BCH reader @firehat recently pointed me to a report at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center.

The 1946-1947 report, prepared by consultants James A. Hamilton and Associates for the Texas Medical Center, looked at how local hospitals would have to meet the needs of a growing Houston.

Among some of the more curious findings in this report are snapshots of Houston-area hospitals. It’s fascinating to see how medical care has changed over the last 60 years.

Below, you’ll find excepts from the report on some of the profiled hospitals. I’ll follow up with a second post on other hospitals — like St. Joseph’s Infirmary — next week.

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Chronicle file Heights Hospital, 1917 Ashland, 1949



This would appear to be a well organized and operated hospital, with generous physical quarters for patients and personnel. The general manager, although lacking experience, seems interested in the operating of the hospital and its advancement toward satisfactory compliance with known measurements.

3,071 patients were admitted to Heights Hospital in 1945. The average adult patient stay was 4.6 days, the lowest of all the hospitals surveyed. Some of that was attributed to a higher number of tonsil and adenoid operations being performed, as well as emergency room cases becoming inpatient cases.

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Chronicle file Hermann Hospital, 1951



No contagious cases are received but contagion developing after admission or as a secondary diagnosis is treated in the hospital. A few nervous or mental cases are admitted but these are limited to the three neuro-psychiatrists on the staff. … Venereal disease, unless related to another condition normally treated in the hospital, is not a basis for admission. The hospital does not treat alcoholics, incurables, epileptics, chronics or convalescents. […] The feeling has been expressed that a general over-all personnel shortage exists. The greatest seriousness is in the graduate nurses group, where it is estimated that there is a shortage of 30. The personnel problems are emphasized by the present turn-over existing in this hospital as in most all hospitals, and this coupled with certain administrative and supervisory short-comings on which a good deal of thought and work is at present being expended will help in answering the turn-over and shortage problems.

There were 294 beds available at Hermann Hospital, 49 of which were set aside for blacks.

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Chronicle file Houston Negro Hospital, 2900 Elgin, 1949



The first floor houses various cramped business offices, whose work is hampered by the overflow of visitor traffic which reaches the point of having to use the porch and adjacent grounds of the building. […] On the first floor, in addition to the above and to the emergency receiving section, is the obstetric ward of 10 beds and the nursery with 20 bassinets. Access to the latter is through the labor rooms, and all three — the ward, the nursery, and the labor room — are so closely knit that safe nursing technique is jeopardized.

The average length of stay at Houston Negro Hospital was 5.7 days.

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Post file Jefferson Davis Hospital, December 1937. Buffalo Drive (now Allen Parkway) runs diagonal at top right. Taft Street, Temple Drive and West Walker Street appear at top. Gillette Street appears under construction at the bottom.



In 1945, the average length of stay at Jefferson Davis Hospital was 11.2 days.

That year, the hospital saw 25,708 emergency room cases. Of that number, 13,321 were were black and 12,397 were white. During this time, the hospital started receiving private patients to ease crowding at other hospitals.

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Chronicle file Memorial Hospital, 602 Lamar, early 1950s. This view is looking south-southeast from the Julia Ideson Building. The building was demolished in 1977.



In the 37 years this hospital has operated its records indicate $1,500,000 in free care to this community. In 1945, 1,139 non-paying cases were accepted — or slightly over 9 percent of its patient load and presumably about the same proportion of its bed capacity. If, through its participation in the Texas Medical Center, an allotment of 20 percent teaching beds are exacted and in turn are limited to non-paying cases, the financial structure of the hospital will need careful study. […] It was learned that Memorial Hospital does a considerable amount of emergency work, particularly in the field of traffic accidents, resulting no doubt from their downtown location. They have advised private ambulance owners that only a limited number of cases will be accepted and that the remaining must be distributed among the other hospitals as they feel that their facilities are being over-taxed.

Chronicle file Closeup of above photo. Corner of Smith and Lamar.



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Contributed photo Methodist Hospital, 3020 San Jacinto at Rosalie in 1924. The building at the far left is still standing.



It is to be mentioned in passing that the frame building previously mentioned as being used for the care of 29 children is a non-fire resistant one-story building and is considered neither safe nor adequate and should be abandoned for the care of any bed patients as soon as possible.

(The building described in the excerpt isn’t in the above photo. It’s also worth nothing that Methodist Hospital would soon relocate from its earlier location at 3020 San Jacinto to the Texas Medical Center.)