Dr. Charles Meader was the Dean of the University Of Colorado School Of Medicine from 1916 to 1925. Perhaps one of the most important acts of Dr. Meader’s tenure as Dean was to move all the operations of the schools of medicine and nursing to a central location in Denver. He wrote the bills that paved the way for the construction of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Campus at 9th and Colorado.

The Strauss Health Sciences Library received a donation of documents and artifacts from the Dean’s Office of the School of Medicine in 2016. Included in the donation were the original documents that Dean Meader prepared for the acts that created the 9th Avenue Campus. The collection contains several drafts of the bills that established the original University Hospital and the Colorado Psychopathic Hospital. Three versions of the bills are handwritten by Dr. Meader with several notes and have many more sections that appear in the finalized bills. There are also several studies and reports from other states, which Dean Meader may have used to shape the language of the bills. In one of the early drafts of the bill, he wrote ‘Section 11. Incorporate Section 10 of Minnesota Act, altering phraseology to conform to Colorado conditions.’ Section 10 deals with fees involved in transporting patients.

Much of the final versions of the bills lay out who the hospitals are for, and the price structures for care, staff, and facilities. The Act to establish the Psychopathic Hospital says that the hospital will be supervised and governed by the Regents of the University of Colorado. Section 3 through 7 explains the power the Regents of the University of Colorado have in administering the new hospital. It empowers the Regents to acquire land, build the hospital, and to use temporary buildings until a permanent hospital is built. It also charges them with hiring a superintendent, and explains the qualifications needed. Section 6 reads ‘The Board of Regents shall appoint a superintendent, who shall hold office during their pleasure, and who shall be a physician and graduate of an incorporated medical college who shall have had at least ten years’ experience in the actual practice of his profession, and who shall have had at least five years actual experience as a neuro-pathologist. The superintendent shall reside at the hospital, and give his entire time and attention to the discharge of his official duties and shall receive such compensation as shall be fixed by the Board of Regents.’ An assistant supervisor can also be appointed.  

The main function of the Psychopathic Hospital was to care for patients that are placed in the hospital by the courts. Additional room can be offered to voluntary patients, if there is space. The bill lays out how those patients will be charged for the hospitals services. A voluntary patient was to pay for a full month of care when they were admitted, and then pay for a full month for any additional time they believed they needed treatment. When the patient was discharged, they were refunded any money still on account.

The documents have been scanned and are available in CU Anschutz Digital Collections.