In 1953 the Citizen’s Research Council of Detroit was invited to make an administrative survey of the Institution which resulted in 116 recommended changes, many of which were later adopted, including a call for a new General Hospital building. The Board of Institutions approved this plan on December 28th, 1954, for a 600-bed $12,000,000 building.

New General Hospital Building “O”

In 1953 the Citizen’s Research Counsel of Detroit was invited to make an administrative survey of the Institution which resulted in 116 recommended changes, many of which were later adopted, including a call for a new General Hospital building. The Board of Institutions approved this plan on December 28, 1954, for a 600-bed, $12,000,000 building.

At this time Superintendent Jacobson recommended the abolition of the Business Manager position and the creation of a Hospital Controller to oversee a Finance and Record Division and the creation of a Superintendent of Maintenance and Supply to head the trades, laundry, and dietary departments. This was also the first year the Joint Accreditation Committee surveyed the Hospital for an annual evaluation and accreditation. Ironically, the State passed Act 83 in 1954 which authorized Michigan counties to open and operate general hospitals some 21 years after the Dr. William J. Seymour Hospital was opened!

In January, 1956, the architectural form of Smith, Henchman, and Grylls was engaged to draw up the plans for the new General Hospital. In the same year, “A” Building was assigned to the Infirmary; and the mental patients, who previously had been assigned to it in 1953 due to overcrowding, were moved to other psychiatric buildings. Construction of the new building began in 1959.

At the beginning of 1959, the University of Michigan Medical School began sending its medical students to the Hospital to observe medical practices. Prior to this, students had been reporting for emergency room experience since 1956 and for experience in physical diagnosis since 1958. Wayne State University Medical School had been sending students to observe since 1937.

Both universities reiterated their interest in completing a formal affiliation. By April, the American Medical Association Council on Teaching Affiliates of Medical Schools approved; and on October 3 formal letters of intent were exchanged between the schools and the Hospital. By July of 1960, the AMA Committee on Medical Education contacted Dr. Jacobson and suggested a committee of the Board, Superintendent, and Medical Staff begin meeting with the Deans of the two medical schools; By October, letters of intent were approved. By October 6, letters of agreement between the Wayne County General Hospital and the medical schools of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University were presented. A joint administrative committee was to be comprised of representatives of the Board of the governing bodies of each of the two universities, a representative of the Hospital administration, and one from the Medical Staff to institute a five-member committee.

With this development of affiliation, other hospitals which had been rotating residents and interns through Wayne County General Hospital, namely Wyandotte General, Veterans Administration, Oakwood, Highland Park, St. Johns, Holy Cross, Sumby, and Annapolis Hospitals began to be dissuaded from this arrangement for fear that these practices would delude the proposed training of the medical students from the universities.

On March 29, 1960, the keys to the new Laundry Building (part of the new General Hospital Building – and the first section to be completed) were turned over to the Administration; and the move from the old laundry building south of the river was made on April 15, 1960.

On May 8, 1961, the cornerstone of the new building was laid. The Board decided to include in the cornerstone a history of the new building and photographs of the Board members and the staff members of the General Hospital Division. These two photographs, with the copy of the latest annual report for 1959, were placed in the cornerstone on behalf of the Board, plus a copy of the by-laws of both the Board and the Medical Staff.

From February 12 to February 18, 1962, formal ceremonies took place opening the new General Hospital building with the Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service, Luther L. Terry, M.D., as the guest speaker, whose speech was entitled “The Coming of Age of a Hospital.” Also present as a guest from her Florida home was Mrs. Harlow N. Davock, “Eloise,” after whom the Institution had been named. The new Hospital building is comprised of six floors with 350,000 square feet of space; attached to it was a Health Center with two floors and 28,000 square feet of floor space and the laundry wing with 5,742 square feet. The total cost was $15,000,000.

With the opening of the new facility, a clarification became necessary of the admission policy to the General Hospital. In a communication dated May 16, approved by the Board of Institutions and Dr. Jacobson, recommended the following four points.

1. Patients would be admitted who were transferred from the other two divisions of the Institution.

2. All indigents, both welfare and medical, in need of hospitalization would be admitted without question.

3. Emergency cases regardless of origin and economic status would be admitted.

4. To the extent that beds are bot filled by patients from the preceding categories, patients capable of paying all or a portion of their hospital costs would be admitted on the basis of certain services of the Wayne County General Hospital for the rendering of medical care not available in the immediate area and as a center for which patients presented with problems, diagnostic or therapeutic, could be referred by the physicians in the communities.

In the following year, research funds were established for an account to be known as the Medical Staff Research and Education Fund, funded by, monies collected from Blue Shield as a result of professional services. As stated by the Medical Staff, the purpose of the fund was to pursue medical research and to provide funds, such as construction of a Research Animal Quarters and the hiring of research staff to conduct separate studies.

In the same year, plans were made to add a cobalt unit to the Radiology Unit of the General Hospital, which was completed by 1965.

On September 5, 1963, another “first” was achieved for the Hospital when the first patient was dialyzed by a kidney machine on the 5th Floor East of the General Hospital. Although this technique was not new, it was the first in the State of Michigan; and in fact, there was only one other in the United States at the time. A year later, the Michigan Kidney Foundation, aware that the Hospital was in the forefront of this new endeavor, donated two additional machines; and late in 1964, the first kidney transplant was performed in December by Dr. W. Glas, Chief Surgeon, in the Hospital. This was the second transplant that took place in the State of Michigan.

In 1967 the Hospital received a Federal grant which enabled it to set up a central delivering system for dialysis; and in the first year, over 1,000 persons were dialyzed. This central delivering system utilized a master control board with individual consoles at the bedside. Also in the same year, a training program was started, instructing patients in the use of portable units which they could use in their homes. This latter program has been recently discontinued due to the multiple satellite clinics now available to perform this process. As of 1976, the General Hospital ran double shifts with eight beds located in the units.

By July, 1964, the State of Michigan and the City of Detroit notified the County that they would no longer reimburse the County for the care of patients in the Infirmary Division who were residents of Detroit. Consequently, the County Board of Institutions requested that the Department of Social Welfare transfer as many patients as possible from the Infirmary who were qualified for discharge. By August, 26 patients were placed in private nursing homes; and of July 1, the Board of Auditors indicated that no charge would be charged back to a municipality when a patient was to be transferred to the Acute Hospital from the Infirmary. The communication stated that, if the municipality patient had transferred to the Acute Hospital, the County would bear the full cost.

By June 9, 1965, slightly more than 200 patients had been transferred from the Infirmary Division to private nursing homes; but the population of the Infirmary Division was still running in the vicinity of 800 filled beds.

[ This information presented in whole from “A History of the Wayne County Infirmary, Psychiatric, and General Hospital Complex at Eloise, Michigan” by Alvin C. Clark; pages 28-32. ]