This Week in Texas Methodist History  November 19

Houston Methodist Hospital Trustees Report to Annual Conference, Nov.  19, 1924

One of the shining jewels of Texas Methodism is our network of hospitals that combine the most advanced scientific research and patient care with a Christian witness of healing.  

The 1924 report of the Houston Methodist Hospital to the Texas Annual Conference shows an exuberance rarely seen in board reports.  The hospital was opened on June 11, and in only 6 months the hospital had made remarkable progress.  

The Business Manager of the Methodist Hospital was S. R. Hay, Jr., whose father had been elected bishop while serving as pastor of First Methodist Houston.  He reported a total investment of $239272.44.  There were 36 doctors and 32 nurses to care for the 98 patients who had been treated since June 11.

A nursing school was already in operation with six students enrolled in the 3-year program.  The Methodist Hospital had been awarded a Grade A status by its accrediting agency, the American College of Surgeons.  The report to Annual Conference mentioned the up-to-date apparatus including X-ray equipment, its Photo-therapy Department where patients received ultra violet treatments, and its Radium Department which boasted the “largest supply of radium in the Southwest.”

One of the recommendations in the Annual Report was a very long time in coming.  #7 Recommendation was as follows

In view of the fact that no Protestant Hospital in Houston is prepared to care for negro patients, we recommend that the Management of our Hospital look forward to the time when arrangements can be made to take proper care of negro patients.

Decades would pass before that recommendation was implemented.