History
Explore the heritage of the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital and Clinics.
William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital
The William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital of Madison, Wisconsin, has been providing care to Veterans since 1951.
Construction of the 500-bed, $8,000,000 facility began in 1949. The site selection was determined by the availability of an excellent medical school and the area's natural beauty. When the hospital opened in September 1951, it was VA's 155th facility. It was the first of VA's 19 tuberculosis hospitals and operated as a TB facility from 1951 to 1960.
In 1960, the hospital was re-designated from a TB facility to a general medical and surgical hospital. In 1996, ambulatory surgery and outpatient procedures were opened, originally with GI, pulmonary and urology. Other additions have included podiatry, dermatology and interventional radiology procedures.
Dr. William Shainline Middleton, our hospital's namesake, was a prestigious American internist and military physician. He was one of the founders of the American Board of Internal Medicine and its first secretary-treasurer. Middleton was the second dean of the University of Wisconsin (UW) Medical School.
Middleton was born in 1890. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and began teaching at UW in 1912.
He served with distinction and honor in World War I. An army captain with the British and American expedition forces in France, he was awarded the Victory Medal with seven battle clasps.
After being discharged from service in 1919, he returned to UW where, in addition to his teaching duties, he served as a consultant to various federal agencies including the U. S. Public Health Service, Veterans Bureau, and in 1930 the Veterans Administration. In 1935, Middleton was appointed dean of the medical school at UW, a position he held for 20 years.
Middleton served with distinction in World War II, assigned to the Office of the Chief Surgeon for the European Theatre of Operations. Colonel Middleton, as the chief consultant in medicine, taught courses at numerous hospitals and participated actively in the teaching of medical officers at Army and Air Force field service schools. For his services during World War II, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Order of the British Empire and French Croix de Guerre with Palm. After the war, he returned to UW.
In 1955, taking a leave of absence as dean, Middleton was sworn in as chief medical director for the Veterans Administration. From the beginning, he stimulated medical research. In 1957, 3,644 research projects had been started; when he retired in 1963 more than 7,500 research projects had been undertaken.
Middleton was committed to an accelerated educational program in the Department of Medicine and Surgery. He encouraged close cooperation between VA medical facilities and medical schools. Before his retirement, more than 70 medical schools were conducting training courses at VA facilities.
During the time Middleton served as chief medical director, every VA hospital that was planned or constructed included, at his insistence, facilities for the treatment of patients suffering from mental illness.
To assure that the limited number of beds would be allocated on the basis of medical need, Middleton introduced a pre-bed care program. He directed that tests be given prior to a patient’s admittance; these medical tests enabled staff to determine who was most in need of a bed.
As chief medical director, despite his many duties and responsibilities, he still found time to visit patients at the Mount Alto VA Hospital every Saturday morning when he was in Washington, D.C.
In 1963, he returned to UW where he resumed teaching duties as dean and professor of medicine emeritus. In addition to his duties at UW, he served as a consultant at the VA hospital in Madison. Every day, starting at 7 a.m., he toured the hospital visiting patients, a routine he continued until three weeks prior to his death on September 9, 1975.
Middleton was acclaimed by those who had the good fortune to study under him as one of the greatest teachers of medicine that this country has ever developed. His abilities and contributions were evidenced by his honorary degrees from University of Pennsylvania, Cambridge University, Temple University, Marquette University, University of Wisconsin and Northwestern University.
In September 1976, Public Law 94-420 changed the name of our Madison VA facility to the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in its 25th year of operation in honor of his years of service to VA. Middleton was a physician, teacher, scholar, patriot, veteran of both World Wars, professor, dean administrator, researcher, and again physician - first, last and always.
