Summary

Creator: Director's Office, MSH 
Title: Papers
Dates: 1871-1950
Volume: 4 boxes, 20 inches  

Preface

These are the files of the Director of the Mount Sinai Hospital for the years 1871-1950. Most of the records were created or received by Dr. Joseph Turner, with a few from his predecessor, Dr. Sigismund S. Goldwater.

Some of these files were given to the Archives by Dr. Turner from records he kept at his home. Others were donated by Barry Freedman, Director of the Hospital during the 1980s. The files as received had no discernible arrangement. Through the use of filing hints on the top of the documents, the records were restored to an approximation of the original order.

History

In January 1852, the Jews' Hospital in New York was incorporated. The nine men responsible for its creation quickly set about raising funds so they could build a hospital and begin to pursue the "benevolent, charitable and scientific purposes" outlined in their charter. Land was found, construction begun, and in 1855, they looked forward to a June opening. The Directors were hopeful for the success of their endeavor, and carefully guided every aspect of the Hospital's affairs, from decorating the wards, to what type of cases would be admitted.

On April 1, 1855, the Board of Directors (later called Trustees) appointed Julius Raymond as the first Superintendent of The Mount Sinai Hospital, at the salary of $300 per year. This position served as the eyes and ears of the Directors and was responsible for the oversight of the daily operation of the institution. He served at the pleasure of the Directors and the real power remained vested in them.

The extent of the duties of the Superintendent can be seen in the minutes of the Board of Directors for October 11, 1872. They list the "Rules and Regulations for the Government of the Superintendent": He was the steward of the Hospital and lived within its walls; kept the ledgers and accounts; visited every ward at least once a day, as well as once before retiring for the night; had the power to engage or discharge any and all but the medical staff; and could not absent himself from the Hospital for longer than three hours without the permission of the Board. Generally, if the Superintendent were married, his wife was hired as the Matron and took care of the housekeepingfunctions.

As the Hospital grew and became more complicated, duties were split off from the Superintendent and given to assistants. The first Assistant Superintendent was hired in 1892. The increasing complexity of the Hospital over time also began to tax the energies of the Directors. Medicine was growing more complicated and they had to rely more and more on the Medical Board to oversee and advise on medical matters and staffing. Also, the Directors were becoming immersed in the planning and fund raising for the new Hospital to be erected on 100th Street and had less time to deal with the daily concerns of the institution. When S. L. Fatman, the Superintendent, announced his intention to resign in 1903, a committee of the Directors was formed to study what the role of the Superintendent was, and to make recommendations for the future.

In February 1903, S. S. Goldwater, MD was moved from Assistant to full Superintendent at the salary of $2,000 per year. He is now known as one of the pioneers of modern hospital administration, and his strong ideas on the subject were developed at Mount Sinai. With his urging, the Board of Directors on April 12, 1903 passed a resolution "making the Superintendent the real boss with final jurisdiction over all departmental disputes", as Dr. Goldwater phrased it.⁽¹⁾ This was a very important change. It marked the beginning of a new chapter in Mount Sinai's governance. There was a lessening of the role of the Directors in the day-to-day activities of the Hospital, especially medical, in favor of a central administrative staff. Also, it set the pattern of hiring a medical doctor to fill the chief administrative position, when previously there had been no felt need for a medical background.⁽²⁾

In 1917 the title of the Superintendent's office was changed to Director, while the Board of Directors became "Trustees". Yearly appointments were granted the Superintendent until 1920, after which time no limits were specifically set. The responsibilities of the office were not defined in the By-Laws of the Hospital, but seem to have been roughly equivalent to chief operating officer.

In 1970, the By-Laws were amended to note that the Director must be qualified under the provisions of Title 10, Chapter V of the New York State Hospital Code. He represented the Board of Trustees, the Chairman of the Board, and the President of the Hospital and "operates the Hospital in all of its activities and departments."⁽³⁾

These last emendations were a part of the changes in structure brought about by the creation of Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the establishment of The Mount Sinai Medical Center, Inc. on October 20, 1968. The Hospital and School were joined together under the overarching organization of the Medical Center and its officers, with the Medical Center administration, were responsible for long-term planning and fund raising for the various corporate bodies that comprised the Center: The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing, now defunct.

When the Medical Center was incorporated, the Director of the Hospital was given a position and title within the new organization. The Director "shall be chief operating officer of the Hospital and shall have such powers and duties as may be assigned to him from time to time by the President."⁽⁴⁾ He reports to the President of the Medical Center and, through him, to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

The Annual Report of the Mount Sinai Hospital for 1979 explains the shift in management operations at the Hospital:

In the late 1970's, a new management approach was begun that broke away from the more traditional school of hospital management in which the key decisions were made by the central administration. Policy making and resource allocation decisions are now being placed in the hands of the chairmen of medical departments-how the spending decisions are made, how the policies are developed-is becoming the function of management."⁽⁵⁾

This statement reflects the advent of another era in the administration of Mount Sinai, as well as in the health care industry as a whole. It was no longer deemed necessary for the Director to have a medical degree. Rather, he must have an expertise in management skills and an understanding of the rapidly changing environment in which hospitals operate. For, in truth, it is the environment that has changed the meaning of the role of the Director; the definition itself has not altered much in the past century.

In 1998 the title of Director of the Hospital was eliminated in favor of Chief Operating Officer.

Chronology of the Directors of The Mount Sinai Hospital

4/1/1855
Mr. Julius Raymond appointed to start 6/1 at salary of $300 per year. He resigned 9/3/1865 to enter business. On 12/31/65 the minutes note charges against Mr. Raymond for "malfeasance while in office" and an investigation ensued. No outcome of this investigation is reported.

9/6/1865
Mr. M.J. Bergman is appointed Superintendent on the recommendation of Mr. Raymond. He receives $500 per year. The Directors find him "incompetent", but have trouble finding a replacement.

8/1/1866
Mr. Gabriel Schwarzbaum is appointed Superintendent at $500. On 9/22/1872 he resigns.

9/29/1872
Dr. Treusch (sp?) receives "temporary" appointment. His wife serves as Matron and they are paid $900 or $1,000 for both their efforts. On 5/16/1875, Dr. Treusch resigns.

6/6/1875
Mr. Leopold B. Simon is appointed Superintendent. He died on 9/29/1878, while still in office.

9/1878
Mr. Theodore Hadel is hired as Superintendent at $800 per year. He resigned on 9/17/1892.

10/1/1892
Leopold Minzesheimer named Superintendent; had been Assistant. Died in office 8/18/1898.

11/1898
S.L. Fatman appointed; had been on Board of Directors (?) He retired in 1903 with the thanks of the Board.

2/10/1903
S.S. Goldwater, M.D. is named to office at $2,000 a year, to be reviewed for an increase when new hospital buildings open. Dr. Goldwater often took time off for public service, e.g. Commissioner of Health, 1913-1915, but no one else was named in the interim. He served until 1929, when he retired to more public offices. He was first appointed a Consultant to the Hospital, and then a Trustee. He died 10/22/1942.

1917
Name of office changed from Superintendent to Director.

2/1/1929
Joseph Turner, M.D. replaces Dr. Goldwater. Turner had been Assistant Director from 1922-27, and Associate Director from 1927-28. In 1948, Dr. Turner was appointed Consultant to the Board to help oversee the large building project just begun, the Greater Mount Sinai Development plan.

1948
Martin R. Steinberg, M.D. is appointed Director. He had been an Assistant Director prior to this. With the inauguration of the Medical Center on October 20, 1968, he receives the further title of Vice President for Hospital Affairs. Dr. George James is the Medical Center President and Dean of the Medical School. Dr. Steinberg retired on June 30, 1969.

7/1/1969
S. David Pomrinse, M.D. is named Director and Vice President for Hospital Affairs. In 1973 his Medical Center title changes to Executive V. P.

8/1975
Mr. Samuel Davis is appointed Director and, as such, he is "responsible for all operations and planning for the Hospital".(6) Dr. Pomrinse continues as the Executive Vice President. This change was justified, in part, to allow Dr. Pomrinse to devote more time to outside agencies affecting the Hospital.

In 1976, Mr. Davis was given the Medical Center title of Senior Vice President. He remains the Director.

1977
Dr. Pomrinse steps down; Davis is now Director and Executive Vice President. This is a reflection of a new management structure designed to "coordinate the administration and operation of the Hospital and the School of Medicine."(7) In theory, Davis reports to the President and through him to the Chairman of the Board.

1981
Barry Freedman is named Director of The Mount Sinai Hospital. He is the chief operating officer of the Hospital and has the Medical Center title of Vice President for Hospital Administration.

With the decision to re-build the Hospital plant, Davis is made President of The Mount Sinai Hospital to plan for the new facility. He retains his Medical Center title of Executive Vice President.

1983
A new management structure begins with the appointment of James Glenn, MD as the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Mount Sinai Medical Center. He is the President of all three corporations and assumes the responsibilities of CEO that had previously been held by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

1984
Mr. Freedman's Medical Center title is changed to Senior Vice President for Hospital Administration. Sam Davis leaves to become the President of EcuMed.

1995
Wendy Z. Goldstein becomes the Director; Barry Freedman is named President of The Mount Sinai Hospital.

1998
Goldstein leaves and no official Director appointed. Freedman functions as COO.

2000
Jeff Menkes is appointed Director, but uses Chief Operating Officer title. Director title ceases to be used.

Footnotes

¹S.S. Goldwater, On Hospitals, New York: MacMillan, 1947, p.xxi. This book is a compilation of Goldwater's writings, brought together after his death by Mrs. Goldwater and Drs. E.M. Bluestone, J.J. Golub, and J. Turner.

²The Minutes of the Board of Directors shows that a Dr. Treusch (sp?) was hired in September 29, 1872 and resigned on May 16, 1875 The minutes do not note if Dr. Treusch held an M.D. or some other kind of doctorate, although the latter seems unlikely. It is difficult to ascertain the significance and reasoning behind this move.

³By-Laws of the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1970, p.39. See below for an outline of the governance changes brought about by the creation of the Medical Center.

⁴By-Laws of the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1983, p. 10.

⁵Annual Report of the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1979, p.8.

⁶Annual Report of the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1975, p. 5.

⁷Annual Report of the Mount Sinai Hospital, 1977, p. 6.

Scope and Content Note

These files provide a very incomplete record of the activities of the Director's Office. Many important events that took place during these years are either not noted or under-represented. The establishment of the Consultation Service for patients of moderate means, the Nursing Service, the erection of the Semi-Private Pavilion in 1931 (later named the Housman Pavilion), the emergence of the Associated Hospital Service (1935, later known as Blue Cross and Blue Shield), the affiliation with the Neustadter Convalescent Home (1936), the effects of the Depression on the Hospital, and the beginnings of the Greater Mount Sinai fundraising campaign are but a few events that go unexplored.

The obvious explanation for these gaps in the record is that the files were destroyed. Another factor, not at first apparent, is the creation of a Historian's Office and an unofficial Hospital archives during Dr. Turner's years. (See Box 2, f.6 and f.7 and the Historian's files in the Archives.) The creation of this office was very much at the instigation of Dr. Turner, and his interest in the development of the archives led him to send important memos and letters to the Historian for inclusion in the archives' files. Still, this accounts for only a small number of documents and the rest must be presumed lost.

The documentation remaining in the collection is still of much value. The files are composed of three types of records: memos to Trustees, memos to staff and physicians, and correspondence with outside persons or agencies who had written to the Director for advice or information. It is possible from these files to develop a sense of Dr. Turner as a Director: his strict adherence to the rules, his strong sense of fairness, his love of history, his admiration for Dr. Goldwater and his principals of hospital administration, and his close attention to detail. The latter also suggests a time when the institution was small enough for the Director to deal with many routine matters himself.

There are important glimpses of the role and extent of the involvement the Trustees had in the day-to-day affairs of the Hospital, the establishment of the Psychiatry Ward, and the various re-organization plans suggested for the Hospital over the years.

A special strength of this collection is the many files relating to Mount Sinai during World War II (Box 4). There are folders with memos regarding the running of the Hospital during the War, as well as correspondence with Dr. Herman Lande and Ruth Chamberlin, RN who headed the Mount Sinai unit, the Third General Hospital. Their letters describe Europe during the War, the work of the Unit, and the Mount Sinai staff members who served. Also of note here are the Trustees' Informational Bulletins that were sent to the Trustees during 1943-45, keeping them up to date on events at Mount Sinai.

There are no restrictions on the use of this collection.

Subjects

• Ambulances: Box 1, f.3
• Anesthesiology: Box 1, f.4
• Associated Hospital Service: Box 1, f.5
• Association of the Attending Staff, MSH: Box 4, f.10
• Autopsy: Box 1, f.6
• Baehr, George, MD: Box 1, f.8; Box 2, f.13
• Board of Trustees, MSH: Box 4, f.7-9
• Building Committee, Trustees, Board of, MSH: Box 1, f.7
• Cemetery (MSH): Box 1, f. 1
• Chamberlin, Ruth: Box 4, f.11
• Columbia University. College of Physicians and Surgeons: Box 3, f.7
• Consultation Service: Box 1, f.8
• Coons, Sheldon: Box 2, f.6
• Education, Medical, Continuing: Box 3, f.7
• Eliasberg, Bernard H., MD: Box 1, f.4
• Endowments, Special and Committee on: Box 2, f.2, f.6
• Engineering: Box 2, f.3
• Fellowships and Scholarships: Box 2, f.13
• Fund Raising: Box 2, f.2
• Garlock, John, MD: Box 1, f.4; Box 4, f.10
• Goldwater, Sigismund S., M.D.
• Gross, Louis, MD: Box 2, f.11
• Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum: Box 2, f.5
• Hematology: Box 3, f.5
• Hospital for Joint Diseases: Box 2, f.2
• House Staff: Box 1, f.2, f.4; Box 2, f.9, f.10
• Insurance: Box 1, f.7
• Joint Conference Committee, MSH: Box 4, f.5
• Kaufman, M. Ralph, MD: Box 3, f.10
• Klingenstein, Joseph: Box 3, f.2
• Labor Unions: Box 2, f.1
• Laboratories: Box 2, f.11; Box 3, f.9
• LaGuardia, Fiorello H.: Box 1, f.9; Box 2, f.13
• Lande, Herman, M.D.: Box 4, f.6
• Legal: Box 2, f.4
• Lewisohn, Richard: Box 2, f.13
• Mandlebaum, Frederick S., MD: Box 2, f.11
• Medical Board, MSH: Box 3, f.9
• Medical Staff, MSH: Box 2, f.16; Box 3, f.9
• Medicine, Dept. of: Box 2, f.11
• Military Medicine: Box 4, f.11
• Mordecai, Benjamin: Box 1, f.7
• Neuhof, Harold, MD: Box 4, f.5
• Neurology: Box 2, f.14; Box 3, f.9; Box 4, f.2
• Neustadter Convalescent Center: Box 2, f.15
• Nursing, Dept. of, MSH: Box 1, f.4, f.12; Box 2, f.17; Box 3, f.10; Box 4, f.10, f.11
• Nutrition: Box 1, f.16
• Obstetrics/Gynecology: Box 1, f.13; Box 3, f.2
• Organization and Administration: Box 2, f.13; Box 4, f.2
• Ottenberg, Reuben, M.D.: Box 3, f.9
• Outpatient Dept., MSH: Box 1, f.13; Box 2, f.14; Box 3, f.1, f.2
• Pathology: Box 1, f.6; Box 2, f.11
• Patient Admission: Box 1, f.2, f.9
• Peck, Samuel: Box 2, f.13a
• Pediatrics: Box 3, f.5; Box 4, f.2
• Personnel Management: Box 1, f.11; Box 2, f.1, f.3
• Pharmacy: Box 3, f.6
• Psychiatry: Box 3, f.10
• Public Relations: Box 2, f.6; Box 3, f.11
• Radiology: Box 4, f.1
• Rate Setting and Review: Box 1, f.10, f.15
• Research Administrative Committee: Box 2, f.11
• Ruth, Babe: Box 2, f.13
• Shwartzman, Gregory, M.D.: Box 2, f.11, 13a
• Social Work Dept.: Box 1, f.11: Box 4, f.3
• Surgery: Box 1, f.17: Box 4, f.2, f.5
• 3rd General Hospital: Box 4, f.6, f. 10, f.11
• Touro, Judah: Box 2, f.6
• Turner, Joseph M., M.D.
• Urology: Box 4, f.5
• World War II--Wartime Activities: Box 4, f.6-10, f.12

Container List

Processed by BN, 1987, 1992, 2001