Florida A&M Hospital

Last updated
Florida A&M Hospital
Florida A&M Hospital.jpg
Florida A&M Hospital, circa 1960s
Florida A&M Hospital
Geography
Location Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Coordinates 30°25′34″N84°16′59″W / 30.426124°N 84.282935°W / 30.426124; -84.282935 Coordinates: 30°25′34″N84°16′59″W / 30.426124°N 84.282935°W / 30.426124; -84.282935
Organization
Type General
Affiliated university Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Services
Beds105
History
Former name(s)Sanatorium
Opened1911 as a Sanatorium, 1946 as FAMC Hospital, Health Center and Nursing School, 1951 dedicated as a hospital
Closed1971
Links
Lists Hospitals in Florida

Florida Agriculture & Mechanical Hospital (1911-1971) was the first institution in Florida providing medical care to African Americans, who, during the segregation period, were not permitted to receive care at whites-only hospitals. (See Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare on Tallahassee's other hospitals of the period.) There was no other such institution within 150 miles (240 km) of Tallahassee. [1] [2] In 1940, "less than a dozen" counties in Florida had hospital facilities for Negroes. [3] : 17 

Contents

Founding

The hospital was originally designated a sanitarium, had 19 beds, and was created to allow Florida A&M University (FAMU) to establish a nursing program. [4] [5] [6] It was housed in a wooden building located slightly NW of the brick building, with 105 beds, [7] : 186  which replaced it in 1950. [8] [9] : 101  Funding to build the hospital was provided in part to avoid integration at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, by creating a "separate but equal" facility. [5] (See Gibbs Junior College for other such efforts in Florida.) It was officially dedicated as a hospital in 1951, [1] although since 1946 it was named the FAMC Hospital, Health Center and Nursing School. [10] Like most hospitals serving African Americans, [9] : 19  it was chronically underfunded; Tallahassee levied a tax on residents to support the whites-only hospital, but refused to distribute any of the funds to the FAMU hospital, whose patients were almost exclusively African Americans. [7] : 186–187 

Closure

The hospital closed as a result of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the federal government's threat to withhold Medicare funding from both the FAMU hospital and Tallahassee Memorial Hospital if racial segregation continued. [11] [12] Tallahassee Memorial started admitting black patients, and federal and state funding which previously supported the FAMU Hospital was transferred to Tallahassee Memorial. When state funding was ended in 1967, the name was changed to Tallahassee A&M Hospital and it was leased to the city and county from 1967 to 1970, renewed for 1970-72. On December 24, 1971, citing unsustainable losses, the Hospital Board announced that it was closing down the hospital, which at that time had three patients housed there. FAMU President Dr. B. L. Perry, Jr., cited "the unwillingness of white doctors to commit patients to it. Concurrent with this problem was the unavailability of black doctors in this community". He also cited the low salary for nurses, which did not meet the requirements of the minimum wage and hour law and did not attract applicants. [13] [5] As was typical of racial desegregation in the U.S., it was the black facility that closed, and the employees lost their jobs.

Two identical historical markers commemorating the hospital were erected in 2013. One is in front of the former hospital building. [14] The other, at an entrance to the campus, is on the SW corner of the intersection of Palmer Avenue and South Adams Street. [15] [8] The marker (note that the transcriptions of its text in the references just given are not completely accurate) reads as follows:

THE FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL (1911-1971)

The first healthcare facility built in Florida for African-Americans [ sic ] was the Florida A&M College (FAMC) Hospital, known as the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Hospital after 1953. The school's original two-story, 19-bed wooden sanitarium was built in 1911 (since demolished), and provided medical care to patients of all races living in Leon and surrounding counties. It was supervised by Jennie Virginia Hilyer, RN, a graduate of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., later renamed Howard University Hospital. In 1926, Leonard H.B. Foote, MD, a graduate of Howard University Medical School, became hospital administrator. [16] Foote established FAMC's School of Nursing in 1936, the first baccalaureate nursing program in Florida. He led a 10-year campaign to construct a new modern brick hospital, which opened in 1950. As a major medical center, the hospital provided clinical training for students and opportunities for research. After the withdrawal of federal and state support, the doors of the hospital closed on December 11, 1971. Today, the hospital's legacy continues through Florida A&M University's School of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and School of Allied Health Sciences. [15]

The former hospital is currently (2017) the Foote-Hilyer Administration Building. [17] It continues to house the university's student health center.

Related Research Articles

Tallahassee, Florida Capital city of Florida, United States

Tallahassee is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population was 196,169, making it the 8th-largest city in the U.S state of Florida, and the 126th-largest city in the United States. The population of the Tallahassee metropolitan area was 385,145 as of 2018. Tallahassee is the largest city in the Florida Big Bend and Florida Panhandle region, and the main center for trade and agriculture in the Florida Big Bend and Southwest Georgia regions.

Florida A&M University American historically black university

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the United States by enrollment and the only public historically black university in Florida. It is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, as well as one of the state's land grant universities, and is accredited to award baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

HCA Healthcare American healthcare facilities company

HCA Healthcare is an American for-profit operator of health care facilities that was founded in 1968. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and, as of May 2020, owns and operates 186 hospitals and approximately 2,000 sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding emergency rooms, urgent care centers and physician clinics in 21 states and the United Kingdom. As of 2021, HCA Healthcare is ranked #62 on the Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.

Tenet Healthcare American healthcare company

Tenet Healthcare Corporation is a multinational healthcare services company based in Dallas, Texas, United States. Through its brands, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and partnerships, including United Surgical Partners International (USPI), the company operates 65 hospitals and over 450 healthcare facilities. Tenet also operates Conifer Health Solutions, which provides healthcare support services to health systems and other clients.

Home health nursing is a nursing specialty in which nurses provide multidimensional home care to patients of all ages. Home health care is a cost efficient way to deliver quality care in the convenience of the client's home. Home health nurses create care plans to achieve goals based on the client's diagnosis. These plans can include preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative actions. Home health nurses also supervise certified nursing assistants. The professional nursing organization for home health nurses is the Home Healthcare Nurses Association (HHNA). Home health care is intended for clients that are well enough to be discharged home, but still require skilled nursing personnel to assess, initiate and oversee nursing interventions.

Jake Gaither American football player and coach

Alonzo Smith "Jake" Gaither was an American football coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Florida A&M University (FAMU) for 25 years, from 1945 to 1969, compiling a record of 204–36–4. His won–loss record is among the best of any college football coach.

The history of Tallahassee, Florida, much like the history of Leon County, dates back to the settlement of the Americas. Beginning in the 16th century, the region was colonized by Europeans, becoming part of Spanish Florida. In 1819, the Adams–Onís Treaty ceded Spanish Florida, including modern-day Tallahassee, to the United States. Tallahassee became a city and the state capital of Florida in 1821; the American takeover led to the settlements' rapid expansion as growing numbers of cotton plantations began to spring up nearby, increasing Tallahassees' population significantly.

Union Bank (Tallahassee, Florida) United States historic place

The Union Bank of Tallahassee, Florida was established around 1830 and the bank building constructed for it in 1841. It is Florida's oldest surviving bank building. It is located at Apalachee Parkway and Calhoun Street and is now a museum and archive and research center for African American history. On February 24, 1971, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) is a private, not-for-profit community healthcare system founded in 1948. Located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States and serving a 16-county region in North Florida and South Georgia, TMH comprises a 772-bed acute care hospital, a psychiatric hospital, multiple specialty care centers, three residency programs, 22 affiliated physician practices, and partnerships with Doctors’ Memorial Hospital, UF Health, and Weems Memorial Hospital.

Florida State University College of Medicine Medical school of FSU

The Florida State University College of Medicine, located in Tallahassee, Florida, is one of sixteen colleges composing the Florida State University. The college, created in 2000, is an accredited medical school, offering the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree for physicians. The College of Medicine also offers a Ph.D. degree and a Physician Assistant program.

In the United States, Medicare fraud is the claiming of Medicare health care reimbursement to which the claimant is not entitled. There are many different types of Medicare fraud, all of which have the same goal: to collect money from the Medicare program illegitimately.

The Florida State University College of Nursing, is the nursing school of the Florida State University. About 553 students are enrolled in classes, including undergraduates and graduate students. All programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education.

Wolfson Childrens Hospital Hospital in Florida, United States

Wolfson Children's Hospital is a nationally ranked, non-profit, pediatric acute care hospital located in Jacksonville, Florida. It has 216 beds and is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of the University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville and the Florida branch of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. The hospital is a part of the Baptist Health system, and the only children's hospital in the system. It provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to pediatric patients aged 0–21 throughout Jacksonville and the Northern Florida region, but also treats some adults that would be better treated under pediatric care. Wolfson Children's Hospital also features the only state verified level 1 pediatric trauma center in the region, and one of five in the state. A new inpatient building under construction as of 2020 will increase the hospital's number of beds to 298.

Kaleida Health Non-profit healthcare network in Buffalo, New York, USA

Kaleida Health, founded in 1998, is a not-for-profit healthcare network that manages five hospitals in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. Prior to the merger of member hospitals into the network, it was known as the Millard Fillmore Health System.

Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.

Guam Memorial Hospital Hospital in Guam, United States Territories

Guam Memorial Hospital is located in Tamuning, Guam and is the public civilian hospital serving the island of Guam. The hospital has 158 licensed acute care beds, plus 40 beds at its off-site, long-term care Skilled Nursing Facility.

As of 2017, approximately 1.4 million Americans live in a nursing home, two-thirds of whom rely on Medicaid to pay for their care. Residential nursing facilities receive Medicaid federal funding and approvals through a state health department. These facilities may be overseen by various types of state agency.

Nelson Elijah Townsend was an American college athletics administrator. Townsend served seven tenures as athletic director at four different universities: the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Delaware State University (1979–1986), Florida A&M University and the University at Buffalo (1987–1998). He was the University at Buffalo's first African American athletic director. At both Delaware State and Buffalo, Townsend was responsible for leading the athletic department to achieve full NCAA Division I status, as both schools transitioned from lower levels of NCAA hierarchy. Townsend was inducted to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Hall of Fame in 1995 and was inducted to both the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Halls of Fame in 2012.

The 1968 Tallahassee riots were one of many riots that broke out after Martin Luther King was assassinated in Tallahassee, Florida lasting from April 5–7, 1968. It was originally a student protest but later became a riot as a result of the rage and anger of participants. The riot would happened at Florida A & M University but unrest would be seen to a lesser extent in the Frenchtown neighborhood.

References

  1. 1 2 Jon (February 25, 2014). "FAMU Hospital". Florida Memory Blog. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  2. ↑ Bennett, Lanitra (February 13, 2014). "FAMU To Unveil Hospital Historical Marker At The Black History Convocation". WCTV . Archived from the original on February 20, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  3. ↑ Federal Writers' Project (1993). McDonough, Gary W. (ed.). The Florida Negro. A Federal Writers' Project Legacy. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN   0878055886.
  4. ↑ "A Historical Celebration: FAMU to Unveil Hospital Historical Marker". HBCU [Historically black colleges and universities] News. Tom Joyner Foundation. February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on May 21, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 Ensley, Gerald (February 26, 2014). "Black History: Refusing to Forget". Tallahassee Democrat . Archived from the original on July 4, 2021. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
  6. ↑ "FAMU to Unveil Hospital Historical Marker". Capitol Soup . February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on May 21, 2018. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Rabby, Glenda Alice (1999). The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN   082032051X.
  8. 1 2 "Map" (PDF). www.famu.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
  9. 1 2 Wesley, Jr., Nathaniel (2010). "New A&M Hospital to Open Tallahassee Democrat article of December 8, 1950". Black Hospitals in America: History, Contributions and Demise. Tallahassee: NWR Associates Publications. ISBN   9780615382395.
  10. ↑ "FAMU to Unveil Hospital Historical Marker at Black History Convocation". Florida A&M University. Archived from the original on June 28, 2017. Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  11. ↑ Study Panel on Medicare and Disparities (October 2006). Vladeck, Bruce C.; Van de Water, Paul N.; Eichner, June (eds.). Strengthening Medicare's Role in Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (PDF). National Academy of Social Insurance. ISBN   1-884902-47-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 29, 2020. Retrieved July 17, 2013.
  12. ↑ Newkirk II, Vann R. (June 27, 2017). "The Fight for Health Care Has Always Been About Civil Rights". The Atlantic . Archived from the original on August 13, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2018.
  13. ↑ Spillan, Trisha (June 13, 1972). "A&M Hospital Will Not Reopen". Tallahassee Democrat. reproduced in Wesley, p. 109.
  14. ↑ "The Florida A&M University Hospital (1911-1971) Historical Marker". Archived from the original on 2018-05-20. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  15. 1 2 "The Florida A&M University Hospital (1911-1971) Historical Marker". Archived from the original on 2018-05-20. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  16. ↑ Florida, State Library and Archives of. "Portrait of Florida A&M College medical director Dr. L.H.B. Foote - Tallahassee, Florida". Florida Memory. Archived from the original on 2018-05-21. Retrieved 2017-06-10.
  17. ↑ "Map" (JPG). www.famu.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-03-29. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.