Dr. William J. Seymour organized the very first medical staff at Eloise. Therefore, a hospital on the grounds was appropriately deemed the William J. Seymour Hospital.
The Origins of a General Hospital Facility
With the growth of the large population in the Infirmary and mental divisions, an increasing need developed to care for the physical ailments of these two populations. For a number of years, between 1923 and 1930, Dr. William J. Seymour, serving on the County Board of Institutions, had encouraged the developement of a general hospital to provide these services. Heretofore, all County patients requiring extensive medical or surgical care were hospitalized at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.
For many years, medical men from Detroit and occasionally Ann Arbor gave their services to the Institutions without charge. These men were specialists in medicine and surgery, and their services were deeply appreciated by the Board. When Dr. Seymour became a member of the Board, he decided to enlarge the visiting staff; and with that purpose in mind, he organized the Eloise Hospital Staff on January 15, 1924, with the assistance of local doctors and several doctors from Detroit. The following departments were created, and one or more eminent doctors elected each: Roentgenology, Surgery, Proctology, Otology, Larynology, Opthalmology, Dermatology, Neurology, Gynecology, Urology, Medicine, Orthopaedia, Dentistry, Pathology, and Internal Medicine. Later Psychiatry and Neurosurgery were added. By 1926 the Hospital began the training of medical interns. By 1931 plans were submitted for remodeling the old Infirmary building (the Fourth County House), and plans were completed for its renovation into a general hospital. Dr. William J. Seymour had been a strong advocate of such a development, since the medical needs of the psychiatric and infirmary patients had been growing steadily with the increasing population of those units.
By July 24, 1931, his efforts were rewarded with the acceptance of the idea; and a contract was awarded to remodel the old Infirmary building (“C” Building – the Fourth County House) to the Christman-Burke Company. Problems were present since the new building was to be placed on the existing wall footings and columns which ran down on the inside face of the walls, each with its own new concrete footings. Additional loading would result from new masonry walls, new floor slabs, new roofs, and new floor coverings which would be distributed upon existing wall columns and footings, some of which had been in service since 1889. It was finally decided to support the new third story and roof upon steel columns placed on the inside face of walls to the basement floor level and provided with new independet concrete footings. Trusses resting upon the new steel columns were spanned across the width of each wing to support the new roof and ceiling deck. The new masonry walls of the third story were supported upon steel beams riveted to the columns.
The basement contained a kitchen and commissary rooms in the central section; in the south, physiotherapy; in the west wing, locker rooms and storage; and in the east wing, pharmacy and linen rooms.
In the same year, the American Medical Association formally approved the Hospital for medical internship training. Monies were appropriated for medical research, and the American College of Physicians recognized the Hospital as a fully accredited general hospital. On February 7, 1933, the refurnished building, now a modern general hospital, was re-titled the Dr. William J. Seymour Hospital. In that year Dr. Gruber reported a total institutional patient population of 10,104, consisting of 7,441 Infirmary inmates and 2,685 mental patients. It is interesting to note that after the opening of the General Hospital, a daily rate of $1.13 per day was set for patients! It was in the same year that Dr. Gruber recommended the employment of additional medical interns who, due to the economic depression, were unable to obtain internships to complete their licensing requirements as physicians. Board and laundry – but no salary – were provided to these individuals.
On July 11, 1934, Superintendent Gruber reported to the Board of Institutions that as of that date the Board itself was 100 years old and the oldest administrative Board in continuous existence in the State of Michigan. (It is also noted during this year Dr. Gruber first recommended the installation of air-conditioning equipment in the operation rooms of the Seymour Hospital).
In January, 1938, Michigan State University established a curriculum for training medical techologists and requested an affiliation with this Hospital requiring students to spend their senior year in the laboratory to qualify for the degree of Bachelor of Science. The Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the American Medical Association granted the needed approval; in addition to Michigan State, students were admitted from Wayne State University. This was to be the beginning of an increasingly close relationship between the academic world of the universities and the Hospital. It was also during this year that Dr. Gruber had reorganized the medical record-keeping system in the Seymour Hospital. On September 8, 1938, the Governing Board approved the Hospital joining the Americn Hospital Association.
With the development of the acute hospital, several new activities began to appear: an Outpatient Department was opened in 1939 under Clinical Director Dr. Richard Johnson. The visiting staff began to attract well-known Detroit physicians and surgeons who donated time to the patients of the Hospital and provided training for residents and interns. In fact, all the medical and surgical work was supervised by the visiting staff; and reserve members devoted a large amount of time providing care for the patients with the assistance of interns. As the work load increased, it became evident that it would soon become necessary to supplement the activities of the visiting with full-time directors in Surgery, Radiology, and Pathology. The intern staff had been increased; and residencies in medicine and surgery were established; so that by 1950 there were 30 residents and 24 interns. By that time, the increasing reputation of the Hospital as a desirable place for the training of interns and resident physicians resulted in 658 applications for the 24 medical internships.
Many medical research programs were carried on, including a freezing plan to cure cancer by inducing a state of hibernation in patients for five days or longer (1939).
Several pharmaceutical companies began establishing fellowships and grants fo the study and evaluation of new drugs such as Melansen (for syphilis), Mercuhydrin ( a mercuric diuretic), and Dilantin (for epilepsy).
In 1942, with a population of 100,00 living in the area adjacent to the institution, there were only two hospitals of 14 and 30 beds in the immediate are to service private patients. Overtures were made to the Hospital by a group of private citizens to lease “B” Building, which had been closed previously, to operate a private general hospital. The Wayne County Board of Supervisors advised this group that there was space both in “N” and “B” Buildings that henceforth would be available to private-pay citizens and went on record that the General Hospital facilities of the County would be available to the public. This was to become a turning point for the future of the General Hospital as heretofore only County charges had been treated and cared for by the Institution.
[ 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 28-29 and 32. ]