Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-27
THE TIDE EBBS,
And the Drift of Opinion
From Doctors Well Posted
FAV0RS THE HOSPITAL.
Drs, McClelland, Edmundson and
Others on the Complaints.
THEY SAY 1T Is THE OLD STORY
Of Ungrateful Charity Patients Biting
Their Healers.
THEY SAY 1T is THE OLD STORY
THAT BOY is GLAD HIS LEG REMAINS

inglY interested parties, rejecting on some
of the younger physicians of the Homeo-
pathic Hospital, THE DISPATCH was ham
pered by the fact that the news was such as,
from its very nature, wouldn't keep" and
the further fact that only brief interview
in refutation of the allegations could be
given. The treatment of the news, however,
showed the suspicion that there might be
arimus in such information; and it seemed
but fair and proper yesterday to supplement
Saturday nights late interview with DR..
Blair by others, even more strongly in sup
port of the concededly excellent institution.
DR.. ]. H. McClelland, President of the
Executive Board of the hospital, was seen
at his handsome home in the East End last
evening. The doctor had not read the
charges made against the institution, but he
had been called up by so many people ask
Ting for information during the day that he
was pretty well posted. He took up every
one of the statements seriatim, and this is
what he said:
SENSITIVE AND CHARITABLE.
The reputation of hospital is as sensitive as
that of woman's. The Homeopathic Hospi-
tai is purely a charitable institution Out of
$50. 900 spent last year. $4,000 was expended for
the treatment of poor people who never paid
red cent. 1t is controlled by board of 30 trus-
tees and some of the best people in the city
are on that board. There are "A of
the ablest physicians in Pittsburg and
Allegheny on the staff, and we don't
have more. because they are not needed.
] am personally acquainted with the
management of every general hospital in the
United States, and with many across the sea,
and the Homeopathic Hospital is managed,like
them. The death rate of the hospital is about
one-half of any general hospital in the country,
and this doesn't look as if our death rate was
as high as a certain doctor charges. No male
nurses are employed. The very best from all
parts of the country are secured. You can see
how Efficient they must be when men are will
ingto pay S50a week for them, and not long ago
when we were hard pressed, gentleman Of
fered $50 per day for one. concluded the hos
pltal was too poor to ignore such an Offer and
one of the best was sent
How can such statements as were made be
true when two ladies from an association of
80 examine the hospital from top to bottom
once every week d? No employe is allowed to
accompany Lnen, anu In6N Cudb Will Inc pa
tients These ladies report to the Board Of
Trustees in writing, and if they have any fault
TO find or anything to criticise, they do it
freely, and the matters are inquired into by
the Board.
AS TO YOUNG DOCTORS.
This hospital is conducted like other general
hospitals. We take young men from the col
leges and make them resident physicians or
put them 'in turn" as we cal it. All that
these men do is to carry out the orders and in
srructions Of the visiting doctors They are
not allowed even to cut off finger. About
400 surgical operations were performed in the
hospital last year, and every one of them was
executed blythe regular surgeons, Drs. SeiD
aud willard. The regulations of these men
speak for them. There is not particle of
truth in the charges that boys run the institu-
tion- Here is my finger, which has laid Inc up
for two months with case of blood poisoning,
and now i will have to spend three months
more in Europe before will be completely
healed. / got that performing an operation on
a charity patient, and 1 don't even know the
mans name to-day. Does that look as if the
surgery was attended to Dy a lot of inexperi-
enced men, or doctors who were not willing to
make great sacrifices? / remember in speech
at a banquet of physicians in London on
hospitals, Ispoke of the fascination Of the work;
that men were willing to give up their best
patients for cases in hospitals that did not
weld a cent and have not forgotten how that
statement was applauded IL was the expert
than once my patients have told me that that
hospital would be the cause OF their deaths,
since l paid less attention TO them than the
poor people in the institution.
PRoMPTITUDE ITSELF.
have never known men to suffer in the
Homeopathic Hospital for lack of attention.
More than once have seen Drs. Seip and
Willard at the hospital waiting for patient
who had been hurt to arrive. They had been
,od for and cof he
bulance so prompt were they. The report of
that negro boy VINO had to have his leg am
putated twice, because it was done carelessly
The first time, is lie out of the whole cloth, |
and the man who made 1t knows It As for the
charge of drunkenness, such a thing is not per- |
mitted around the place All such persons are |
promptly discharged. |
As to that so-called case of careless mixture |
of drugs it was mixed and taken by the drug !
clerk himself He came into the hospital one |
night drunk while on duty. He was threat |
ened with discharge, and this SO worked on his |
mind that he took an ordinary dose of NOR |
phine. This only increased his highly excita- |
ble state, and it was reported that he tried to |
commit suicide. pleaded for that drug clerk |
myself, for he had always done well before, |
but MIR. Metcaf said he would not have man |
who got drunk once even about the hospital, |
and he had to 60.
of course we take all kinds of people for |
treatment. Some of them are immoral and |
unruly and we have to handle them severely. |
Sometimes they insult the nurses, and we ARE |
go away mad, and start untrue reports, and /
suppose that is how these rumors arose.
AS TO Contributions.
What do not like about the whole affair is |
that such charges injure the institution with |
the people who contribute toward its support |
Some of them may believe these stories. while |
others are always looking out for excuses to |
get out Of contributing. As for the statements |
themselves ! say they are lies, from beginning /
10 end.
DIR. W. F. Edmundson, who is one of the |
our obstetrieians of the hospital, said:
am as tender about the reputation of the
hospital as l am of my own. remember well |
at one time when three physicians in these two /
cities paid the running expenses of the hospital |
themselves. Once in my younger days 1 went |
for whole year without a suit of clothes to
make my contribution to this institution. Is il |
possible that men will make such sacrifices |
simply to see people maltreated? Surely not,
and the charges against the hospital bear on
the surface their own refutation.
But, to 20 into details. ! have no de-
OF IL Take the case Of the boy WITH tbe wSte Efe
swelling in his leg, as reported, who wanted to
have the limb taken of and the doctors re-
fused to doit The boy is still there, and
the physicians now that they didn't carry out
his repeated requests He is almost well, and
das the free use of his leg in the bargain. Why
should anybodys limb be cut off when it can
be saved? The boy cried to me and said he
was sorry that anyone should have used his
complaints, made while suffering great pain, to
bring the institution into disrepute.
THOSE INJURED BY ACCIDENT.
1t is said by one doctor that the majority of
cases Of injury by accident go to other hos
pitfalls This is not true, as the Homeopathic
Hospital gets its share. Nearly all the men
injured in the mills along the river or on the
Panhandle, Baltimore and Ohio and Lake Erie
roads are taken to the Homeopathic. while in
lother parts Of the city they 90 to the hospitals