The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1881-11-08
THE COUNTY HOSPITAL.
The Question of it's Management
Ventilated.

NOAoAAUeCAs
Te stimony Taken Before thee oun-
uy Commissioners.
At a meeting of the County Commission
ers of Silver Bow county, called for the pur'
pose of inquiring into the sanitary condition
of the hospital of Holmes and Hendrickson.
Nov. 8. %1SS1-John Downes and Joseph A
Hyde present The following proceedings
were had:
Mr.. Downes- The Grand Jury have COM
planned to lis of the way this hospital has
been kept, and we are here for the purpose
of hearing the testimony of any one i'll refer
encs to it.
DR.. G. Z. Holmes testified as follows: The
first complaint in the MINER was about the
hospital being overcrowded. l had a hospi-
tai in Deer Lodge for tour years and 1 at
tended the sick in the hospital in Helena fer
three years. I have had hospitals in the
United States Army fer four years. I have
the estimates made by professional men as to
the capacity of hospital.. Our hospital has .
| reasonable capacity for forty-four patients,
and we have had as high as twenty-six. At
the time the Grand Jury met we had twenty
three, I believe, and they had ample room.
I never heard them complain as to the beds
and furniture. It was all anybody asked for
and We thought it sufficient. We had one
large ward upstairs with one or two patients
&, e -horo - GOULD houo rt,f fo,,r pr 6vA
more beds. hi regard to the ventilation and
sanitary condition of the hospital there is, l
believe, over every door in the hospital .
transom. At the end OF the long ward there
are windows that give ventilation. In my
opinion there is not a building in town as
we'll built as that for ventilation, and l
would like to have an architect look at it.
The matter of hygiene will cover the filthy
part of it. l will say the rooms at the time
the Grand Jury visited the hospital had been
dry scrubbed. That the floors were perfect
ly clean 1 will not say, but that they were
reasonably clean l will say. The back door
Looked kind of bad from slop. We have a
large barrel at the back door that we put slop
in and a man hauls it away. The day the
Grand Jury came there a COW came there and
upset the barrel. The floors had not been
washed for four weeks because we didn't
deem it prudent to wash them. There were
five or six men very low with typhoid fever.
However, tho floors were washed as often as
necessary without damage to the patients.
We have had several patients there that have
been in other hospitals snd one said he never
was in a hospital that he felt so much At
home III. i think the ventilation is good and
the floors as clean as we could make them
without washing. We have twenty-three pa
tients in there and only one of them is what
we call a dollar patient,th thu others paying $25
a week, and il a. ybody complains they ought
to. Whenever a county patient comes i'll we
give him a bed, and if il is any particular
case we give him a separate room if We can,
generally the county patients are in bed
side by side with private patients. II didn't
seem to me that there was any
ground whatever for such a report from the
Grand Jurors. We have had within the last
four or five months ladies living in Walker
vlllc duu DoGtV SOuhlAS W NlolO thCll AliChAo |
in the hospital, and l will be willing TO get
.hese ladies' testimony as to how they found
heir friends. There are a great many men
hat have visited friends there, and l would
like to have the testimony of some OF them.
We have had about 40 county patients up to
his time, and we have discharged about IS
cured aud well. Two have died. One of
hem was Z colored man, aged about SO, and
brought there in . dying condition; the
was an old man named William Good
who was aged 60, and died the next
day after he came in. Those are the OILY
We have had. The most of the coun
ty patients to day are walking around tt
and are convalescent. At the present
time we have IL or 10; l believe there are one
or two of the 10 or 10 that don't eat hearty
meals like ~workingmen, aud that is all have
to say about it.
Mr.. Downes-Well, now we want to / +
from the grand jurors.
H.. S. Frank haven't any report to ID Ike
The Grand Jury made q report, which l on
cur in and endorse, and l have nothing ell e
to add. We went through there in a hurry,
and the place was nauseating, and couldn't
it; it was filthy. l didn't see 4 bed
there that had a sheet on it.
DR.. Holmes-I would like to add one word
more, that is that We have sheets for every
bed-two sheets; and we employ a nurse and
hospital steward, aud we order these sheets
changed. We have also pillow cases. In
some cases they have beenlchanged every day,
generally once or twice a week.
A.. 81. Barrett went through the lower
part of the hospital. L was sick at the time
and couldn't 60 all through. These gentle
men have come out in the newspaper, and