Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1911-09-26
HOSPITAL TO ENLARGE.
Addition Proposed to Care for In
creased Demands---More K CONS
Urgently Needed.

| Cl6OhttJ AtSoS"
Plans are being considered tor the
erection OF m addition to the Alexan-
dria Hospital, which will contain q
number OF rooms more fully equipped
for the care OF patients and which will
greatly extend the usefulness OF that in
stitution. A committee, consisting OF
DR.. George T. Kilpstein and DR.. Samuel
B. Moore, have been considering the
matter and are having plans drawn by
an architect. This committee, which
was appointed last June and which has
been giving the matter careful attention
ever since, will report in few days with
the plans OF the architects and also
with plans regarding the raising OF
sufficient funds with which to erect the
proposed addition. While no definite
conclusion has been reached as yet re-
garding the raising OF capital, it is
probable that contributions will be re-
lquested. Worth Hulfish, one OF the
board of directors of the institution, is
an enthusiastic advocate OF increased
facilities and he stated this morning that
he viewed it not only as charitable
proposition but also as one which
would benefit the city's interests in a
business way.
The capacity OF the hospital, at the
present time, is SO patients but it is
frequently crowded with less than this
number because OF the fact that eight
beds are reserved for colored and %
for white patients. In addition to this,
some OF the beds are placed in private
rooms and some in the ward rooms. In
other words, the hospital can accom-
MEDIATE only % white persons and this
on the assumption that the demand is
for private rooms and ward beds just
as they are divided-which demand
rarely, if ever. happens. Patients who
desired private rooms and we're able to
pay for them have been kept waiting
for over week while there we're ac-
Communications in the public wards. On
the other hand, free patients have never
been turned away but have been placed
in the halls and, on occasions, The
nurses have given up their own rooms
in order that some sufferer might be
cared for properly.
Miss n. A. Simmons, the matron OF
the hospital, in speaking OF the neces-
sity for more rooms and equipment
said IF We had an addition built
containing about 40 we'll equipped
rooms-for which we have plenty OF
ground-and remodel the present build
| ing for a nurses home and for ward
rooms, we could secure more pay
patients from Alexandria because we
could give them equal service and
more home comforts than the big hos.
pitfalls in Washington. This would tend
to lessen our requests for donations
an contributions because OF additional
revenue. OF course, / am only
stating my personal opinion. 1t is
hardship on nurses to be COM
PEELED to live all the time in the
hospital as their natural desire is for a
building separate from the hospital it.
self. The nurses in the Alexandria
Hospital are unusually conscientious
and sympathetic in their work and
material appreciation should be shown
for this kind OF effort. "
Miss Simmons was asked what the
hospital would DO in the event q serious
accident rendered it imperative that the
hospital give medical and surgical ut.
teution to ten or twenty persons, |
have often wondered, and worried too,
over that very subject" she replied.
1t is not at all impossible, nor i'm
probable, chat an accident may cause
such a demand to be made upon us.
A street car collision, the collapse OF a
building, or disastrous conf1agation,
is just as likely to happen in Ale1an-
dria, at some unexpected moment, as
| in any other place. The only thing We
could do would be to turn the reception
room and office into bedrooms and
crowd the halls and other rooms. The
room in which anaesthetics are admin
istered could be used as an operating
room as we'll as the regular operating
room and thep, of course, in extraor-
binary cases the operation could be
performed in a bedroom. There are
sufficient number OF physicians and
surgeons here to care for any but a
most extraordinary emergency"
The records Of the hospital show that
the equal OF over 1880 days have been
given thus year to gratuituous hospital
treatment. This means not only board
and room but also the services Of
trained nurses (ni2ht and day., the
necessary medicines and dressings and
the services Of physician. If the
city would pay us for the actual cost
of treating its poor patients, /" continued
Miss Simmons, which, roughly esti-
mated, is about 81. so per day, it would
be indebted to us, for services so far
this year, more than $4,000 instead OF a
portion OF the $500, which the city ap-
propriates, for the use of the hospital,
each year. Even those patients who
lpay one dollar per day do not pay
enough to meet the actual costs of at
tending 10 their cases. 1t is more ex-
Ipensiye to run hospital than it is to
run boarding house and I, per.
sonally, am Of the opinion that the