Both New York Hospital and Cornell University Medical College maintained individual control of their respective departments and administrative operations. The medical center was structured on a university system with five major clinical departments: medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology, and psychiatry linked administratively. In these five clinical areas, the chairs of the college departments were the heads of the corresponding hospital departments. The pathology and radiology departments of the hospital and medical college were also linked in the same way. (Radiology, however, had different heads at the college and hospital until 1939). Likewise, the majority of the medical college faculty in these departments had corresponding appointments at the hospital. The medical college continued to maintain its basic science departments of anatomy, bacteriology and immunology, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology, as well as a separate department of public health.
George Heuer, chair, Department of Surgery (L) // Eugene DuBois, chair, Department of Medicine (R)
Since a mandatory retirement age of 65 was instituted for the professional staff, many of the top administrators, faculty, and attending staff at the medical college and hospital had to retire before the medical center opened. Drs. Charles Stockard (Anatomy), Robert Hatcher (Pharmacology), John Torrey (Public Health), and Stanley Benedict (Biochemistry) kept their chairs positions. (The Department of Biochemistry was called Chemistry at the old location.) Dr. Oscar Schloss, who was already the chair of the college’s Department of Pediatrics, became the pediatrician-in-chief of the hospital’s new pediatrics department. Dr. Eugene DuBois was promoted to chair/physician-in-chief of the Department of Medicine. Hired from outside of the medical college or hospital were: Drs. George Heuer (Surgery), Henricus Stander (Obstetrics & Gynecology), Eugene Opie (Pathology), George Amsden (Psychiatry), Herbert Gasser (Physiology) and James Neill (Bacteriology and Immunology). Until 1939, the chair of Department of Radiology was Dr. Harry Imboden and the radiologist-in-chief at the hospital was Dr. John Carty. The heads of the departments and some attending staff and faculty were appointed full time. Additional part time staff and faculty were hired.