A Legacy of Service to East Texas

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It was 1947. The early morning sunlight filtered through the East Texas pine trees, glinting off the boxy outlines of 40 white, wooden barracks that had been filled by sick and wounded World War II soldiers. These barracks were the 1,000-bed field hospital at Camp Fannin, a U.S. Army camp established outside of Tyler in 1942 that trained over 100,000 infantrymen.

The war was over, and Camp Fannin had been decommissioned. It was a “disposable war asset,” and so most of its 30,000 acres – confiscated by the government in 1942 – were returned to East Texans who originally owned the land.

In the 1940s, tuberculosis was the leading killer in the U.S, and a great need existed in East Texas for a hospital to treat patients with TB. The Camp Fannin Station Hospital barracks and 614 acres around it were given to the state by the federal government, and in 1947, the 50th Texas Legislature created the East Texas Tuberculosis Sanatorium, which would later become The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT).

On June 1, 1949, the sanatorium received its first patients – 144 blacks who came from a Kerrville, Texas, sanatorium. But TB didn’t discriminate, sickening both whites and blacks, and so both were housed and treated separately at that time, under the laws and customs of the segregated South.

In 1951, the 51st Texas Legislature christened the sanatorium the East Texas Tuberculosis Hospital, and by late 1955, the hospital housed over 800 patients. People with TB commonly waited for months before a hospital bed was available, and once hospitalized, stayed up to two years or more. In that same year, ground was broken for a hospital expansion, and a new six-story, 325-bed facility was completed in 1957.

There were two parks on campus, along with a picnic area, a fishpond, a theater, and a well-equipped library. The hospital had a dentist, beautician, and barber. Patients also traveled to Lake Tyler for fishing, to the rodeo, and to area fairs, all via a hospital bus.

With the advent of new TB drugs, fewer patients entered the East Texas Tuberculosis Hospital and by 1961, the facility held about 500 patients. In 1969, the 61st Texas Legislature authorized the hospital to treat patients with other lung diseases, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

In 1970, the hospital employed 300 people and had an annual budget of $10 million. That year, Dr. George Hurst was promoted to director of the hospital; he had served as clinical director since 1964. The hospital established its first outpatient clinic in 1966. The 62nd Texas Legislature in 1971 changed the institution’s name yet again, to the East Texas Chest Hospital.

It continued to grow, treating patients with all types of lung diseases and adding additional outpatient services. In 1975, the 64th Texas Legislature authorized a $17.3 million expansion. On Feb. 10, 1977, Gov. Dolph Briscoe presided over the groundbreaking of a new six-floor hospital building; the old hospital became office space.

The most significant change occurred on Sept. 1, 1977, when the hospital became the UT Health Science Center at Tyler, part of The University of Texas System. The late State Sen. Peyton McKnight of Tyler sponsored a bill that transferred the East Texas Chest Hospital from the Texas Department of Health to the UT System. Tyler leaders such as Royce Wisenbaker, Sr., and Isadore Roosth provided key support. With its specialization in lung disease, UTHSCT became the state referral hospital for cardiopulmonary disease. Its primary mission was threefold: patient care, education, and research.

In September 1980, UTHSCT opened its new six-story hospital tower. On Nov. 8, 1983, UTHSCT physicians performed the first open heart surgery in East Texas. That same year, Dr. Allen B. Cohen, a prominent pulmonologist from Temple University in Philadelphia, was recruited to lead UTHSCT’s fledgling biomedical research program.

The Watson W. Wise Medical Research Library, the only medical library between Dallas and Shreveport, was dedicated in 1984. In 1985, construction of a $9 million, 71,000-square-foot Center for Biomedical Research began; it was completed in 1987.

In the area of education, a Family Practice Residency Program opened in 1985. It was the first graduate-level medical training program in East Texas. With support from the Texas Chest Foundation, the Texas Asthma Camp for Children also began in 1985, and continues today as the oldest, largest asthma camp in the state.

In 1993, the 73rd Texas Legislature established the Center for Pulmonary and Infectious Disease Control (CPIDC) on the Health Science Center campus. An Occupational Medicine Residency Program began in 1995, and UTHSCT partnered with Stephen F. Austin State University to offer master’s degrees in environmental science and biotechnology.

The four-story, 80,000-square-foot Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) opened in late 1996 at a cost of $12.8 million. The third and fourth floors were left unfinished, waiting for future growth. In 1998, Dr. Hurst retired as director after 34 years, and Ronald F. Garvey, MD, became the first president of UTHSCT.

In 2002, Dr. Garvey retired, and Kirk A. Calhoun, MD, became president. The third floor of the ACC opened, becoming the new home of the Primary Care Clinic, the Robert B. Irwin Internal Medicine Clinic, and the Center for Diabetes Care. The fourth floor opened in the summer of 2005, with the Women’s Wellness Center and surgical services located there. In June 2005, the ACC became the Riter Center for Advanced Medicine, honoring A.W. “Dub” Riter, Jr., longtime UTHSCT friend and development board member, and member of the UT System Board of Regents.

The 78th Texas Legislature designated UTHSCT as the East Texas Center for Rural Geriatric Studies in 2003, which has become known as the Center for Healthy Aging.

In 2004, the $2.2 million Public Health Lab of East Texas, a joint project of UTHSCT and the Texas Department of Health, opened on the UTHSCT campus. The lab enables researchers to identify and study common and emerging infections important to public health. For the first time, UTHSCT’s biomedical research funding exceeded $10 million.

In April 2005, an $11.3 million, 30,000-square-foot addition to the Center for Biomedical Research opened with 17 new labs. In May 2005, to further its educational mission, the 79th Texas Legislature gave UTHSCT degree-granting authority. In fall 2005, UTHSCT received the largest government-funded research grant in its history: a $7.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study lung scarring. UTHSCT received 80 new grants in fiscal year 2005, totaling $11.3 million.

In the mid-1990s, the Research Council and the President’s Council were established to provide unrestricted funds to supplement ongoing research projects, purchase special equipment, and provide scholarships that enhance Health Science Center research. At any one time, physician researchers at UTHSCT’s Center for Clinical Research are conducting close to 150 clinical trials of new treatments for conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, and pneumonia.

Currently, the Health Science Center has more than 65 physicians in the areas of adolescent health, adult/pediatric allergy and immunology, aviation medicine, cardiovascular disease and surgery, diabetes, family medicine, gastroenterology, geriatrics, gynecology, infectious disease, internal medicine, neurology, occupational medicine, oncology, pediatrics, adult/pediatric pulmonary disease, rheumatology, sleep medicine, sports and travel medicine, surgery, urology, and vascular disease.

The Health Science Center’s annual operating budget for fiscal year 2006 is $121 million, and UTHSCT has more than 1,100 employees. In addition, the level of charity care provided to East Texans by the Health Science Center in fiscal year 2005 was more than $22 million. That same year, UTHSCT had about 174,000 outpatient visits and just under 3,000 inpatient admissions. These patients came from 128 of the 254 counties in Texas.

As the Health Science Center nears its 60th anniversary, it continues in the words of its mission, “to serve East Texas and beyond through excellent patient care and community health, comprehensive education, and innovative research.”