Maurice Seymour Mazel (1895–1980) was a prominent Chicago heart

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

who founded Edgewater Hospital.

Biography

Maurice Mazel was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

on January 12, 1895. He graduated from

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

in 1916, and from its

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

in 1918. Mazel was treasurer of the corporation that built Edgewater Hospital in Chicago in 1928, and he served as its first medical director. In 1977, investigators from the

United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

found that the hospital had improperly spent Medicare funds on resources used by a private clinic owned by Mazel. The case was not referred for prosecution, but $363,000 in reimbursements were withheld. Mazel died on January 30, 1980, and was entombed at Rosehill Mausoleum. Edgewater remained a major medical center for many decades, until it closed in December 2001 after substantial Medicare and

Medicaid Medicaid is a government program in the United States that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by U.S. state, state governments, which also h ...

fraud blacklisted it from receiving further business from federal or state medical programs.

References

1895 births 1980 deaths American surgeons Burials at Rosehill Cemetery Feinberg School of Medicine alumni Physicians from Chicago {{US-physician-stub