The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-31
REPORT OF TIE DIRECTORS

 Of the Gene,a al Hospital sooiety--The Erec-
 ton of Similar Institutions in Adjacent
 Towns Causes Decrease of the Number
 of Patients Treated.
 At the annual meeting of the General Hospital socialty yesterday the board of directors submitted the following;
 The board of directors has the honor to present herewith, to the General Hospital society of Connecticut, its six ty-ninlth annual report, as prepared by the prudential committee.
 While there was an Increase in the amount of work done at the hospital during the past year, it's growth was hardly commensurate with the growth of the city, and did not compare with the growth of similar institutions in some of the neighboring cities. The reason for this is, however, apparent Hospitals have been built in several of the surrounding towns from which we formerly received many patients, another hospital has been established in the city, and a large number of mild cases have been cared for at the Spring side Home.
 The daily average number of patients fell from 113 in 1894 to Ills in 1895, but at teh same time the total number un- der treatment rose from 1924 to 10S4. The largest number reached before this was in 1891, when there were 1884 under treatment The average residence of patients was 5 3-S weeks, a decrease of over 21a days.
 The average number of officers nurses and ether attendants remained practically the same as in 1884, viz: 961a. This number seems altogether out of proportion to the number of patients, but it should be borne in mind that the hospital is managed on lthe scale of a daily average of 125 patients, and it must necessarily be so, because there is mo way of determining at what mo- ment extraordinary demands may be made on us, and we must always be prepared to receive every suitable case that applied The largest number on any one day during the year was 131. When the number falls below 1O0 as it frequently does, the average cost of maintenance increases largely. One ward was closed for a time during the autumn, in order to reduce expenses, but We were soon compelled to reopen it. Still we were able to reduce the average cost per patient per week from $907 to $S.86, a saving of 21 cents. If in making this estimate we had ex- cluded the items of expense, like re- pairs and improvements, etc, not pSop- erly belonging to maintenance, the cost per week would have been reduced to $S.
 A new dietary, adopted by the medi- cal board and approved by the pruden- tial committee, has recently been sub stituted for the old one. It provides for a regular house diet, light diet, milk diet, etc, and is expected to do away with large portion of the special diet orders, thus effecting a saving. But it has been in operation so short a time that it is impossible to say just what the result will be.
 There were 1S5 deaths during the year. the death rate being under 121s per cent. Deducting 37 patients receiv- ed in a moribund condition, 23 of whom died within A hours and 14 within 4S hours, the death rate of the remainder was per cent. Ia
 Of the 1884 patients under treatment. only 91 paid the full cost of their sup port, 769 were partially and PA wholly supported by the funds of the society.
 eW repeat, with the addition of the figures for 1895, the table, given in for mer reports, indicating the number of weeks occupied by charity and free bed patients each year for the past eight years, because it shows not only the large increase in this most important branch of our work but also that a limit has now been reached beyond which there can be very little increase with Oll1 present. resources