History and Achievements
In the Beginning: 1905 - 1965
The story of today's modern medical center really began in 1905 when a two-year medical course was offered for the first time at the University of Utah. Basic medical science courses, including human anatomy, were added to vertebrate histology and vertebrate embryology.
In 1912, the University catalog listed a medical school instead of a Department of Medicine, and the school joined the Association of American Medical Colleges and became subject to regular accreditation by that organization.
Although the quality of Utah's two-year students who had to pursue their M.D. degrees at other schools was high, there were fewer and fewer places for outsiders at other institutions for the clinical years because of increased freshman quotas and changes in medical instruction which introduced clinical work during the first two years. The need for a four-year school in Utah became more pressing.
Finally, after studies and recommendations by medical officials and others, the four-year medical school (called the College of Medicine until 1981) was approved by the University Board of Regents on May 18, 1942. A contract stipulating that the medical school provide complete care to Salt Lake County General Hospital patients, without cost to the county, was entered into by the Board of Regents and Salt Lake County Commissioners.
Although a campus medical center had been talked about since 1943, official steps toward the realization of this dream did not begin until August 1955. Dr. Price, then acting dean wrote the U Board of Regents that the faculty believed the medical school had come to a "critical juncture" in its history and that it must either make a "fresh surge forward in its progress, or else it will inevitably begin to lose ground."
Realization of the Dream
The achievement of the medical school faculty from 1943 through the mid-1950s turning an infant four-year school into a world-renowned institution was remarkable. In June 1952, Newsweek magazine published an article praising the U medical school as "the Johns Hopkins of the West."
The emphasis consistently had been put on the people at Utah and the work being accomplished here, not on the buildings.
There were a total of 76 medical schools in the country (40 of them tax-supported) at this time, and five new ones beginning. Of these, 64 had well-established medical centers, and with the exception of Utah, all of the rest were in the process of building such centers. For many at Utah, the time to take concrete action was long overdue.
Actual progress toward realization of the dream began in 1955, when the executive committee officially requested from the Board of Regents the creation of a medical center. The idea was endorsed by University President A. Ray Olpin. He had great interest in the advancement of medical education and staunchly supported development of a strong research base.
The U Board of Regents approved the plan and submitted a request for a $10 million facility to the Utah State Legislature. In 1957 the Legislature authorized construction of a University of Utah Medical Center, specifying that the state's share not exceed $4 million.
The concept envisioned a main building that included a teaching hospital, remodeling of the existing Cancer Research Building, a central animal facility and the rehabilitation unit.
An extension was added when Utah was one of two schools tapped by the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Research Foundation to receive $350,000 for construction of a unit dedicated to study of malignancy.
The contract for the medical center construction was concluded December 14, 1961. Work had to be started within four weeks of the contract date, so, on a bitterly cold January day, without public fanfare, Governor Clyde marked the historic occasion by maneuvering an earth-moving tractor across the site a few times.
In September 1962, the cornerstone was laid for the new building at a formal ceremony. The medical center was to be integrated with the three medical structures already existing on the upper campus: the Cancer Research Building, built in 1948; the Radiobiology Laboratory, built in 1951; and the Rehabilitation Wing completed in 1961.
Trouble and Triumph
The opening of the medical center was eagerly anticipated, and the modern facility was an enormous improvement over the obsolete county hospital. But the new center apparently did not live up to everyone's expectations.
In March 1970, the hospital was ready to fail. It was losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, accounts receivable were around 200 days outstanding and the patient census had plummeted. President Fletcher said the situation was like a train going downhill without brakes and just blowing its whistle. There was talk of closing University Hospital or turning over its management to a private corporation.
Franklin G. Ebaugh, MD, dean of the medical school, recruited John A. Reinertsen from Evanston (Illinois) Hospital, to head the faltering institution and avert financial collapse. Mr. Reinertsen had his work cut out for him.
Mr. Reinertsen's vision, outstanding skills and an excellent background from an academic hospital, brought about the financial resurrection of the hospital, said Dr. Frank Tyler, who served as acting dean of the medical school in 1971-72. In addition to revamping billing to provide operating income for the hospital, Mr. Reinertsen was instrumental in obtaining needed working capital from the state.
By September 1971, the financial picture looked much brighter. There was a sizable reduction in patient accounts receivable and in other standing welfare accounts. Reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid services, some of which had been four years in arrears, was up-to-date.
New Clinical Programs
Once the hospital's financial status had improved, administrators concentrated on other significant problems and patient care programs that would enrich clinical education.
Among the first of University Hospital services to benefit from aggressive hospital management was the Newborn Intensive Care Center, which had been started in 1968 through the zeal and persistence of August L. Jung, MD, a newcomer to the medical school faculty. The four-bed center was established within the pediatrics unit and admitted 196 babies for special care its first year.
To avoid competing with community hospitals, University Hospital concentrated on tertiary care, burns, trauma, and transplants the medicine of the future. Physicians who would expand clinical practice cardiologists, surgeons and the like were recruited to the medical school to augment the research-oriented faculty already in place.
Transplantation of organs and tissues held major medical promise and Utah's involvement in kidney transplantation was significant. Willem J. Kolff, MD, Ph.D., came to Utah from the Cleveland Clinic in 1967 as professor of surgery and head of the Division of Artificial Organs, directing a research team that received worldwide notice. Dr. Kolff developed the first successful artificial kidney in the Netherlands, where he received his degrees, and later led the team that developed the first artificial heart.
Designs and Decisions
A shortage of physicians for the Intermountain West was anticipated as early as 1964. A study conducted for the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education by James M. Faulkner, MD, found that the four states scrutinized Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana were short of physicians and struggling to meet the health and medical education needs of the area. The mean number of doctors then in practice per 100,000 population in the four states was 90.6; the average for the continental United States was 120.3. The study recommended that the four states enter into contracts with western medical schools to provide medical education for a stipulated number of students at an agreed upon sum to be paid by that state.
The number of applicants accepted to the University of Utah School of Medicine limited for 20 years to 55 students per class was increased in 1965 to a maximum of 65 per year. The student body totaled 206. Seventy-five students were admitted as freshmen in 1970.
The master plan drawn up in 1965 for the next five to ten years projected an enlarged medical complex and included designated areas for a central animal facility, buildings for the colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing, student and housestaff housing and a medical library.
The new pharmacy facility, L.S. Skaggs Hall, was dedicated in October 1966. The College of Nursing dedicated its new building Nov. 1, 1969. Plans for a medical library were discussed at the time that the medical center concept was being developed because the hospital could not be given full accreditation without an approved library. For many years, the medical library consisted of one room at the county hospital and one room in the U library.
In the summer of 1967, a site for the health sciences library was designated to the south east of the medical school. The building, which opened in 1971 with Ms. Mayden as director, was named the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library in recognition of a bequest from Mr. Eccles and an additional gift from his family. A clinical branch of the library, named for Hope Fox Eccles Behle, was opened in University Hospital in April 1983, to accommodate the special needs of the hospital staff.
The Gift of Health
In the 10 years since the medical center had opened, the undergraduate medical class had increased 94 percent. Faculty increased by 95 percent, research was up 82 percent and hospital occupancy had increased 43 percent. The medical center's hallways resembled an obstacle course. It looked as though constant remodeling was in progress. With all this enormous activity in a little box, the place is ready to explode, said Dean Dixon.
The University President, David P. Gardner, concluded that without more space, the distinction the medical school had enjoyed would be at risk and the school's future grim. He participated actively in expansion plans, both on the political front and in getting the Gift of Health fund drive under way.
The expansion would add 150 hospital beds and more than 500,000 square feet to the medical school and hospital, enabling the school to increase faculty. The decision to expand the hospital was given to the regents. The regents voted unanimously to approve expansion and recommend to the Legislature the appropriation of $1.7 million during the 1975 session for architectural studies and site plans.
Board members also voted to recommend to the Legislature the issuance by the state of $33.2 million in bonds for the center's expansion. It was expected that $17.6 million would be available from the federal government, but the other $10 million would have to come from private donations.
In early March, the Legislature approved a $34.9 million program of general oblation bonds and set in motion the massive $62.5 million expansion.
Progress and Frustrations
In June 1975, the U Institutional Council approved designation of the four health-related colleges: Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing and Health; the University Hospital, Student Health Services and Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library as the University of Utah Health Sciences Center.
The change was recommended by President Gardner because many federal grants were requiring evidence of program coordination among health science colleges. As medical advances continue at an ever-increasing rate, the team approach to health care becomes a very important concept, with each member making his unique contribution, said Dr. Dixon, a strong advocate of the health sciences concept.
Expansion finally began early 1978. On September 11, 1981, the hospital was dedicated and moving day for the new hospital was set for September 22, 1981. Patients were moved across glassed-in bridges, which connected the existing medical center with the new hospital.
The medical school continued to maintain its excellent reputation during the mid-1970s. In a study published April 1975 in the Journal of Medical Education, Utah was grouped with Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Vanderbilt, Duke, Florida, University of Chicago, Vermont, Columbia, Texas at San Antonio, Washington and Stanford.
Serving Intermountain Patients
University Hospital also has expanded its clinics and same-day surgery programs. During the early part of the decade, ambulatory surgery increased 300 percent at U Hospital. By 1990, the hospital offered ambulatory clinic services in 49 specialties. In 1988, the hospital purchased the old Red Cross Building on Foothill Boulevard on the edge of the campus and converted it into the University Wasatch Clinics Building, housing clinics for sports medicine, family practice, general internal medicine, cosmetic plastic surgery and Student Health Services.
High Tech and Healing Hands: 1972 - Today
Today, University Health Care remains focused on achieving the team? approach our advocates envisioned many years ago. By combining excellence in education, research and clinical care, we will continue to provide compassionate, state-of-the art care to our patients.
We educate competent and caring practitioners, educators and scientists for the state of Utah and beyond. University Hospital remains a major regional referral hospital serving over five million people in Utah and the surrounding states of Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico.
We currently have over 850 board-certified physicians who specialize in our clinics and centers. Our physician's specialty clinics include family practice, pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, internal medicine, orthopedics and podiatry.
Our patients continue to receive the best quality care during their visits. Over the years, our reputation of excellence has grown throughout the Intermountain West and beyond as we have been recognized as one of America's Best Hospitals? for the 11th year and counting in addition to our many honors and recognition.
We will continue to share our vision, passion and knowledge to benefit Utah, the Intermountain West, and the world.
Credit The Gift of Health..... Historical Picture Tour
