Gillette Children's - History Timeline

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Gillette Timeline

		1863		Arthur J. Gillette is born. He grows up on a farm in what is now South St. Paul and attends Hamline University.
		1866		Jessie Haskins is born. She develops severe curvature of the spine. She would become an advocate for children with disabilities.
		1883		Arthur Gillette decides to become a doctor and enrolls in the Minnesota Hospital College.
				The Minnesota Board of Corrections and Charities, an arm of the state Legislature, is formed “to prevent irregularities in state institutions.” Fourteen years later, the board would hear testimony from Jessie Haskins and Dr. Gillette.
Dr. Arthur Gillette		1885		Dr. Gillette transfers to the St. Paul Medical College in downtown St. Paul and graduates.
Jessie Haskins circa 1890s		1886		With his medical degree in hand, Dr. Gillette sets off for New York to study orthopaedic surgery under the renowned Dr. Lewis Albert Sayer and Dr. Newton Shaffer. Dr. Sayer was famous for his operation to correct clubfoot, but his most important innovation was the use of Plaster of Paris jackets to treat curvature of the spine.
		1888		Dr. Gillette returns to Minnesota to embark on his specialty -- using orthopaedic surgery and braces to treat children with disabilities.
		1890		Dr. Gillette specializes full-time in orthopaedics. He is an instructor at the University of Minnesota Medical School in what he called "this almost new science" of orthopaedic surgery.
		1896		Jessie Haskins, a student at Carleton College, who has curvature of the spine, presents her paper to the Minnesota Board of Corrections and Charities.
		1897		Dr. Gillette presents a paper, titled, "The Duty of the State to Its Indigent Crippled Children" to the Minnesota Board of Corrections and Charities.
				April 23 - The Legislature gives the University of Minnesota the authroity to provide for the care of "indigent crippled children." A ward is set aside for them at the City and County Hospital. The state provides braces and surgical appliances at minimal cost. The regents name Dr. Gillette chief surgeon. Dr. Gillette's medical school colleagues agree to donate their services.
				October 27 - Royal J. Gray is the first child admitted to the ward at the City and County Hospital. He has Pott's Disease and is hospitalized for more than one year. His long hospitalization suggests the need to educate children while they are hospitalized.
		1898		Kindergarten instruction begins at the hospital.
		1899		The two-year, $10,000 legislative appropriation is exhausted and Dr. Gillette is faced with finding a way to establish the hospital on a more permanent basis. Legislators visit the ward and agree to continue their support.
		1900		Frances Corning Boardman is hired to establish a formal education system that eventually would allow patients to earn their high school diplomas while hospitalized.
		1905		Katherine Kennedy, who came to the hospital as a teacher in 1900, marries Dr. Gillette. The couple would begin an annual tradition of inviting young patients to have a picnic on the grounds of their St. Paul mansion.
				The number of patients Dr. Gillette serves continues to multiply and outgrows the space at the City and County Hospital. The need for a separate institution is apparent. "Certain citizens of St. Paul, the Business League and the Commercial Club of St. Paul" donate 23 acres to the state as a site for a new hospital.
		1907		The Legislature appproves the act that funds a new building for the Minnesota Hospital for indigent Crippled and Deformed Children.
		1909		Construction of "a sanitarium and school building" begins at the Lake Phalen site. Architect Clarence Johnston designs the building.
		1910		The first building opens and the transfer of patients from the City and County Hospital to the Lake Phalen "sanitarium" begins.
				Dr. Wallace Cole and Dr. Carl Chatterton begin their internships under Dr. Gillette.
		1914		Dr. Wallace Cole joins the staff as an orthopaedic surgeon.
				Elizabeth McGregor is appointed superintendent of the hospital.
		1915		Dr. Gillette shows the state Board of Control the facility's new operating room. Two new wards are built, and an "instrument department" opens where braces can be made.
				Dr. Gillette resigns "in favor of some younger and better man." Pressured by the University's faculty, he agrees to continue.
				The first spine surgery is performed around this time.
		1917		The hospital's population is increasing. A total of 426 children are admitted.
		1921		Elizabeth McGregor creates a post-graduate course for nurses to help them hone their skills. The following year, she hires her sister, Margaret, to take over the task of supervising the nurses.
				March 21 - Dr. Gillette dies at the age of 57. He had been responsible for the treatment of 4,171 children. More than 80% were cured or discharged as improved and able to live independently.
				Dr. Chatterton succeeds Dr. Gillette as chief of staff and Dr. Cole becomes associate surgeon-in-chief.
		1920 - 1925		An east and west wing are constructed. Two operating rooms are added, as well as a school building. The auditorium, the Michael J. Dowling Memorial Hall, is a gift from the Minnesota Editorial Association and the Minnestota Bankers Association. Dowling, a successful editor and banker, had been a member of both organizations. As a young man, he was caught in a blizzard and disabled when his hands and feet were badly frozen. He had been a Carleton College classmate of Jessie Haskins.
				The auditorium was dedicated to Dowling, ". . . that the children who attend here with imaginations fired by the story of this man of dauntless spirit, may achieve the best in life for, though crippled in body he was not crippled in mind, but was a torchbearer of courage, an inspiration of hope to all about him."
		1925		In memory of Dr. Gillette, the hospital is renamed, the Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children.
				The Brace Shop opens. It is the forerunner to today's Assistive Technology Department, which makes braces, artificial limbs, seating systems, powered wheelchair controls and communication devices.
		1927		Jessie Haskins dies at the age of 61. She lived to see her dream of a hospital for children with disabilities firmly established.
		1937		Dr. Gillette's medical school colleagues, who had previously donated their time to the hospital without pay, begin receiving small monthly stipends.
		Late 1930s		Tuberculosis, which had crippled so many children, is declining. Polio continues to bring many children with disabilities to Gillette State Hospital.
		1940		A total of 629 children have been treated at Gillette State Hospital, with an average census of 223 patients. Most of them stay an average of 133 days.
		1947		Dr. John Moe starts a scoliosis program at Gillette. His skills and specialization bring him and the hospital world fame. Dr. Moe first appears in the Gillette Hospital records in 1932, as a resident physician and again in 1934, as a member of the orthopaedic attending staff.
		1949		Elizabeth McGregor retires as hospital administrator.
				Jean Conklin, a nurse at the hospital, succeeds her. She presides over the vast changes that lie ahead for Gillette State Hospital. She begins a gradual reorganization, including enlarging and modernizing the surgery department.
		1955		Dr. Chatterton retires as chief of staff.
				Dr. Cole is appointed chief of staff.
		1958		Dr. Cole retires as chief of staff.
				Dr. Moe is appointed chief of staff.
		1960s		The length of stay rapidly shortens and the census declines to an average of 125 patients per day.
		1969		Dr. Robert Winter is appointed the hospital's medical director, a new position the state Legislature authorizes to better coordinate treatment. He started his residency at Gillette in 1959 and began practicing in 1963.
		1971		The Legislature changed the hospital's name to Gillette Children's Hospital.
				The hospital is authorized to start charging for medical and surgical treatment, based on ability to pay for families with or without insurance. This marks the first admission of private paying patients.
		1972		The number of patients drops to an average daily census of 50, and about 1,000 discharges annually. The average length of stay is about three weeks.
				A commission is appointed to study the issues the state hospital is facing. The Legislature is driving the process by requiring the hospital to move into exixting beds in a major medical center, rather than build a new hospital.
		1975		The decision is made to move to St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center based on the hospital's willingness to turn over 60 beds on two wards for Gillette Children's use.
				Gillette Children's becomes a self-supporting, non-profit organization. The state no longer owns or operates the hospital. The operating budget is no longer a state appropriation and individuals and third-party payers pay for services.
		1977		Gillette Children's Hospital moves to St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center -- the reincarnation of the City and County Hospital, which was Gillette Children's first home.
		1978		Jean Conklin retires
				Dr. Moe retires.
		1979		The Pediatric Brain Injury Program begins.
Margaret Perryman		1985		Gillette Children's Hospital Foundation is incorporated as a fund-raising branch of the hospital.
				The Mobile Outreach Clinic program is established, initially as a repair service for wheelchairs. The program, coordinated through the Gillette Technology Center, now uses a specially equipped van to bring services to people who have disabilities in greater Minnesota and western Wisconsisn. The program offers more than 60 clinics a year, serving nearly 600 patients.
		1987		Margaret Perryman becomes president of Gillette Children's in February.
				Under the direction of Dr. Steven Koop, Gillette begins providing gait and motion analysis. It is one of the first in the nation to use computers to assess muscle, joint and nerve problems that affect a patient's ability to walk.
		1989		Gillette becomes a private, non-profit organization.
			Selective dorsal rhizotomy surgery, a surgical procedure to permanently reduce spasticity, is introduced.
	1991		The hospital begins offering a new procedure for limb lengthening.
	1992		Gillette Children's becomes the only pediatric hospital in the state to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities for comprehensive medical inpatient rehabilitation.
	1995		The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit opens to better serve patients recovering from surgery, those with a serious illness, as well as pediatric trauma patients from St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center.
			The SureFit® seating system is invented by Gillette employees and patented. It consists of adjustable parts that allow a wheelchair seat to be adjusted as the child grows.
	1996		Gillette Children's Hospital changes its name to Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare to reflect the diversity of services now offered.
			The Minnesota Humanities Commission moves into the restored Dowling Hall at the hospital's former Lake Phalen site.
			The intrathecal baclofen pump, an innovative therapy to treat patients who have spasticity, receives FDA approval. Gillette was one of 12 medical facilities in the country to test the product prior to FDA approval.
	1997		Gillette Children's opens the Minnetonka Clinic in the western Twin Cities suburb.

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