The Bill to authorize the University General Hospital went before the Assembly in 1923. Part of the bill, similar to the Psychopathic Hospital bill, is to authorize the Regents to build and maintain the physical hospital, hire staff, and set fees. It set out very clearly that the hospital is intended for the treatment of citizens of Colorado who may not be able to afford treatment. Section 3 reads ‘Said University Hospital shall be primarily and principally designed for the care of legal residents of Colorado who are afflicted with a malady, deformity or ailment of a nature that can probably be remedied or improved by hospital care and treatment, and who are unable financially, to secure such care…’
Many of the following sections explain the procedure to apply for treatment at the hospital, and the fees the County the patient is a resident of will need to pay. An interesting part of the bill provides for someone to be paid $3 a day, plus expenses, to transport the patient to and from the hospital if they are unable to afford to make the trip on their own.
To further emphasize the mission of the hospital, patients that can pay for care cannot be admitted unless there is space available, and their fees will be used to run the hospital. Section 6 says ‘Students of the university and such other patients as the Board of Regents, to an extent that will not interfere with the primary purpose of said hospital as set forth in Section 3 may direct, may be received in said University Hospital whenever there is room, and all fees received from such patients shall be used for the purposes of said hospital.’
Once the bills were passed, the Regents started the process to find a location for the campus and raise the funds to build it. Frederick G. Bonfils, the owner and publisher of the Denver Post, offered 21 acres of land between 8th and 11th Avenues at Colorado Blvd, to the Regents in 1922. Previous to the donation being made, the Regents were negotiating for a plot of land at 26th Ave, just North of City Park. Once the Bonfils donation was accepted, the plan for that location was abandoned. Along with a $750,000 donation from the Rockefeller Foundation, and a $600,000 state tax levy, construction of the 9th Ave Campus began in 1923. The Hospital was designed by Maurice Briscoe, a Denver native. The design incorporated patient care, clinical and research work, and classrooms. Besides the Psychopathic Hospital and University Hospital, a nurses residence, and a power plant were also built. The University of Colorado Health Sciences Campus was dedicated on January 23rd, 1925. Dean Meader resigned as Dean in 1925, satisfied that his duty to the University of Colorado had been fulfilled. He died at the age of 80 in 1965.
