The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1907-06-17
CITY HOSPITAL
ON PAYING BASIS
How Finances Stand With
Riverside at Present
Physicians Have Worked 10 Give In
stitution Fine Reputation i'm
Section.
COSTS LESS THAN OLD ONE.

Operated on a policy which, If pur-
sued. will put it on self-sustaining
basis within the next six months or
year. the Riverside hospital leaves
the hands of the old board of direc-
tors and comes under the manage
ment of the new board. elected by the
general council last week A state
ment of the finances of the hospital
for the first five months of 1907 in
comparison with the preceding six
months and with other periods. bears
out that assertion.
Graduate nurses in the hospital
were paid from January l of this
year, to June /, $429. In that
period they earned and turned into
the city treasury s49S, showing that
this feature of the hospital already
is on more than self-sustaining ba-
sis. Ten undergraduate nurses are
in training at the hospital and they
have proven valuable addition as a
source of revenue to the hospital
from being employed out in the city
by private families. This feature is
new and will grow as the citizens be-
come familiar with the high standard
of the hospital.
II has. been one of the strong feat
ures of the hospital service, that as
the standard of medical attention i'm
Icreases for the pay patients, the same
attention is given to the city pa
tients, no discrimination in nursing.
medicine or other hospital facilities
being made whatever.
The Finances.
The expense for the hospital from
July 1, 1906, until January /, 1907.
were s4,SO7.75. The income in that
period from pay patients was 49,
l52159 making tia net cost 70 the
city to operate the hospital, $780,
'or, $131.O1 a month.
For the first five months of 1907
ending June 1, the expenses of the
hospital were s3,579.63. The rev.
enue in that period was S3,154. or.
ia net cost to the city of $425.5S, or
a monthly cost Of sS5.11. From a
comparison of the last six months of
1906 and the first five months of
1907. it is apparent that the income
Iof the hospital is rapidly overtaking
the expenses and will pass them in
the next six months or a year, If the
standard of the hospital is main
tanned
The idea of the old management
has been to keep the hospital at a
standard that would attract private
patients not only from the city but
from all west Kentucky and southern
Illinois. If this standard Is main
Itained, the hospital will soon be self
supporting and the service to the
poor patients gets better as the serv-
ice to the pay patients improves. In
the, year 10000 the old city hospi-
tai cost the city 50, 900 to operate.
There was no revenue from pay pa
tients and the service to the poor pa
tents was Indifferent. In the short
time intervening. the new hospital
has taken rank with the best hospitals
in the country.
If its stride upward has been rapid
any deterioration in the standard of
the hospital would send 1t downswith
far created CELEBRITY, and once down.
lit would be a matter of years before
It could be raised in the estimation
of the public. II is this thought
that is giving birth to a desire in the
minds of the doctors in the city to
see the institution kept free from
politics. ga