Crouse-Irving Hospital,
afterwards Crouse Irving
Memorial Hospital (having merged with Syracuse Memorial Hospital),
afterwards Crouse Hospital,
now Crouse Health
Crouse-Irving Hospital dates from 1910, when a small group of doctors and citizens recognized the need for additional modern hospital facilities in Syracuse. They selected University Hill as the best location, and have added steadily to their property in that area. Crouse-Irving was established through mortgages and mortgage bonds sponsored by backers, and is the only hospital in Syracuse not built through public subscription.
From the original 50 beds it has grown to 210 beds and 36 bassinets, and its 1913 admissions can be compared with over 11,000 in 1954. It has 19% of the beds and admitted 22% of the patients in the local hospitals in 1954. 95% of its patients are from Syracuse and Onondaga County. Total admissions to date are nearing 300,000. Its obstetric and gynecology clinics, and its emergency room account for several thousand visits annually.
Its School of Nursing dates from 1913, and has graduated about 1,500 nurses. The Medical Staff has 98 active members; and in addition 76 community physicians are permitted to care for their private patients.
Crouse-Irving's Women's Auxiliary and its Flower Guild of junior members close to 2,000.
The Hospital is chartered by the New York State Board of Social Welfare as a voluntary, non-profit institution; it is accredited by the Commission of Accreditation of Hospitals; is a member of the American Hospital Association, the Hospital Association of New York State, and various regional hospital groups. It is an active member of the Syracuse Blue Cross plan.
Onondaga County Medical Society, 1906-1956, The Onondaga County Medical Society?, Syracuse? 1956, pg. 71.
Crouse Irving
Hospital, School of Nursing
On
August 18, 1913, the Crouse-Irving School of Nursing was established
and a class of 20 students entered. The School was registered by
the Board of Regents of the State of New York in February 1914.
At least one year of high school was required. The course was
three years in length with a three months probationary period.
Students received approximately 507 hours of classroom instruction with
the remainder of the time spent in caring for the patients in the
hospital, excluding time off for vacations and a half-day off per week.In November 1914, Crouse-Irving raised its requirement to a full high school course, being, as far as we know, one of the first in the country to adopt this standard; and the first and only in this vicinity to demand more than the Regents requirement of one year of high school work. The first class of 15 students graduated on September 16, 1916.
On May 7, 1918, the hospital instituted the eight-hour day, 48-hour week for student nurses. This hospital was one of the first hospitals in the East to inaugurate this program.
A tuition fee of $40 and a breakage fee of $10 was required in May 1919. The hospital still continued to furnish the student's uniforms, books and maintenance.
Beginning with the class entering in 1920, the course of the Crouse-Irving Hospital School of Nursing was to be completed in two years. This was made possible by the 8-hour system, the advanced entrance requirements and high standing of the pupils, and by the fact that unnecessary and unsuitable manual work is curtailed as much as is consistent with proper education. The two year course includes the three months of probation and one month's vacation each year.
One interesting point in regard to educational requirements and length of the nursing course is as follows:
1. high school graduates allowed one year of time, completing the regular three year course, as marked out by the Regents, in two years.
2. those meeting the requirements of the Regents by having completed one year of high school will be credited three months time, making their training school course two years and three months.
3. those having completed two years of high school work will be credited six months time, making their course two years and six months.
4. those meeting the requirements of the Regents by having completed one year of high school, will be credited three month's time, making their training school course two years and nine months.
In October 1932, the course was increased to two years and four months and only high school graduates were accepted by the School of Nursing.
The length of the course for those students who entered in September 1937, and for all future classes was to be three years, including a preliminary course of five months. The increase in the length of the course made it possible for each student to affiliate for three months' work in psychiatric nursing and a two to three month period in communicable diseases.
The first Grand Reunion of the Crouse-Irving nurses was held on May 18, 1939. Nearly eight hundred have graduated since the graduation of its first class in 1916. This celebration marked the 25th Anniversary of the Crouse-Irving Hospital, School of Nursing.
On January 18, 1940, the opening of the new Educational Building, which held three modern teaching units, a library, a recreation center and a kitchenette, enabled the School of Nursing to accept larger classes of students.
At the present time, classes enter every September and the course is three years in length. Students have approximately 1497 hours of formal classroom instruction and the clinical experience includes Psychiatry and Communicable Disease.
To date, Crouse-Irving Hospital, School of Nursing, has graduated 1,385 nurses.
Text Source: A Short History of Hospitals in Syracuse, SUNY Upstate Medical University: Health Services Library: Historical Collections: http://www.upstate.edu/library/history/hospitals.shtml
A group of physicians and investors led by William L. Wallace founded Crouse Irving Hospital in 1910 entirely upon private funding to treat everything except contagious diseases. It opened in 1912 and started its school of nursing in 1913. Always for-profit, the building had been designed so that if the hospital venture was not successful, it could be used as a hotel. Until 1968, Syracuse Memorial Hospital and Crouse Irving Hospital each operated successfully across the street from each other, then merged into Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital. At first, services were shared in the two separate buildings, but plans were soon afoot to combine the physical plants. As part of the S.H.A.R.E. campaign to modernize local health care, the deteriorating Crouse Irving Hospital building was superseded in 1976 by the new "Irving Unit," attached to the "Memorial Unit," the former Syracuse Memorial Hospital, so that all services would be located under one roof at 736 Irving Avenue. The former hospital building at 820 South Crouse Avenue was first converted to an educational building, then demolished in 1991 when the present Harry and Lillian Marley Education Center opened. In 1996 Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital became Crouse Hospital, and the parent corporation, Crouse Irving Companies, became Crouse Health.
Submitted 16 March 2006 by Pamela Priest
Updated 22 April 2006 by Pamela Priest