Millie E. Hale

Millie Essie Gibson Hale (1881-1930) was an American nurse and hospital administrator. In 1916 she founded Millie E. Hale Hospital with her husband, John Henry Hale, M.D., in Nashville, TN.

Biography

Hale graduated from Fisk's Normal School and received her nursing degree from the Graduate School for Nurses in New York City.[1]

In 1916 she and her husband founded a hospital which was the first in Nashville to treat African-American patients year round. At the time, African-Americans were denied care at other hospitals due to financial and racial discrimination.[2] Hale served as the hospital's head nurse and administrator.[3] In addition to these responsibilities, she created a monthly newspaper educating people on health issues, set up programs for prenatal care, and eventually transformed the Hale home into a community center.[2] The hospital was open for over two decades and closed eight years after her death in 1930.[2] It started with only a 12-bed hospital and it grew to 75 beds and thousands of patients were treated there from all over the South.[1]

Hale and her husband John Henry Hale were inducted into the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame at Belmont University on Oct 16, 2018.[1]

References
  1. Sandra Long Weaver (2018-10-25). "African American Health Care Providers Inducted". The Tennessee Tribune. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  2. Zepp, George (2003-05-21). "Hale Hospital Nurtured Thousands of City's Blacks". The Tennessean. p. 22. Retrieved 2021-03-16.
  3. Biddle-Douglass, Teresa (October 8, 2017). "Millie E. Hale". Tennessee Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 16, 2021.


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