He went to China, at the invitation of the surgeon Adrian Stevenson Taylor (1883–1962), as the first surgical resident of the Peking Union Medical College.
In 1927 Webster returned to the US to work in St. Louis under the direction of Vilray Papin Blair (1871–1955), the author the 1912 treatise Surgery and Diseases of the Mouth and Jaw.
[2][6][7] After 8 months of work under Blair, Webster accepted in 1928, with an invitation from the surgeon Allen Whipple, a position at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
From 1928 to 1954 he was in charge of the plastic surgery service of the Vanderbilt Clinic managed by the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He developed the plastic surgery service of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons into one of the world's best, serving over 60,000 patients and contributing important research.
One such former resident was Webster's successor, George Francis Crikelair (1920–2005), who directed the plastic surgery service at Columbia from 1959 to 1971.
[11] During WW II, he directed, with the aid of 75 instructors, a series of courses in plastic surgery for the instruction of U.S. Army medical and dental officers.
[2] Webster accumulated his own collection of rare books and papers on the history of medicine related to plastic surgery.
When he died, his will bestowed Columbia University with the entire collection — now called the "Jerome P. Library of Plastic Surgery".
In 1954 the American Association for the History of Medicine awarded the William H. Welch Medal to him and Martha Teach Gnudi for their co-authorship of the 1950 biography “The Life and Times of Gaspare Tagliacozzi, Surgeon of Bologna, 1545–1599.