University Hospital, 1927
From GWUEncyc
Article
The following was written in 1927:
"Hospital To Join With Garfield In Medical Center"
The initial step toward the establishment of a great medical center in the city of Washington which is expected to rank among the highest in the country was completed Saturday, January 22, when papers providing for the amalgamation of the George Washington University Hospital, Garfield Memorial Hospital and the Washington Home for Foundlings were formally signed.
Under the provisions of the agreement, George Washington University will erect a new medical school building on the grounds of Garfield Hospital and the Washington Home for the Foundlings will build a cancer hospital and extensive cancer research laboratories. The work now being done by the George Washington University Hospital will be transferred to the new center.
Efforts to effect such a union have been made in the past but have proved fruitless. Conferences extending through several months are responsible for the final achievement. Arrangement will soon be made for the erection of the Medical School building on the new site. The George Washington University Hospital will continue on its present site until both the hospital and the Medical School property, located on H Street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets are sold.
It is expected that two other prominent institutions, each specializing in distinct departments of medical science will join the group, thus creating in Washington, a medical centre equipped not only to treat diseases, but to conduct extensive research work in preventive medicine with remarkable opportunities for success. The ultimate aim of the plan is to make the National Capital one of the centers of the world’s medical development. Such a university hospital is expected to rank immediately with the greatest medical centers in the nation and will eventually have research institutions of world renown.
The nurses’ home of the hospitals will be combined and upon graduation, nurses will receive certificates in the name of the Washington Medical Centre Nurses’ Training School, instead of in the name of the respective hospitals. The combination of the world’s hospitals will afford the nurses an opportunity to extend their studies in directions that otherwise would be impossible. When the hospitals have combined physically, the faculty of the George Washington University Medical School and the staffs of the hospitals will be recognized in a manner to carry on their clinical and laboratory work in the new center under the most favorable conditions both from the standpoint of hospital service and medical education.
The agreement was reached that George Washington university, through its Medical School, will direct all teaching in the hospital. Moreover, the general conduct of the hospitals and the school will comply fully with the requirements of the Council on Medical Education and hospitals of the American Medical Association and the American College of Surgeons. This will insure unity of operation, although each party to the amalgamation will continue its independent, corporate existence and control it has been explained. “The basis of the agreement,” said Dr. William Mather Lewis, president of George Washington University, “is the fact that the experience of many other cities has demonstrated the value of the establishment of great medical centers in which close and lasting associations have been formed between the work of theoretical medical instruction and the practical instruction afforded by the facilities for clinical teaching found in hospitals and dispensaries.” “For this university,” continues Dr. Lewis, “its students will have constantly increasing facilities for clinical work.”
NOTE: When new president Cloyd Heck Marvin arrived in 1927, he was not enthusiastic about this plan, and the agreement was abrogated.
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Author or Source: Hatchet, Feb 2, 1927
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: February 2, 2007
Prepared by: Lyle Slovick, Assistant University Archivist
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