Ottumwa semi-weekly courier., 1903-09-24
DOES GREAT GOOD
A CONTRIBUTOR TELLS OF WORK
OF oTTuMWA HOSPITAL.
CITES FIGURES FOR NINE YEARS
Though This Institution Has Been Con-
Quoted Quietly it Has Splendid
Record as Demonstrated by Reports
Which Belle Superstition.


Which Belle Superstition.
The ninth annual report of the OF
tumwa hospital recently published in
the Courier contains much valuable in
formation and should therefore be is
sued in pamphlet form and we'll dis
tributed among the profession and the
public. The medical profession and the
public are alike interested in the
speedy and successful treatment of
diseases and injuries as all of us at
some time during life are very likely
to occupy the disagreeable and unen-
viable position of patient. And when
that time comes each one of us of
and treatment with quickest possible
results. Hence the public as a whole,
whether healthy, sick or wounded
have an interest in this institution and
should become acquainted with the re
suits therein. 1t should be well known
that the records show that the patient
receives better care, that the treatment
is more carefully followed out and that
the duration of the illness and the
time required for the repair of injuries
is on the whole much shorter in we'll
conducted hospital than in the home Or
the boarding house. The annual reports
show that the average time of treat
ment for patients in the hospital since
its organization over nine years ago
has been less than two weeks and that
too with class of patients whose dis.
eases and injuries are far above the av.
erage in Intensity and severity as well
as number of incurables who were
sent there that they might receive
better care or under the hope that they
might be benefited.
Since the organization of the Ottum-
wa hospital there has been treated in
it 1857 patients with 129 deaths, a
| fraction less than per cent. OF the
| 129 deaths 81 or a fraction over 16 per
| cent occurred within hours after ad-
mission; 20 or over % per cent within
12 hours; 81, or over % per cent, with
in "a hours; and so. or over S8 per
cent, within 4S hours. If these fifty
cases, which were almost moribund
when taken to the hospital, are deduct
ed, as they should be, and the percent
age of deaths computed on the bal
ance for whom there was probably a
slight change for their recovery, we
will find the death rate to be a fraction
over per cent, or about 43 to the 1000
! persons, all of whom are correspond
| ingly i'll or injured. A death rate
| scarcely two and half times greater
| than it is for the city, that is the in
jured, the sick and we'll, taken as a
whole. From a restorative point Of
view this is a degree of success in
which the association and indeed the
| city as whole may take just pride,
especially SO when the gravity of the
cases and the time elapsed from the
| beginning of the illness or the date Of
| injury until they were taken there for
treatm ent is taken into consideration.
Many patients and their friends will
not give their consent to be taken to
| the hospital except as last resort,
firmly believing that if they should do
so they will not recover at ALL With
| in few days a cultured lady when the
writer suggested that she could be
much better cared for and would prob
ably recover more rapidly il taken to
| the hospital told him that she would
not go there for then she would sure.
| ly die, as all died who went there y
a sentiment promptly confirmed by
! many of her friends who were present
4 Antipathy to hospitals like superstition
clings close to humanity, ever and anon
4 exerting an influence even long after
reason and experience has demonstrate
| ed their absurdity. Especially Is this
! true when the intellect is partially
| eclipsed by clouds Of retained waste
matter or various other poisons. MOI
! is it surprising that this should be the
/ case when we recall the fact that when
| we were children numerous ghost, sup
| erstitions, and demon stories were told
,us, to scare us into being good. The
| stain of such stories, like the mothers
| mark, remains and eXerts an influence
on the individual as long as they live
| The truth of the remote OF even the
recent past is often not a truth of the
| present and may not be of the future
! and therefore should not be mentioned
| without reference to time. The truth
| about hospitals of years ago is not ap
/ plicable to such institutions at present
/ at least in this city or country. They
were then, it must be admitted, toe
/ often what many say about them
4 today.
No man can correctly Judge the
present or the future by the past be.
cause the intelligence and environ.
ments are more or less different. The
past is natures stereopticon display
| ing on times immaculate curtain the
errors to be avoided and brings into
bold relief the mountainous road OF
progress that leads to the high, broad
and beautiful plateau Of intellectual
and physical health and happiness.
The hospitals of the present in theil
results are no more like those Of even
a score of years ago than the former
miasmatic localities of Illinois and
Indiana or even the yellow fever dis
tricts Of Cuba and adjacent islands
are, in their salubrity. Through in
dustrious, intelligent and skillfully ap
piled labor the death rate has been
greatly reduced and the healthfulness
marvelously improved until today a
first class hospital as a place for ths
care and treatment of diseases or in
juries is farther In advance of the