Albert Waldo Snoke papers

Albert Waldo Snoke was born in Fort Steilacoom, Washington, on July 19, 1907. Snoke was active in Boy Scouts and attained the rank of Eagle. In 1924 he was part of the United States troop which participated in an international jamboree in Copenhagen, Denmark. After graduating from Puyallup High School, he attended the University of Washington and received a B.S. degree in 1928. Snoke then went to the Stanford University Medical School, where he received his M.D. in 1933. He was a resident in the Stanford University Hospital until 1936. During the summer of 1931, Snoke served as a park ranger in Mount Rainier National Park. While at Stanford, Snoke became acquainted with Parnie Storey, a fellow medical student and the daughter of Parnie and Thomas Storey, the latter being the general director of the school of hygiene and physical education at Stanford. They were married in 1934.

Snoke's residency had been in pediatrics, and he went to the Strong Memorial Hospital, in Rochester, New York, expecting to continue in this field of medicine. In 1937, however, he was offered the position of assistant director of the hospital, under Basil MacLean. Snoke remained in this position through World War II. In 1946, he was asked to become the director of the newly formed Grace-New Haven Hospital. In New Haven, he faced the problems of fusing two medical facilities, their staffs, and budgets, while building a new memorial unit. Snoke was instrumental in balancing the interests and resolving the tensions between the private physicians, who had used the Grace Hospital facilities, and the faculty members of the Yale University Medical School, who had brought their classes to the bedsides of patients in the New Haven Hospital.

Snoke was known for his concern for patient care and for his interest in the role of the university teaching hospital. It was under his influence that the hospital developed the concept of "rooming-in" to allow newborn babies to stay with their mothers in the mother's room. He also developed a training program for hospital administrators and encouraged the improvement of the university's nursing school. Snoke played a major role in the formation of the Yale-New Haven Medical Center, Inc., which raised funds and served as a coordinating structure for the university medical school-hospital partnership.

Snoke was a national leader in hospital administration and was active in professional organizations. He served the American Hospital Association (AHA) in numerous ways, chairing its Councils on Hospital Planning and Plant Operations, on Prepayment Plans and Hospital Reimbursement, and on Professional Practice. He was president of the AHA from 1956-1957 and received the AHA's Distinguished Service Award in 1965. Snoke also served as president of the Connecticut Hospital Association (1954-1955), and was a member of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, the Joint Commission on the Improvement of Care of the Patient and the National Commission on Public General Hospitals. He was often called upon as a consultant on hospital operations and worked in partnership with his wife Parnie, who, besides having an M.D., received a degree in public health from Yale in 1961.

For reasons he did not entirely understand, Snoke was forced to resign as executive director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital on December 31, 1967. He was then named the acting executive director of the Illinois Comprehensive State Planning Agency and Coordinator of Health Services under Governor Richard Ogilvie and held this post until 1973. His resignation followed Ogilvie's defeat for reelection. While in Illinois, he helped develop a model Emergency Medical Service and Trauma Program.

Snoke deplored the tendency of health professionals and health institutions to be preoccupied with the business of medicine rather than the care of patients. He sought ways to bring about cooperation between all types of health care institutions to ensure a continuum of care which would include prevention and post-acute care as well as the treatment of acute illness. Snoke spoke out for a national policy for health and welfare. He was active in the formation of health maintenance organizations and supported the creation of the Medicare system. He was also an advocate of the Connecticut Regional Medical Program. In 1987, the Yale University Press published Snoke's Hospitals, Health, and People, containing his reflections on his long career and such contemporary problems as reimbursement and cost containment, patients' inability to pay for medical care, program management, marketing, and corporate organization. Snoke died on April 18, 1988.