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On December 4, 1898,
the
Philadelphia Times
reported
the hospital opening as “perhaps
the most important event of the
week in Atlantic City.”
It described the dedicated members of the board of governors and the Women’s
Auxiliary as being “untiring in their efforts to provide the city with an institution
of which it need not be ashamed.”
The first resident physician, Clyde M. Fish, MD, of Jefferson Medical College,
started work on December 15, 1898. His first hospital patient was 11-year-old
Gussie Johan, who had broken his leg falling off a horse-drawn wagon after a goat
butted the horse. Gussie recovered and went on to live a long life, dying at the
age of 99 in February 1987.
With Mrs. Mary W. Kimmell at the helm as
superintendent of the modest hospital, Atlantic
City finally had a dedicated public health facility,
and the community embraced its new healthcare
services, using the hospital for births, emergency
care and serious illness.
The board’s Second Annual Report mirrored
the community’s enthusiasm: “The board feels
that in all respects the hospital has met the
expectations of its promoters. It is carefully and
economically managed, and is proving itself
worthy of the encouragement and support
of every friend of humanity.”