Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-01-08
Board of Charities Willing.

The board" DR.. Kober told the APP
preparations committee the other day.
has not felt authorized to make a
change. That can only be DONE" he
said, IF you award a lump sum to the
board of charities to contract with the
existing institutions having proper facil-
tiles tor the treatment of emergency
cases.
If that We're done the board would
deem it wise and proper to district the
city, geographically, and pay these funds
to the nearest hospitals.
Representative Gardner of Michigan,
chairman of the District subcommittee,
then announced that he had received
letter from DR.. w. c. Borden, dean OF the
department of medicine of George Wash
inSton University, requesting that the APP
preparation of $500 now granted the
george Washington University Hospital
for the care of the INDECENT sick be In
creased to $4,000 year.
THE amount now appropriated, said
the letter, is insufficient to reimburse the
hospital FOR the number of District char
ity patients treated. In the past two
years the hospital has treated patients
entitled to the District charity to the
amount of $2,U56.3O In ecess of the appro-
priation.
This is regarded as an innovation,
said Mr.. Gardner, commenting upon the
proposals mace. Heretofore the money
expended for emergency cases has been
expended through the institution down.
town and the dispensary here on the hill,
and not through the hospitals IN the
town. But we shall be glad to hear
what you nave to say.
DIR. Borden Testifes.
Our main position said DR.. Borden,
who was IN hand to testify, lis that as
we are a teaching body in the city. hav-
ing a school OF medicine, desire all
possible clinical material. and under the
present arrangement our clinical ma
terial is limited. 4 large amount OF
clinical material comes from emergency
work. That ic the basic idea Of our re-
quest, so that we may get the clinical
material.
From the city standpoint being a riti-
zen of the community and property
owner here. | may say that it seems from
the community standpoint that any in
stitution which could give adequate care
to the sick and more prompt aii to the
sick Or injured from any otner institution
situated within the city, would. in equity,
be entitled t, a share of that work
The situation of our hospital is such
that we can give more prompt aid to
the sick or injured than any district of
the city or any other hospital. There
fore ! think we should be considered
in that line, and that monopoly of
this sort of care is not in accordance
with the principles Of equity or of pub
lie policy.
"A medical institution perhaps full
fills its duty TO the public when it works
along two lines. The public demands in
return for the appropriations made to
that institution for charitable purposes
that persons treated therein shall re-
&c We adequate care, and il they re-
ceive adquate care due return is made
in that way.
Province of Hospital Work.
But the full province of any hospital
is only complete when, in addition to
that. it serves as a teaching body for
the instruction OF those persons upon
whom the community must. in the flu
ture, depend for their care. Therefore
think it is fully recognized among
hospitals and institutions of similar
character that an Institute fulfills its
duty to the community when IL cares
for the sick of that community and
trains men at the same time upon
whom the community as whole must
in the future depend.
There are out two such institutions
i'm the city-the Georgetown Medical
School and our own medical school. |
think therefore thatsif we can properly
and promptly and as efficiently care for
those of the District, for whom the APP
preparation ought 10 be mace, as any
other institution that does not fulfill all
these requirements, we ought TO be con-
sidered, and that the community will
benefit by so considering us.
Representative Gardner asked DIR. Bcr-
den to state briefly the deficit which the
hospital had experienced in caring for
patients DR.. Borden said that i'll going
over the accounts OF the last two years
he found the hospital had spent x2,0o6.2O
in excess of the amount appropriated
to the hospital.
lie explained that that figure did not
include large number OF dispensary
patients for whom the hospital got no
pay.