Temple University School of Medicine - Skull Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 24 text:

Samaritan Hospital

Page 23 text:

SAMAR ITAN TICSRITAL €f TEMPLE UNIVERSITY J. O. Arnold M. D., F. A. C. S. J| UST as the School of Medicine has come to he a most outstanding unit of Temple r University, so has the Samaritan Hospital long been a large part of the School of Medicine. Needless to say that as the institution prepares to meet the challenge to higher standards and greater achievements, this relationship of school and hospital must necessarily become more and more intimate—in body as well as in spirit, until ultimately there shall be one great combining structure, as there is now one great increasing purpose. But the province of this page is to review the past rather than to reveal the future. So far as wc can find a definite starting point, that which later became the Samaritan Hospital, had its inception in a little group of physicians calling themselves the North Philadelphia Medical Society, who, in 1889-90, rented an old building (since destroyed) at 3- 20 North Broad Street, fitted it up with a dispensary, a few beds, and a nurse or two, and called it the North Philadelphia Hospital. Inside of a year this undertaking had failed for want of financial support. In the latter part of 1891 an appeal was made to the popular church and college organizer, Russell H. Conwell, to reorganize this little hospital and to take charge of its management. This he did, and in a few months moved it to a brick dwelling, the second house north of Ontario Street, on the east side of Broad Street. This building was purchased January 18th, 1892, and twelve days later was appropriately dedicated and formally opened as the Samaritan Hospital, and placed in charge of an entirely new medical statf. In 1893 the state granted a charter to this new hospital. Like Dr. ConwelPs undertakings generally, this one was immediately popular and successful. The rapidly increasing demand for bods made enlargements necessary almost from the start. A rear annex, and other building modifications were made in 1896, increasing the bed capacity from twenty to forty-three, and two years later, a further expansion took in the twin dwelling at the corner of Ontario Street. In 1901 the chief men on the staff were Dr. Frank Haehnlen on obstetrics and gynecology; Drs. Samuel Wolfe, James M. Anders, and Howard S. Anders on medicine: Drs. Ernest La Place, H. C. Deaver, John A. Boger, and Levi J. Hammond, on surgery: and Dr. G. Oram Ring on ophthalmology. The first state aid for building purposes was granted in 1901, and one story of the central administration building, and a three story north wing were completed in 1903. Aho t this time the staff was aga'n r.organized owing to the recent affiliation f the l.c.p tai v.itl: Temple's new medical school.

Page 25 text:

Dr. I. Newton Snively, (medical dean) and Drs. Wolfe, and Boardman Reed, were now chief physicians; Dr. Edmund Holmes, surgeon; Dr. J. W. Croskey, Ophthalmologist; and Dr. W. Wayne Babcock, obstetrician and gynecologist. Later in the same year, 190?, Dr. Holmes resigned, and Dr. Babcock was made surgeon-in' chief, and Dr. J. C. Applegate was called to the chair of obstetrics in the medical school, and to be chief obstetrician to the hospital. A little later Dr. Wilmcr Krusen was made gynecologist, and Dr. Albert Robin, pathologist. In 1905 an additional appropriation of fifty thousand dollars for building pur-poses was granted by the state, and various necessary buildings, including a two story south wing, were erected, increasing the total number of beds to 110, and providing a suitable basement for much needed dispensary enlargements. In the next ten years, two more floors, including the Roof Garden for children, were added to the south wing, and ten years later, June 18th, 1925, the great new “Main Building was formally opened, bringing the total capacity of the hospital up to 23 5 beds. This handsome new Broad Street structure also provided a number of other necessary features, such as new kitchen and dining rooms, record rooms, class rooms, amphitheater, and suite of operating rooms. Since the opening of this Main Building there have been added by the completion of the fourth floor, and the building of two new medical wards, 58 beds (The Roose-velt Hospital addition), which with the 37 infants beds in the nurseries, makes the present capacity of the hospital 330 beds. Thus, in briefest outline, runs the record of the past thirty'Seven years. More recently there have been such changes in the plans and policies and general spirit of the institution, as will undoubtedly further its administrative efficiency, its medical teaching capacity, and its higher service to suffering humanity. A comprehensive system of undergraduate “clinical clerkships now supplements the work of the twelve internes. And the period of interneship has been lengthened to two years, with a full-time, experienced Chief Resident Physician to direct and correlate and supervise this important service. But still more significant, perhaps, than any other recent advancement, is the establishment of a Medical Directorship, and the calling, on Feb. 1, 1929, of Dr. William N. Parkinson to be the first occupant of this new office. Dr. Parkinson is a Temple Medical alumnus, class of 1911; also received the degree of Master of Science in Surgery from the University of Pennsylvania in 1923. He was formerly Associate Dean of the Medical School with Dr. Hammond, and in recent years has been Chief Surgeon to the Eastern Coast Railroad and Hospital, St. Augustine, Florida. He now comes back to the Samaritan service with a keenness of interest, and a breadth of experience that bespeak for him the confidence of his associates, and assured success in his efforts toward the further development of a great institution. Verily, “Samaritan Hospital prepares to take its place in the vanguard of modern medical education, as it has long held front rank in its ministrations to the sick and afflicted. T u-entyonc