Establishment of the Upjohn Gastrointestinal Service, Clinic and Foundation

Roosevelt hospital in 1962 was largely dominated by its excellent surgical service. There were three chiefs of surgery, Drs. Frederick Amendola, Howard Patterson, and James Thompson, all of them good abdominal surgeons. They served without salary and seemed always to be at the hospital. Their assistants were also first-rate. The medical service had two chiefs, Dr. Julian M. Freston and Dr. Arthur J. Antenucci, also non-salaried. All of these men had substantial and remunerative private practices. The trustees, led by an outstanding chairperson, Mrs. Donald Bush, were prominent in the business and social world of New York. Some were wealthy. A member since 1931 was Dean Willard Rappleye, now retired from his post at P&S and becoming more active on the Roosevelt board, where I believe he was aggressively promoting the inauguration of Flexnerian full time starting with the department of medicine. I was not aware of these activities when I first joined the Roosevelt staff. In my verbal agreement with Roosevelt Hospital, the Upjohn Gastrointestinal Service controlled up to twenty beds scattered among the several medical floors. It was assigned interns in rotation as well as two residents paid for by hospital funds. Upjohn funds paid for two to three fellows in a day when fellowships paid $5,000 per annum. In my discussion with Mrs. Stearns I stipulated that I needed a topflight administrator to take care of the many non-medical details inherent in running a first-rate academic and teaching service in gastroenterology. The person I was able to persuade to accept this position, Miss Martha Swensson, had worked with me before WW II as the administrator of the personnel medical department of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. This was without doubt the best appointment I have ever made. She was able to spare me the burden of many administrative duties. Above all, she knew what I was trying to do and set the highest standards for the service. The talented attending physicians, residents, and fellows that flocked to our doors appreciated, as I did, the skill, dedication, tact, innovation, and loyalty of this marvelous person. She was an excellent money manager who made dollars go a long way.

When I arrived at Roosevelt Hospital I found, in keeping with the situation in most community hospitals, their outpatient department was a second-class operation, poorly housed, understaffed, and illequipped.