In 1894, Abbott was appointed surgeon-in-chief at Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first training hospital for Black nurses in the United States. He became the hospital's medical superintendent In 1896 but resigned the following year. Returning to Toronto, Abbott resumed his private practice and became more involved with writing for various publications including "The Colored American Magazine" of Boston and New York, the "Anglo-American Magazine" of London (for which he wrote "Some recollections of Lincoln's assassination"), and "New York Age". Medicine, Black history, the Civil War, Darwinism, biology, and poetry were among his topics.