Week 10

This week, I was able to interview three more people for the history project.  Tuesday morning, I met with someone who was one of the key players in the sale of Henrotin Hospital in the '80s.  I met him at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he has been employed since before the sale.  This interview was interesting because he gave his recollection of the purchase of the hospital from Northwestern's point of view.

At the time of the sale, Northwestern and Henrotin Hospitals, which were only a few blocks away from each other, competed for patients.  Henrotin also had an excellent sports medicine program, among other programs, which Northwestern was hoping could be incorporated into the Northwestern Memorial Hospital system.  Northwestern was also competing with nearby Rush Presbyterian hospital, so it was in the Northwestern's best interest to purchase Henrotin.  While some of the individuals I have spoken to who were involved with Henrotin Hospital at the time of the sale have explained their feelings of shock and disappointment upon hearing of the closing of the hospital, the individual I interviewed from Northwestern gave a different opinion.  He explained that Northwestern had planned on keeping the hospital open much longer than they did, but ultimately made the decision to close after experiencing heavy financial losses for the last 12 months the hospital was open.  He explained that Northwestern did as much as they could to incorporate the Henrotin Hospital employees into Northwestern's system, but received criticism from the Henrotin Hospital medical staff.

The second person I interviewed this week was a lawyer hired by Washington Square to deal with the legal details of converting the foundation from a public to a private charity after the closure of the hospital.  Due to his legal involvement in the foundation, Washington Square became one of the first health care conversion foundations in the country.

The last person I interviewed this week started the Washington Square scholarship program in the late '80s.  As a new foundation at this time, the foundation needed a way to break into the grant-giving scene, and gain awareness for the foundation.  Giving scholarships to medical and nursing students provided a relatively easy way to do this.  There was also a shortage of nurses in the early '90s, so the scholarship program provided a way to directly respond to Chicago's health care needs.

The individuals I spoke to this week provided me with a lot of useful information to continue writing the history of the foundation, so I look forward to working more on the writing portion next week.