Hospital History: How Baylor University Medical Center Became 'A Hospital of Great Importance' - D Magazine

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In the precocious 19th century, Dallas’ colonisation began to boom, and with the maturation came much contamination and illness that dispersed done the ungraded streets of Dallas. During this time, Parkland and the now-closed St. Paul hospitals opened. 

Even with these caller hospitals doing their champion to verify skills, the signifier of medicine was somewhat disorganized. An audit by the Texas Medical Association astatine the clip recovered 500 fake doc licenses connected record with the state. Local doc Dr. Charles Rosser led the effort to recovered the University of Dallas Medical Department to standardize aesculapian acquisition and assistance service the increasing region. 

But erstwhile the schoolhouse opened connected Commerce Street downtown successful 1900, uncovering a installation wherever they could larn the commercialized and use their schoolroom learning was challenging. Parkland Hospital was unfastened to hosting the students, but determination was nary streetcar service, which meant that students would person to instrumentality a agelong wagon thrust pulled by 2 bay ponies. St. Paul infirmary opposed hosting the students. 

Rosser was not finished gathering up the city’s aesculapian infrastructure and began trying to person the citizens of Dallas to physique a caller installation for patients and students alike. Though helium didn’t get an contiguous response, helium purchased a two-story, 14-room mansion successful a grove of oak trees connected Junius Street successful East Dallas, which happened to beryllium the location of William H. Gaston, a confederate serviceman and salient onshore proprietor successful East Dallas. He named the 25-bed installation the Good Samaritan Hospital successful 1903. 

At the time, an bureau sojourn outgo a dollar, and a location sojourn outgo $2, with 50 cents added for each mile the doc traveled beyond the Dallas metropolis limits. 

The aesculapian schoolhouse suffered fiscal difficulties and aboriginal a fire, and section leaders wanted to supply stableness by affiliating it with Baylor University. It took immoderate convincing, but the University of Dallas Medical College yet became the Baylor University College of Medicine. 

But the request for a larger aesculapian installation was inactive present. The pastor of First Baptist Church successful Dallas, George Truett, helped pb an inaugural to fundraise for a caller facility, raising $250,000 to physique the Texas Baptist Memorial Sanitarium. Rosser’s East Dallas determination was chosen for the caller hospital, which broke crushed successful 1904. It would yet supply 114 backstage rooms advertisement 250 beds successful six ample wards, costing $400,000 to build. In 1914, a three-story session gathering was constructed for number patients, arsenic segregated attraction was a information of the day. By the 1920s, the infirmary would spot 20,000 and 30,000 patients annually. 

Image Courtesy: Mary Allen Watkins and Baylor Scott and White Health

In 1921, seeking unity betwixt the aesculapian school, the hospital, and caller schools of pharmacy, dentistry, and nursing each became “Baylor-in-Dallas, and the infirmary was renamed Baylor Hospital and it was renamed Baylor University Hospital successful 1936. 

The infirmary continued to turn and expand, adding a children’s infirmary successful the 1920s, and the Florence Nightingale Maternity Hospital was built successful 1937 adjacent to Baylor. In 1943, the Baylor University College of Medicine near Dallas for Houston aft an connection from M.D. Anderson Foundation, but the infirmary remained. 

In 1950, different enlargement led to the seven-story, 436-bed George W. Truett Memorial Hospital connected the Baylor University Hospital Campus. The field was renamed the Baylor University Medical Center. 

The infirmary continued to turn and adhd facilities, and successful 1981 became a web erstwhile the Baylor Health Care System added Baylor Medical Center Ennis and Maylor Medical Center Grapevine. 

The strategy continued to grow passim the years, breaking barriers successful heart, lung, and bony marrow transplants. The strategy expanded into Fort Worth by acquiring the All Saints Health System successful 2003, arsenic the infirmary marked its 100th anniversary.   

In 2013, Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare combined forces, creating the state’s astir extended nonprofit healthcare system. Today, the strategy includes the Baylor Scott & White Health Plan, the Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, the Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance, and 1 of the country’s astir fashionable integer wellness platforms, MyBSWHealth. The strategy has 51 hospitals and 1,100 entree points spanning North and Central Texas, with world aesculapian centers successful Dallas, Fort Worth, and Temple. 

The strategy delivered connected Rosser’s prophetic prediction much than 100 years agone to physique “a infirmary of large importance.” Even then, helium knew his actions would beryllium “the archetypal measurement successful the promotion of a large wide infirmary of the future.” 

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Author

Will Maddox

Will is the managing exertion for D CEO mag and the exertion of D CEO Healthcare. He's written astir healthcare…

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