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The University-State Tuberculosis Hospital 

ArchivesOne of the most intriguing sights on Marquam Hill today is the Campus Services Building. While it is now used for a variety of educational and administrative functions, many in our community remember that it was once a state tuberculosis hospital.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, tuberculosis was one the leading causes of all deaths. Treatment was lengthy and expensive, requiring confinement in a sanatorium. In 1909, Oregon became the first state in the West to require public health care for tuberculosis patients. In 1910, the Oregon State Tuberculosis Hospital was founded in Salem. It was the first state tuberculosis hospital in the West, and grew at a dizzying rate: Opening with 50 beds, it grew to 195 beds by 1923, and an entirely new hospital was constructed on the site in the 1930s. Even with the construction of a second tuberculosis hospital in The Dalles, the state could not meet the demand for care.

In 1928, the Oregon Tuberculosis Association recommended the establishment of a third sanatorium, this time in Portland. Located on the University of Oregon Medical School campus (precursor to OHSU), the University State Tuberculosis Hospital was dedicated in 1939. Under the administration of medical school dean Richard B. Dillehunt, it opened with 40 beds and a three-part mission: to treat patients who could not afford private care; to support research toward the cure of tuberculosis; and to train medical and nursing students.

Just a few years after the university's hospital was established, tuberculosis treatment changed radically. In 1943, researchers at Rutgers isolated streptomycin, an antibiotic that proved to be highly effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Rather than submitting to lengthy institutional care, patients were now on their way to a fast and full recovery.

While state facilities for the care of tuberculosis patients had once struggled to meet demand, patients now dwindled in number as treatment for the disease advanced. In the early 1960s, the State legislature merged the three state hospitals. The few tuberculosis patients remaining in the university's hospital were transferred to Salem.

Photo: The University-State Tuberculosis Hospital (now the Campus Services Building), circa 1953.
 

Contributed by Maija Anderson, archivist, OHSU Historical Collections & Archives

Raising the Bar

The 1st Board of Medical Examiners: 1889

1st state medical board 1889In 1881, Dr. C. H. Merrick, chairman of the Oregon State Medical Society's committee on the practice of medicine, informed the Society that there needed to be laws to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery in the state. In his report he asked, "Why should Oregon be almost the last state in the Union to move in this important matter? Why should we suffer our state to become the depository for nearly all the ignorant quacks and pretenders who have been driven out of other states by their vigorous laws? We find our state flooded with druggists' clerks, botch dentists and horse torturers who have come here and assumed the title of Doctor and in many instances unblushingly added M.D. to their names."

After years of work towards the goal of regulation, OSMS submitted a proposal to the legislature, which finally became law in 1889. The regulatory act allowed the governor to appoint a State Board of Medical Examiners. The act also provided that every person practicing medicine in the state would be required to present a diploma to the Board granted it was from "any legally chartered medical institution in good standing". Those who could not provide a diploma had to submit to an examination. Doctors were given 90 days to comply and those who met all of the criteria were then given a state license to practice medicine.

By 1891, many members of the OSMS still had not complied with the demands of the law and were warned that if they did not do so immediately, they would receive a penalty and their names would be registered with the prosecuting attorney. Even the Medical Sentinel joined in the battle in a series of editorials, calling Oregon "the dumping ground for physicians who had failed to obtain licenses in other states."

The 1st Board had high hopes of bettering the situation in Oregon but the law served to stirr up many controversies: arguments ensued over the lack of adequate power held by the Board, the low standard of medical education in Oregon and the weakness of the law itself. By 1894 a new Board was appointed and in 1895 a more authoritative law was passed.

This was not the end of the story; battles were yet to be waged to oust the hucksters and quacks from Oregon and to improve the standard of medical education. Oregon had taken steps in the right direction and regardless of the rough start, the situation was much improved over the period prior to 1895.


Pictured (From left): Drs. James Dixon., James Brown, O.P.S. Plummer

 

Contributed by Karen Peterson, archivist, OHSU Historical Collections & Archives