Duke Hospital opened for patients on July 21, 1930. Pictured below is the staff of the Duke University School of Medicine, Nursing, and Dietetics and Duke Hospital two days before the opening.
F. Ross Porter was one of Duke Hospital's first administrative interns when the hospital opened in 1930. In 1932 he was appointed assistant superintendent of Duke Hospital, and in 1933 he was certified in hospital administration. He served at Duke as professor of hospital administration until 1960. On the 25th anniversary of the hospital, Porter shared his remembrances in the August 1955 issue of the Intercom. He writes:
“Contrary to our expectations that the Hospital wards could be opened at a leisurely pace we found ourselves opening them just about as rapidly as we were able to force out the students and House staff living in the unopened one… This growth was a fine tribute to the judgement of Dr. Davison and his Staff in their original planning, but it surely did keep us all stepping.
We remember, too, routine estimates of ten days for an appendectomy… fourteen days for delivery… fifteen to twenty days for a herniotomy… Hospital costs in those days was less than six dollars per day… starting salary for secretaries was sixty dollars per month and for graduate nurses, less than one hundred dollars.
As always, in recalling the past, we remember a great deal more about colorful individuals and inconsequential incidents than about the important milestones.”
Read his full reminiscences and find a digitized copy of the entire issue here. The Intercom, Duke Medicine’s primary news publication from 1953 to 1986, featured information about campus events and construction, faculty and staff news, and articles on medical research and innovations at Duke. The first 25 years of this publication have been digitized, making more than 500 issues available online.
For more information about the early days of Duke Health, please contact the Medical Center Archives.