When collecting the records of an active institution, material trickles in over time, sometimes out of sequence and almost always with the promise of "there's more where that came from."

There are also discreet sets of material within an institution related to a particular project or office that is no longer in operation. This material is easier to bookend with a beginning and an end, but often comes to the archives in batches over a period of time. Such is the case with the records of the Board of Governors, an institutional body charged with the management of the University Hospitals from 1975-1996.

In October 2006 I discussed the acquisition of an almost complete run of the BoG minutes. I then identified an existing collection of BoG material already located at University Archives. A year later, my good friends at the Wangensteen Historical Library opened up a locked filing cabinet and discovered nearly 12 boxes worth of additional material related to the Board of Governors' activities.

For an institutional body that ceased to exist almost 12 years ago, the BoG had the ability to generate records faster than I could collect them.

Now, with the assistance of University Archives, all sets of material related to the Board of Governors are being organized as a single collection that will be available for research and administrative use.

Read the minutes from the first Board of Governors' meeting held on January 15, 1975:

Posted by Erik Moore at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Tagged as AHC documents | Hospitals | Processing |

The University of Minnesota Hospitals was established for the welfare of the state – and thus for your welfare.

So begins the introductory remarks of the patient pocket guidebook "For Your Health" given to each one of the estimated 13,000 annual patients treated at the University Hospitals in the late 1950s. The pocket guide gives information on hospital meal times and local area restaurants, visiting hours, billing and insurance, and what to expect when discharged.

The guide also explains the roles of individual staff members including doctors, medical students, nurses, dietitians, medical technologists, occupational and physical therapists, and social workers as well as what services to expect during a stay ranging from TV rentals to appointments with a visiting barber.

The language and illustrations of the pocket guide differ from today's approach to educate visitors about the hospitals and clinics. Even the media has changed to online virtual tours to educate patients and families about what to expect.

Browse through the pocket guide "For Your Health" below.

Posted by Erik Moore at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Tagged as AHC documents | Curiosities | Hospitals |

We will become the architects of health care delivery programs that bring to every citizen of the state the finest health care that society has seen.

With these words, Malcolm Moos, the tenth president of the University of Minnesota, celebrated the groundbreaking for Health Sciences Unit A in 1971. Unit A was the first in a series of interconnected facilities designed to integrate interprofessional education and optimize health care delivery. Based on commissioned studies and committee recommendations during the 1960s, health science education was brought together under the newly created administrative body of the Academic Health Center as well as physically in a complex of buildings, tunnels, and skyways.

Also during the groundbreaking ceremony, the Board of Regents charged the newly formed health sciences administration and faculty to remember

It is the Health Sciences facilities which we are here talking about today [that] will be implemented physically by a moral and intellectual commitment to see that all people of our state, those in the inner city and those in the out edges of the state, without regard to the particular circumstance in which they find themselves economically, will have available to them the degree and the facilities of health care which are adequate and appropriate to the dignity which each man has as a human being.

The building was completed in 1973 for a total cost of $45 million and was home to the School of Dentistry, teaching laboratories for basic sciences, and departments from the School of Public Health and the Medical School upon its opening.

In 1983 the University officially changed the name of Health Sciences Unit A to the Malcolm Moos Health Sciences Tower to commemorate President Moos' commitment to the expansion of the health sciences on campus.

Read the full remarks made at the groundbreaking ceremony on April 1, 1971.

Posted by Erik Moore at 08:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Tagged as AHC documents | Dentistry | Facilities |

In 1967, Dean Robert Howard of the College of Medical Sciences along with Dr. Erwin Schaffer, dean of the School of Dentistry, Lawrence Weaver, dean of the College of Pharmacy, and John Westerman, director of University Hospitals issued their program for the advancement of the health sciences at the University of Minnesota.

In order to meet the needs of health care delivery over the next twenty years, the program calls to double the enrollment in health science fields from 3,124 in 1966 to 6,900 by 1986.

The press release closely associates the growth of the health sciences with the University. The model proposed focused on tying together all of the health science and health care delivery programs in order to better educate and prepare the next generation of health professionals by stating:

Closer integration of all health science programs, in recognition of the "team approach" to comprehensive health care, was a major point. This has significant implications for the training of physicians, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, and members of the growing number of associated health professions. Closer interaction among research workers in all areas of the health sciences also is a part of the plan.

These same ideas continue today. The education model of interprofessional education continues to be a core function of the Academic Health Center.

Read the full press release dated April 14, 1967 below.

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The Regents of the University of Minnesota are strongly committed to building improvements in both the quality and availability of health care. In pursuing these goals, the University commissioned several studies that prompted a Regents' decision to expand the scale and scope of the University's programs in the Health Sciences.

To accomplish the objectives of this comprehensive program most effectively it became clear that major administrative reorganization of the Health Sciences was necessary.

So began President Malcolm Moos' introduction of the July 10, 1970 resolution by the Board of Regents to reorganize health science education and care delivery at the University of Minnesota into the Academic Health Center.

The Health Sciences Mission Statement and Proposed Structure and Governance documents the Regents' decision. The Mission Statement was prepared and adopted by the Regents and delivered at the July meeting by the Honorable Fred J. Hughes. In part, the Mission Statement reads

For ninety years the University of Minnesota Health Sciences have been providing leadership in professional education and research. Statewide, nationally and world-wide, Minnesota has won acclaim for outstanding achievements in health science education, and for outstanding quality in the delivery of health care. In undertaking major administrative reorganization of the Health Science units, the Regents proceed with confidence that Minnesota can continue to be a pacesetter for the nation as we strengthen our commitment to better serve the health needs of our Minnesota citizens. We are justly proud of our accomplishments in the health sciences in the State, but the question is not how far we have come but how far we have to go.

Click the above image to download and read the full report.

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As the AHC and the University of Minnesota continue to expand and develop within the confines of a limited space, take a look back to 1968 and see the perceived growth and expansion of the health sciences on campus.

The Planning Report was the result of a four-year effort sponsored by the Hill Family Foundation and overseen by the University Long Range Planning Committee for the Health Sciences.

There are many familiar landmarks today on campus that were merely architectural models at the time of the report’s publication. Similarly, there are a few proposed construction sites that never materialized.

As the campus changes today with the construction of the new stadium and the proposals for bringing light rail to the University, planning documents like this show that although change is a constant, there is usually a through line to its logic.

A vision of the future (1973) for parking and traffic in the 1968 Health Sciences Planning Report

Posted by Erik Moore at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Tagged as AHC documents | Facilities |