Mediplex of Massachusetts, Inc. history

The first United States Marine Hospital was built at Charlestown in the year 1803, and its first physician was Doctor Charles Jarvis, another charter member.

In the spring of 1790, the first number of a publication entitled “Medical Papers” was prepared under the direction of the Society, and five hundred copies printed; but, for the want of funds, the second number did not appear until the year 1806.

During the Revolution there was a suspension of its meetings from the year 1775 to 1781, which was due to the interruption of the war; and then again from the year 1795 to 1807, this time owing to a general anæmic condition of interest, on the part of its members.

In the year 1809, three hundred and thirty-seven persons of various ages and conditions among its inhabitants were vaccinated; twelve of them were afterward tested by inoculation for small-pox, and found fully protected.

During many years before this time, there were various indications in the community that the want of such an establishment was beginning to be felt; and in the summer of 1810, strenuous efforts were made to supply the want, which proved successful.

The following petition to the Legislature was received by that body on February 12, 1811, and referred by them six days afterward to the next General Court: —

After certain formalities final action in regard to them was deferred until the second session of the General Court, which was to meet on January 8, 1812.

An engraving of this structure may be found in “The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery,” for April, 1816.

The institution was opened in the autumn of 1821; though the McLean Asylum for the treatment of the Insane, under the same board of managers, was in operation several years before this time.

By an Act of the Legislature, passed May 22, 1869, the corporation was dissolved. It was established at Pittsfield, in the year 1822, in connection with Williams College, though fifteen years later it became independent of it.

The first enactment in this country legalizing the study of practical anatomy was passed February 28, 1831, by the General Court of this Commonwealth.

REITs like Meditrust owed their proliferation to the Real Estate Investment Act of 1961, which sought to encourage public investment in real estate and established rules for REIT operation.

In 1978, a wealthy Bostonian named Abraham D. Gosman purchased approximately 85,000 shares of a Massachusetts-based bank holding company called Multibank Inc.

In the spring of 1981, Multibank's shareholders, after having voted against Gosman's takeover of the company, authorized the bank holding company to pay $30 per share to Gosman for the 353,241 shares he had acquired, many at $20 per share.

Avon's entrance in the health care field had begun in 1984, when the company acquired Foster Medical Corp., the country's largest home health care products and services company.

Meditrust had been formed in April 1985, eight months prior to Avon's acquisition of Mediplex Group, and its stock began trading in October.

Through the proceeds gained from the issuance of stock in 1986, Meditrust acquired two alcohol and substance abuse treatment facilities and two long-term care facilities, all four of which were owned by Mediplex Group.

By mid-1988, after acquiring a long-term health care center from Integrated Health Services, Inc. in January, Meditrust's assets amounted to $428 million, a total that would more than double in the next four years despite the debilitative effects of a national recession.

Annual revenues had climbed to $89 million by 1990, up by nearly a quarter from the previous year's total, and net income had soared 35 percent, rising from $22 million to $29 million.

With the closing of an $86 million mortgage financing deal in April 1992, nearly seven years to the day after the trust company's formation, Meditrust's real estate portfolio surpassed $1 billion in assets, 30 percent of which was invested in facilities operated by Mediplex Group.

By the beginning of 1993, the number of health care facilities in which Meditrust maintained an investment had increased to 170 and its geographic scope had expanded to include four more states.