SPECIAL MEMO FOR DR. HAUGHTON'S BERRY-SPECIAL DEPUTY FILE

IS THERE AN IMPORTANT ROLE FOR PROVIDENT/COOK COUNTY HOSPITAL AFFILIA'I'I ON IN THE CARE OF MINORITY GROUP PA'rI ENTS AND

MINORITY GROUP PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

BY:

Le onidas H. Berry , M.D. Specia l Deputy for Profess ional Community Affairs

Part of the symposium conducted a t the meeting of the Cook County Physic ians Association, Wednesday, April 1 6 , 1975, Provident Hospital Auditorium, 514 East SOth Place, 8 :30 P.M.

(Taken from a tape recording)

Ladies and gentlemen and my fellow physicians :

If you are expecting to be awed by eloquence tonight,

I am afraid you are going to be disappointed. I happen to have a

great sense of responsibility with refere nce to t he future of

medical care, particularly for the Bla ck minority and for the

kind of care they will get, espe cially on the souths ide of

Chicago. Ma inly, this is because I have been around a while a nd

have been invol ved ' at many levels . I have conducted many special

studies and watched the evolution of the medical care services for

Blacks, and especially the Black poor in Chicago . Today , I do not

see as much progress as I think we have the right to see in the

race relations of medical care during the last twenty years .

The struggle in the area of health i n Chicago has b~en part

of a national e ffort carried on t hrough the c ourts and by speci a l

organizations set up for this purpose, whose members have bee n

Black and White physicians and non-physicians . In the city of Chicago,

Cook County Hospi tal a nd Provident Hospital have a l ways been in the

center of the problem for i mproved human rights in the medical

field and for better opportunities for professiona l growth among

minority group physicians .

The Cook County Physicians Association has always been in

-2-

the thick of the fight and at one time, as all of the older mem­

bers here remember, this organization brought a \lRestraint of

Trade"suit against all of the hospitals in the Chicago Hospital

Council, the Chicago Medical Society and the Blue Cross/Blue

Shield Corporation.

"Is there an important role for the Cook County Hospital/

Provident Hospital Affiliation " , is just another way of asking,

"Is there an important role for the continued existence of

Provident Hospital as a significant health care c enter and is

it important that Provident should reach and go beyond its

former stature as a top-rated teaching medical institution in

this community".

Partic ularly for the informa tion of the younger doctors,

I mus t tell you briefly of some of the contributions of Provident

Hospital, especially when Provident had a former affiliation with

a larger and stronger institution, namely Billings ~ospital and

the University of Chicago. This lasted for about fifteen ye ars

beginn ing in 1933. At one period in the late ' 30 's and '40's,

most of the Black medical specialists in this country had rece ived

all or part of their training at Provident Hospital in Chicago.

This was directly related to the affiliation between Provident and

the University of Chicago . . Provident already had an intern and

-3-

resident training program before the time of the affiliation,

but these programs were considerably escalated and opportunities

were provided for post-graduate fellowship training for younger

doctors who came from many parts of the nation. This program

was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation , the General Education

Board, the Rosenwald Fund , and others through the sponsorship

of the University of Chicago. Even the older doctors on the

staff were able to acquire special training at several l eadin9

universitie s in this country · and even to London, Vienna and

Berlin. Of course, in this country in those earlier years, it

was a "one-at-a-time "special "dispensatiorl' at various medical

centers arranged by the University of Chicago with the tacit

promise that after t his, you will be able to send all of your

Black applicants for graduate training to Provident Hospital.

While Black doctors did not like the unexpressed spirit

of the arrangement, nevertheless, out of this affiliation

agreeme nt came the kind of training that niade possible a great

deal of progress and professional opportunities for Black d octors .

The first four Black deans of Howard University Medical School

had some or most of their graduate training in the Provident

Hospital/University of Chicago relationship. Two pediatricians,

Warrick Cordoza and Roland Scott; and a pathologist , now professor

at the University of Chicago, Dr. James Bowman, received most of

-4-

their fundamental training as residents. And out of their

research, some of which was done at Provident Hospital, have

come some of the most authoritative concepts in the understanding

and treatme nt of sickl e cell anemia. Dr. Riley Thomas, a

professor of medicine at Howard, was Provident ' s first medical

resident, and his training extended to the period referred to.

One of Provident's surgical res idents became the first chest

surgeon at Howard. Provident trained r esidents, in the principal

fields of medicine became board certified and moved on to bigger

services in various hospitals and communities of this country.

Older doctors, who had bee n out of school for as long as twenty-five

years, prepared themselves and passed spec ialty boards and

continued to train others in their respective fields.

If this could be done under the circumstances of twenty

and thirty years ago , certainly comparable progress and service

to the community can come out of the present affiliation between

the Cook County Hospital and Provident Hos pital.

Progress to day , as I see it in the city of Chicago for

Black doctors, means a relative ly large number of young, Black

doctors on the bottom rung of various small and med ium size

hospitals in the city with a very few exceptions of upgrading.

In the larger hospitals, the practice of token appointments is

-5-

all out of proportion to the increasing and large proportion of

Black patients being cared for in these hospitals. Provident

has an opportunity to help in neutralizing that gap for on-coming

Black doctors thru the County Hospital affiliation.

While some of us are afraid of being swallowed up by a

government tax supported institution, there are very few hospitals

of r easonable size giving reasonable quality service, which

do not receive government agency support , which Provident has

not been in a position to get nor are any of these hospitals

referred to not receiving considerable government support with

tax dollars.

The power structure will not give outstanding money to

a hospital with a totally Bl ack image . I have heard of the

comment that Provident should build its own hospital. I have

every con~idence that the Chicago community has the capacity

and is on its way toward building its new structure of 500 beds.

The affiliation has nothing to do with building the hospital .

It is a program to help, with taxpayers ' money, the development

of more top-level personnel and facilities at Provident and to

give a greater service to the health consumers of this community

for this mutual effort. It is beginning now so that there will

be better preparation for Provident Hospital to move into its

-6-

new structure when it is comple ted and that citizens on the

southside ma y receive s e rvice s giv en by b.o th physicians on

the staff o f County Hospital a nd Provident Hospital in either

or b o th instituti ons whe r ever and wha t eve r t he medical needs

ma y be . Ho spital p r ogress today a nd in t he future will b e

made b y c ooperati ve interdependence , not independe~ce .

NOTICE OF MONTHLY MEETING

Cook County Physician's Association

Wednesday, April 16th, 1975

Provident Hospital at 8:30 p.m. - auditorium 514 East 50th Place

AGENDA

1. Call to Order 2 . Review of previous meetings 3. Treasurer's report 4. Committee reports 5. Report of the Board of Directors 6. Panel Discussion

BIOSOCIAL AND ECONOMICAL PROGRAMS

Status Medical Care Services

In Chicago Black Communities Present and Future

a. Black Doctor Appointments Hospital Attending, Housestaff and Med. School s Relative Distribution and Trends

b. Relative Hospital Distribution - Black Patients In-patients , Outpatients and Emergency Rooms

c. Is There an Important Role for Provident/Cook County Affiliation in the Care of Minority Group Patients and Minority Group Professional Opportunities?

PARTICIPANTS

Dr . Stephen Keith, University of Illinois Medical Student

Dr. Gloria Jackson, President, Prairie State Medical Assn.

Dr. Joseph Simpson, Michael Re ese Medical Resident Mr. Joseph Mann, Exec. Director , Provident Hospital Dr. Leonidas H. Berry , Spec ial Deputy for Professional

Community Affairs