Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-04-12
ere is about a case Of pneu-

ssp1.itN GU At!ClAISiSEiSS fHo htIe C.tSC.r L
Of communicable disease. The eco
homie waste from %contagion is rcia-
lively sreat. n good health depart
lnent could hav cut that number in
half. y su~perlatively good health de-
partlnent backed by a Very Intelligent
publlc sentiment could have prevented
it entirely. Perhaps we should not
CONT as waste that which we lose be-
cause there WAS no way Of preventing
the loss. We SHOULD count as Waste
the losses which ould have been pre-
vented.
AS a further consideration. the cost
of caring for a communicable disease
is much greater than that for amy other
disease. OF the 1000 cases 452 We're
cases OF chronic disease. There was no
way of telling how much time from
work, how much money, and how much
J efficiency these cases lost and the COM
lnittee did not try.
Nine hundred II eighty seven We're
, aCutely Ill. These 9SI We're away from
work 4l.244 days. a total of 113 years.
II way to sense 1T would be to think
OF the loss if 113 working people We're
to stop work for one year. The loss
IN time was divided as follows: Chill
dren under 5 years old, 1926 days.
This loss should be subtracted from
the above total, though in many in
stances the mother had 10 stay ut home
to take care of the sick child. School
children lost 3,716 days. The waste
of school funds from illness is very
great. Men lost 4,9S5 and women
4,S3S.
OF the 1000 cases, 506 could have
paid for any necessary service; 41O re-
ceived all the care they needed; SO did
not. Not even plenty of money got
TOR these SO proper care. Some people
are too careless and Indifferent, some
too stingy. and some too unintelligent
to take care of themselves. Eight hun
dred and eighty-two We're able to pay
physicians fees, practical nursing and
ward service in hospitals, but about
half of that number We're not able to
stand a prolonged drain such as would
follow a case of suppurative pleurisy
or an ununited fracture. One-half of
the $50 received adequate care. The
other half did not. Two hundred and
twelve patients were unable to pay for
physicians and nurses. SiXty-eight
We're adequately cared for: 144 were
not.
The opinion prevails that in large
cities, with we'll developed hospitals,
di~spensaries and clinics, tine we'll to do
and the Very poor receive the best med
ical and nursing service. That the men
of moderate means, too poor to pay
for expensive service and too self re-
speeding to use the free beds, ~dispensa-
ries and clinics, are the sufferers from
inadequate service. Many would like
to see this committee turn it's atten-
ton to some large city and report up
On the truth of the prevailing opinion.
OF these patients who remained in
their homes, SO per cent were adequate
lN cared for, 90 per cent received in
adequate care, principally because of
lack of hospitals, social service n fol-
low-up work.
There is no quest. IN that the best
place for a sick man is a hospital. This
sturdy proves again what has been
generally known for some time-that
a sick person stands a better chance
of getting we'll if he goes to a hospital
than if he stays at home. One OBJ
lection to hospitals is that they some
times discharge their patients before
they are able to work and when they
have no home to go to. The hospital
Justiiies itself by saying that the mans
disease has been cured and his bed
= was needed for a sick man. Well regu-
lated hospitals now meet this objection
by providing nurses or other visitors
who follow up the patients.
. OF the people who We're inadequately
cared for, in 81 per cent of the cases
the cause was poverty. In 20 per cen
it was not. MIR. Moore, who reported
on this survey to the American Public
Health association, said that lack of
facilities was responsible for the fail
ure of most of the cases. There were
not nurses and physicians enough and
of proper quality. A poor nurse and
a a poor physician are bad from the COM
munlty standpoint. as every country
, that has sickness insurance has found
= out. Again, there is a poor distribu-
ton of nurses and physicians. There
are few nurses outside Of the cities,
and the tendency is f. physicians to
quit the country and gather in the
> cities.
In many cases there was lack of
knowledge as to how to go about get
ting medical and nursing service. In
, many cases care was inadequate be-
cause there We're not proper facilities
5 in the home; 442 could not nave been
cared for adequately in their homes
under any circumstances: in 1873 cases
the im~possibility of adequately treat
ing them in their homes was due to
crowded mo insanitary housing condi-
: tons. low grade mentality, ignorance.
Shlftlessness, or poverty"
g S~eventy-three of the eases made
J. quately cared for in homes were cases
of contagion. The good of the COM
e munity as we'll as that of the individu-
al demanded that such cases should
: have been cared for in a hospital.
. The committee concludes: LAS else
t where in the state the health work in
Duchess count is not sufficiently or
: ganlZed TO be really effective. Under
present circumstances the general
medical and surgical hospitals facilities
I appear on the face of things to be in
: adequate" Economic conditions and
U general intelligence in Duchess county
e are above the average. eff v~aer these
circumstances conditions are not what
q suppose hat in less favored communi-
e ties they are at least equally bad"
Opportunity For Business.
On account of the limited distance
\ 1Ap1yc IN I~ I;~n@ AL>~> l.