UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview #1079
SWEENEY-THOMAS, CORETTA

SWEENEY-THOMAS, CORETTA (1938-)
Department Administrator for Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
At UW: 1956-

Interviewed: 	2010 (2 sessions)
Interviewer: 	Ann Peckham
Index by: 	Stephen A. Pierce
Length: 	50 minutes

Abstract: In her January 2010 interviews with Ann Peckham, Coretta Thomas chronicles her experiences over several decades as the departmental administrator for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She gives valuable insight on a number of processes going on in the Medical School, including the clinical practice plan, the construction of the new UW Hospital facility, the conflict over classified v. academic staff, and the inner workings of department administration. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.

Key Words: University of Wisconsin-Madison; Dr. Ben Peckham; Department of Obstet-rics and Gynecology; Clinical Practice Plan (CPP); classified staff; academic staff; Assn. of University Physicians; Madison General Hospital (Meriter); Dr. Sander Shapiro.

First Interview Session (January 11, 2010): Digital File

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:33	Question: Talk a little about your background. Answer: Sweeney-Thomas explained how, during her last year of high school, she decided to take typing. Immediately after graduating from HS, though, she got married and got a job at the WI State Laboratory of Hygiene, with only her typing as preparation. From here she moved to the Dept of Preventative Medicine, but when it’s chair moved to the WHO she again decided to move—to OB/GYN under Dr. Ben Peckham.

00:03:14	[no question] She discussed her move to the small OB/GYN department located in the old SMI building, where her classified title was secretarial stenographer. She discussed her duties working on grant applications and budget control, doing billing in hard copy before the practice plan was set.

00:05:45	[no question] She observed that she was classified staff at a time when only big departments had academic staff—this meant her service was treated quite differently. After a few years, however, Peckham agreed to put her job up for “declassification,” though the committee making these decisions declined to do so. Furious, Peckham found ways to supplement her salary by having her do practice plan duties overtime, though this was difficult at times to figure out. 

00:08:07	Follow up: The Practice Plan? Answer: Without the files, she couldn’t remember when exactly this occurred, but recalled that in 1973/74, she got a $5000 incentive payment from it, which was a very exciting time for her. She explained how the department also hired more classified staff, but supplemented their salary from the Practice Plan, which eventually was stopped. She and two other department secretaries were finally grandfathered into the academic staff.

00:11:21	[no question] At one point, she recalled, she was the second highest paid OB/GYN administrator in the country.

00:13:04	[no question] She talked about how things originally supplemented by the Med School, such as orienting new employees, budget control, and grant supervision, was over time shifted over to the department, which was hard on a small dept like OB/GYN. This all ended up falling on her, which led her to suppose that they didn’t do as good a job at it as big departments  with specialized staff.

00:15:15	[no question] She talked about the expansion of the department as they got involved in more Practice Plan activities. New secretaries hired in the dept then did duties for individual doctors, with her being the only department secretary.

00:16:55	[no question] As the department grew and the Practice Plan was formed, she explained, billing got more complex and all the departments were recruited for AUP, which allowed departments to centralize billing under their program.

00:19:27	[no question] Sometime around 1975, discussions began over moving OB/GYN to Madison General Hospital (now Meriter Hospital), a controversial process that ended up with most of UW OB/GYN faculty migrating to Madison General.

00:21:22	[no question] As the department grew, she remarked, they hired more support staff and also a personnel director and supervisor. She talked about how the practice plan affected this.

00:22:55	[no question] She shared her perspectives about the difference between academic staff who’d had university education and those who’d learned on the job, especially when it came to the issue of titles. She felt that those with business degrees were almost in a competition with their chairs for power over the department, where she felt her department was more collegial.

00:25:36	[no question] In about 1979, she reflected, they moved into the new UW Hospital, a move the OB/GYN had considered carefully with the result that they were the only department that didn’t have subsequent space issues. She was one of the few staff trained in the layout of the new hospital, which meant she gave endless tours to confused staff.

00:28:12	[no question] She discussed the year-end billing process, even under the AUP system, which took up many hours for her and other personnel staff. She explained the incentive system.

00:31:11	End of First Interview Session

Second Interview Session (January 18, 2010): Digital File

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:07	Question: Year-end incentives? Answer: She continued talking about year-end billing exercises.

00:00:45	[no question] She talked again about moving OB/GYN to Meriter, and another “splinter” at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee. Also in the mid-1990s, they negotiated with a private practice in Madison to practice perinatal medicine for the department.

00:02:30	[no question] she remarked that one of the difficult things with their department was how spread out it was. This meant that chairing the department took strong leadership.

00:04:41	[no question] She discussed legal actions that were being taken against the department when Dr. [Douglas] Laube came as chair. This was divisive and drawn out.

00:05:35	[no question] Toward the end of her tenure at UW, she said, upper level administrators concerned with administrative staff pay completely changed the titling and salary structure for them. Though she was allowed to continue as academic staff, her salary was reduced and separated from the practice plan. She explained how she retired officially at that point and came back to work so that she could maintain her salary at pre-restructuring level. She explained the importance of big and small, “have” and “have-not” departments in the restructuring, and the way it affected doctors differently than administrators because of merit pay.

00:10:07	Question: Was Sander Shapiro’s in vitro program a money-maker? Answer: She thought it had been successful, and talked about how clinical practice tended to make more money than the department. Follow up: Abortions? Answer: She recalled how an abortion clinic had started at UW immediately after Roe v. Wade, and how this had gradually declined as more practitioners offered abortions in Madison.

00:13:20	[no question] She summed up her comments by talking about different staff who’d been at UW during her tenure, thanking Ben Peckham for believing in her, and reflecting on how the job qualifications had grown over time. 

00:16:54	[no question] Thomas added to her comments reflections about [Luis] Ben Curet and Ron Olson, both of whom were in perinatal medicine. She shared a humorous anecdote about Olson bringing sheep into the hospital to do some experimental procedures.

00:18:51	End of Second Interview Session

End of Oral History #1079