Training School for Nurses and its successor, the Cook County School of Nursing, have played such an important part in the successful operation of County hospital, this chapter concerning the world's largest hospital would not be complete without a brief history of these notable schools.
For this account we are indebted to Miss Mary E. Reglin, a divisional administrator of the Cook County School of Nurs- ing of which she was a 1935 graduate.
Miss Reglin gathered most of her facts while obtaining her master of arts degree in nursing education at the University of Chicago in 1952. Her account was publicized in mimeo- graph form by the Cook County School of Nursing when that institution celebrated in 1955 the 25th anniversary of its founding.
We do not personally vouch for the correctness of Miss Reglin's account, but it bears all the earmarks of authenticity and is well done. Having obtained Miss Reglin's kind per- mission, we are happy to reproduce the principal portions of her manuscript. They follow:
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The Illinois Training School For Nurses 1880 - 1929
The history of this School has been told completely and most interestingly by a graduate of the Class of 1891, Mrs. Grace Fay Schryver, in her book A History of the Illinois Training School for Nurses. The reading of that book should be a must for every graduate of that School. And all those persons in the medical and allied fields associated with Cook County Hospital from 1881 on will find the history an en- lightening and entertaining account of accomplishments and vicissitudes of the School and of its success measured in terms of the activities of its graduates and the value of the School's contribution to the care of patients in Cook County Hospital.
The Illinois Training School was created through the efforts of a small group of civic-minded women who recog- nized the need for the city of Chicago to provide skilled nursing service to the community. That group, ably abetted by the interested efforts of other prominent citizens, obtained a charter from the State of Illinois, September 15, 1880, for "The Illinois Training School for Nurses" with the stated purpose-" ... to train skilled nurses and furnish them to the sick or wounded."
The first problem was to gain use of some of the wards in the hospital for a practice field. The County Commissioners were very cool to the suggestion; the warden quite opposed. The ladies of the Board created an Advisory Board of promi- nent business and professional men and through the efforts of one of the new members, Dr. DeLaskie Miller, obtained the endorsement of the Chicago Medical Society. Dr. D. A. K. Steele, Dr. Christian Fenger and Dr. S. O. Jacobson of the hospital Medical Staff were invited to join the Advisory Board-and did so.
This is a portion of the letter from the Board of Managers sent to the Cook County Commissioners.
"To the Honourable Board of Commissioners of Cook County Gentlemen :
"For the benefit of those (members of the Hospital Com- mittee ) opposed, and in order that we may stand rightly
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before your Board . . . we would like to state explicitly what would be our attitude towards those in authority al- ready there.
"We should come in with the expectation of creating for your use in the hospital, a better corps of nurses than those you already have.
"As there seems to be some opposition to our entering the male wards, we will content ourselves with a female medical ward and a female surgical. In those wards, your warden himself admits that the nurses now employed are indifferent and inefficient. We would substitute for those, skilled nurses, if you give us the opportunity of training them in those wards. We will pledge ourselves to be governed by the laws already established in the Hospital, and to conform to all its rules. Our Superintendent shall be subordinate to your Warden in all matters pertaining to hospital rule, and we bind ourselves to be a peaceable, and not a disturbing element in the order prevailing there.
"With regard to the appointing power of nurses, we must claim that power in reference to our own students. We are proposing to build up a system for training skilled nurses that will greatly benefit not only Cook County Hospital but the City of Chicago itself. In doing so we assume a great re- sponsibility. It is but fair and reasonable then that we select for ourselves the material to be used. Applications will come to us from various sources, and those young women presented to our notice by any of your Honorable Board, or by the Warden of the Hospital, shall receive especial consideration. But we must not be made to accept applicants of whom our judgment disapproves we must reserve to ourselves the power of deciding in' our own school what applicants shall be received on probation W'e regard this as the key to the entire situation, and we must yield it to none if we would make our plan a success
1880 In December Ward A in Pavilion 2 (a female surgical) and Ward C in Pavilion 3 (male medical) were granted the School.
First superintendent Mary E. Brown was called from the Bellevue Training School where she had
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been Assistant Superintendent. Thus was launched the Illinois Training School-first nurses training school West of Buffalo.
Since the Commissioners agreed to pay the School that first year only what the former, untrained at- tendants received, the Board of Managers had to seek funds from their own group, other Civic and phil- anthropic organizations to pay salaries, purchase hous- ing, etc. Moneys accrued to the Board those first ten years from such sources and from a modest bond issue and from the School conducting nursing services in other hospitals. The County paid no more than fifty dollars per ward-in fact $850.00 for ten wards, which could in no manner support the School.
1882
Letters of commendation for nursing services given to patients were sent to the Second Annual Board Meeting by such staff doctors as Moses Gunn, Ralph N. Ishom, Charles Adams, D. A. K. Steele, Chris- tian Fenger, and an especially grateful letter from Warden J. H. Dixon.
1885
The Illinois Training School furnished nursing service to Presbyterian Hospital and the Illinois Train- ing School students thereby received experience in a private hospital. In all the Illinois Training School operated Presbyterian Hospital nursing service for eighteen years.
1891
First annual contract signed between the Cook County Commissioners and the Board of Managers of the Illinois Training School.
1892
Illinois Training School received a $50,000 legacy from the John Crerar estate. They used some of the money to establish a Charity Nursing fund-to give private duty care at home to patients without funds.
1893
The Cook County Hospital opened a wing for Contagious diseases and in 1894 asked the Illinois Training School to take over the care of patients.
1893
The Illinois Training School participated in ex- hibiting a model hospital during the Columbian Ex- position. At the close of the Fair the Illinois Women's
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Exposition Board presented the School with much of the equipment, thus giving the Illinois Training School its first complete and modern diet kitchen for teaching.
1896
Three year course was adopted. From the first the curriculum had been of the foremost for nursing schools of the time with heavy emphasis on the physi- cal and biological sciences.
1900
Post-graduate courses of study and experience were offered to graduate nurses.
1902
Dr. Joseph De Lee of Chicago Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary offered the School a three month affiliation for their students in obstetrics at Lying-in. That affiliation endured twenty years.
1904
The Illinois Training School took over nursing care in the new 150 bed Contagious Hospital.
1905
First opened an affiliation program to help smaller schools meet demands of State registration.
1907
$40,000 from Crerar Fund used to build new Resi- dence at 308 Honore Street. Increasing number of nurses necessitated renting additional quarters.
1907
The School established a Central Diet Kitchen within the Hospital-with a graduate dietitian and student nurses for experience to prepare and serve all special diets.
1908
The Nursing Service took over Women's Receiving Room; in 1909 the Tuberculosis Hospital.
1908
The Illinois Training School placed graduate nurses, at the request of the Hospital, in Detention Hospital (later called Psychopathic Hospital), to supervise the nursing care and civil service attendants. That prac- tise was discontinued in 1915 when all personnel in that building went under civil service.
1910
Properties later known as "509" South Honore were purchased.
1911
The organization and direction of Social Service was given to the School.
1912-
1913
A particularly prolonged and involved skirmish between the Board of Directors and Cook County Commissioners over the budget occurred. Legal action
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prompted by public opinion forced the latter to pay back deficits on contract, when the School Board an- nounced they would have to withdraw their services for lack of funds.
1913 Census of the Illinois Training School
43-School officers (including head nurses and Home Director )
3-special instructors (chemistry, bacteriology and ยท massage )
4-medical examiners
25-medical lecturers
142-Illinois Training School students plus 7 on affiliation
10-probationer students
15-affiliating students
20-graduate nurse students
230-graduate nurses in the hospital 28-orderlies
18-attendants
538 personnel (student and employed )
1916
The Board purchased the site of the present Resi- dence-on Polk Street. Miss Wheeler and members of the Board almost succeeded in persuading business, professional, civic and educative organizations to ap- prove and support a Central College of Nursing Education to replace the Illinois Training School. War intervened.
1917
Many Illinois Training School graduates served well in the Spanish-American War and World War I; many were awarded military decorations by their own and foreign governments.
1917
Thirty-six middle western schools of nursing affili- ated at the Illinois Training School. Each affiliate student was there four months or more and had at least five hours of theory per week.
1914- 1918
The Illinois Training School furnished all nurses to Oak Park Hospital and from 1918-25 the Illinois Training School furnished all nurses to Highland
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Park Hospital.
1918
The Illinois Training School students affiliated at Dunning (now Chicago State Hospital).
1918
In a five week period 2041 influenza patients were admitted to County, of whom 681 died. Class work was suspended. Forty nurses developed influenza; six died.
1920
A graduate course for dietitians was opened.
1922
The Student Self Government Association was or- ganized and implemented.
1917
Occupational Therapy was organized under Social Service Department; in 1919 given separate status.
1923
The Illinois Training . School took over the nurs- ing service in Psychopathic Hospital.
1924
Psychopathic Social Service Department was or- ganized.
1924
The Board of Directors was still interested in improving the Illinois Training School through con- nection with some University. Upon Miss Mary C. Wheeler's resignation the Board called Miss Laura Logan to replace her. Miss Logan had had the ex- perience of establishing a tax supported School of Nursing as a School of Nursing in the University of Cincinnati.
1926
In June, 1926, the Board of Trustees of the Illi- nois Training School for Nurses made a contractual agreement with the Board of Trustees of the Uni- versity of Chicago whereby the School would make a gift of its properties, real and personal, to the univer- sity. The latter agreed to establish an undergraduate school of nursing that would have the same rank and standing as the other Schools of the University and which would confer the Degree of Bachelor of Science.
The Board wrote a letter of explanation to the Alumnae, another "To the Students, Faculty and Staff of the School," and a third to the Board of Trustees of the University of Chicago. (Reprinted in full in Mrs. Schryver's Book.)
It is apparent from the letters that the transfer was
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initiated in good faith. The subsequent incomplete realization of the goals stated by the Board of Direc- tors of the School can only be explained in terms of events external to the agreement. Although the total monetary value of the properties transferred to the University was quite large, it was insufficient to estab- lish an autonomous school of nursing in perpetuity in the University.
The Board of Directors notified the Cook County Commissioners of its intention and informed the Com- missioners that ample time would be allowed for them to make arrangements for nursing service for the hospital.
A citizens committee advised the Commissioners to open a new school of nursing.
1929
September, The Illinois Training School for Nurses, having transferred its properties and records to the University of Chicago, officially discontinued operat- ing as a school. The Illinois Training School lives on in its most active alumnae association (organized in 1891) and the name of the school is perpetuated in that the professor of the graduate program of nurs- ing education in the University of Chicago has the title of "Professor of Nursing Education on the Illi- nois Training School for Nurses Foundation." The alumnae active membership includes over six hundred of the 1845 graduates of the school. Monthly meet- ings of the Alumnae Association are very well at- tended. The association has made scholarship and library gifts to its successor, the Cook County School of Nursing. During the fifty years there were thir- teen directors of the school, many of whom were leaders of nursing in America: - Isabel Hampton (Robb), Lavinia L. Dock, Helen Scott Hay, Isabel McIsaac, Mary C. Wheeler and Laura R. Logan, to name a few.
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