Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-03-23


New England many sick persons have
sought and found the best medical
service in the Massachusetts General
hospital, which has just issued its
-hundredth Annual Report AL
ways the leader in New England in
point of time, it has become in later
years the leader in the number of the
sick ii serves.
Last year it cared for about 10000
patients. saOver 5000 of these were in
the house wards. and nearly 5000 We're
in the accident wards. Nearly 10000
calls for treatment were made upon
it by its out-patients.
Among all the hospitals of the
country it is a leader in many scien-
tif1c adyances,-in surgery, in medi-
cine, in medical social service, in aid
ing patients handicapped by physical
defects, and in the newer science of
hospital management, which makes
the medical arts most serviceable to
its patients. Besides the General hos
pital in Boston, the trustees also
maintain, from contributed gifts and
the income from requests of earlier
givers, the Mclean Asylum for the
Insane, among the beautiful hills of
Waverley. There also is the Gonzales
cent hospital to which hundreds of pa
tients are sent each year for the time
to rest and recover after the hospi-
tai has done its direct remedial work
for them.
Not State institution.
The hospital is not in any way
state institution, though it has the
name Massachusetts General" 1t is
supported wholly by voluntary gifts,
not at all by state funds. Its service
is always open to the needy sick
from all New England, and IL re-
ceives many from outside the borders
of these six states. Maine, New
Hampshire and Vermont last year
sent more than two hundred patients
to the Massachusetts General; while
smaller numbers came from Rhode
Island and Connecticut. The cities
and towns of Massachusetts, outside
of Boston sent 4671 patients. These
figures show how widespread it's work
is.
A Leader Among Hospitals.
Copied by all the important hospitals
of the country, the Massachusetts
service to out-patients was devised
at the hospital about eight years ago.
No hospital, even the newer ones for
the insane, is now considered ade-
quately organized until it has social
workers to help patients get in their
homes and at their work the eondi-
tions that health and safety demand.
Pioneer in another line. the Massa-
chusetts General has started follow
up work Tor patients who have been
in the hospital wards. The results of
the treatment given in the hospital
can not be fully known unless the
hospital has knowledge of it's patients
for a considerable time after they
leave it. This system has already
been organized for the surgical work.
and is being extended to the Child
ren's Department and other depart
ments. Such follow-up work means
that the hospital will know more full
~ than ever before whether it is get
ting the best possible results for it's
patients out of modern medical sci
ence. This greater and more accurate
knowledge will continue to benefit the
patient whose condition continues un-
der scrutiny after he leaves the
hospital. and all those later patients
whose treatment may be made more
scientific by this new study.
occupationsI Diseases.
So-caled occupational diseases now
have in the Massachusetts General al
most a department to themselves,
headed by one of the country's fore
most experts in this line, DR.. David
l.. Edsall. During the past year lead
poisoning in the trades has been stud
led under his direction with thor
oughness never before attempted any
where. A special worker is engaged
in following the condition of the pa
tents after they leave the hospital.
Nearly two hundred cases have been
studied with great care. 1t is found
that these sufferers from lead poison
ing generally go back to work under
conditions which will soon again
make them victims of their former
disease. This work, as II extends,
is likely to have an important effect
on legislation for the protection or
workers against avoidable dangers
from poisonous substances used in
the trades.
A High Grade School for Nurses.
Nursing, on which all good service
to the sick depends, is taught by the
Massachusetts General in it's large
training school for nurses, on the
highest standards The nursing
course of three years, together with
the measures taken to weed out need
less and repulsive drudgery from the
nurses work, has attracted an in
creasingly better class of young wo-
men. A new Nurses Home, of most
| approved plan and equipment. was
| built last year, 1t furnishes separate
/ sleeping rooms for l0l nurses, besides
quarters for some of the officers Of
the school, for a library, living-room
/ abundant baths, and the equipment