History
In the 1870s, Dr. George Lewis, a physician practicing in the city, persuaded his aunt, Susan Hubbell, to bequeath $13,500 and an acre at the summit of Mill Hill for the construction of a hospital, the first in Fairfield County, and only the third in the state. Before Bridgeport Hospital, "the closest thing to a hospital in the city was a facility in the basement of the future police headquarters, where infection and mortality rates were high among the emergency patients and poor residents who received care there," according to the hospital's web site.
The hospital was founded in 1878 when Bridgeport Mayor P.T. Barnum and other community leaders received approval from the state legislature to incorporate the institution. When a board of directors was named soon afterward, Barnum was elected its first president. On November 12, 1884, the new hospital began treating patients.
As of September 2010, Robert J. Trefry was the hospital’s CEO and president. The compensation package provided to Trefry by the hospital's board, reported at $2.5 million in 2009, drew criticism in the press for being considerably higher than the national median of $377,000 to $490,000, at a time when the hospital's $8 million budget deficit lead to layoffs. The Board defended Trefry's compensation package, saying the total was actually $1,073,300 that year, and that the remaining amount was a one-time tax adjustment on benefits accumulated over 17 years taken from Trefry's retirement account rather than the hospital's operating budget.
Trefry announced that he will retire as President and CEO at the end of September 2010. The hospital has announced that William M. Jennings, the president and CEO of SSM St. Mary's Health Center in St. Louis, will assume the post on October 1, 2010.
Read more about this topic: Bridgeport Hospital
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“The history of the world is the record of the weakness, frailty and death of public opinion.”
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