The Colorado statesman., 1909-08-28


During the regular sessions CT con-
gress, when there is plenty OF work
at the big printery, which is the
largest in the world, nearly 5000 men
and women are employed there.
Through illness and accident some of
this great number of employees are in
capacitated for work each day, and it
was to render these persons imme-
diate and gratuitous assistance that
the hospital was established in 1906,
under the administration of Public
Printer Oscar Ricketts,.
The official designation of the hos
pital is the emergency-room of the
government printing office. 1t is one
section of the division of sanitation
1t is purposely located in that part of
the building most accessible from all
sections, on the fourth floor front,
midway between two elevators 1t is
connected by telephone with each
room of the building, and in an emer-
gency call its combination reclining
chair and stretcher can be rushed to
any part of the office without delay
The hospital is not great distance
The hospital chair, like a small am
bulance. has the right of way in the
corridors and elevators and can be
seen frequently being wheeled quickly
and silently in and out of the eleva-
tors and along the corridors to differ
ent parts of the office, going to the
assistance of those who are taken ill
or have been injured through an ac-
cident
The hospital occupies one room,
about forty feet long and sixteen feet
wide. Each end of the room is fitted
up in duplicate and so arranged that
it can be curtained off as separate
ward. The furniture and equipment
are complete, but compact, arranged
somewhat like the hospital on board
a large ocean liner.
There is bed at each end of the
room, and also stationary rbaths,
basins and washstands, and a ward
robe for the patient. The floor is of
marble mosaic, and the wainscoting
and walls are of white enamel, so that
they can be kept in a thoroughly
clean and sanitary condition. AS the
sunlight in the morning, and also
rather an extended view. In general
appointments and location the hos
pital is as pleasant a room as the pa
tients could possibly wish for in
which to recuperate from any slight
illness or accident.
Modern equipment of all kinds has
been provided, and many who have
visited the emergency room declare
that it compares favorably, with that
in any hospital in or near Washing
ton. At each end of the room there
is an electric instrument sterilizer.
and in the center larger sterilizer
Tor dressings. There are duplicate
medicine chests, well stocked with all
the usual remedies known to modern
medicine, and an instrument case
containing all the instruments neces-
sary for emergency or first-aid work.
There is also an oxygen and nitrous
oxide generator, receptacle contain
ing salt solution, an operating table,
electric warming pads and every
other contrivance that goes to make
the equipment of modern hospital
complete.
That the emergency room supplies
real want in the government print
ing office is shown by the large num-
Der OF cases treated each year. Dur
ing 1903 there were 1,1SO patients
treated; 544 were surgical cases and
636 medical. Four persons died in
the hospital last year of heart disease
or apoplexy, and there have been two
deaths from apoplexy this year.
AS rule there are more women
treated than men. especially for ill
ness, but accidents are confined al
most exclusively to men, as they have
all the heavy and more dangerous work
10 DO There are many cases where
women come or are brought to the
emergency room faint or exhausted,
and yet return to their work in an
hour or two completely relieved by
some simple and immediate treat
ment.
Among the kinds of cases treated
for both men and women are fracture
or dislocation of limbs, infected
wounds, burns, strains, foreign bodies
in the eye, epileptic fits, heat ex-
naustion, acute Indigestion and faint
ing. -Four cases of rtomaine poison
ing were treated last year
There have been frequent cases of
poisoning due to overdoses of head
ache powders or cough medicine,
taken by employees at home when
they felt too i'll to report for duty.
Lead collie is a rather frequent cause
of trouble with those who work in the
composing rooms and inhale the
graphite fumes of the molten metal
used with the printing machines.
There have also been numerous cases
of electric shock.