The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-10-30
TIE DOCTOR CAN HELP.
CAREFUL, Written Prcscs .Dtion Will do


New York Medical Journal: II docs
not. perhaps. occur Immediately to our
colleagues that we can join in the ma
tion-wide conservation of resources in
our daily business. We are apt TO re-
gard approvingly the campaign against
food pirates and applaud the efforts
constantly being made to bring the pri-
ces of foodstuffs down, at the same time
raving mildly against the moral OBJ
liquity uncovered. But that we can
help in this campaign does not appear
so obvious. 81 cannot" says the general
practitioner, do much more charity
work than | do at present. My fees
are fixed by a rigid custom and are
certainly none too high. / am always
ready to advocate less eating and drink
ing-and / must write prescriptions if
| am going to treat disease"
We admit cheerfully all this. but It IS
in the las; phrase that we find the vul-
nerable noint OF attack. To be sure. we
stili need drugs. To our mind there is
nothing more fascinating in medicine
than the spectacle of the skilled intern
is. bringing al the modern iiagnostic
aids to hear upon the diseased human
organism, searching out the failures to
function and prescribing thoughtfully.
ntelileently. But there is another side
of the picture. Rare, expensive drugs
are prescribed. whose therapeutic value
mas been disproved. There are instanc-
es of eight ounces of costly prepara
ton being written for and only two
ounces used. and so on.
4 s...
which we may have heard mentioned in
our student days, perhaps put into prac-
tice and then neglected entirely. that is
the quantity of a drug prescribed. For
example, we have TO write n prescrip-
ton for pain or insomnia of which we
do not intend or expect that more than
one or two doses will ever be taken.
From force of habit we write for a four.
ounce mixture, directing: One TEASPOON
full: repeat If necessary. Thus either
fifteen-sixteenths of the mixture goes to
waste. or, just as bad, the patient. hav
ing the mixtures. uses It when ii is
not really necessary.
Every physician knows. furthermore.
that the tendency for patient to allow
partly used prescriptions to collect IN
ms IutuiIlIt ~ VI
harm. 1t leads TO attempts at lay pre-
scribinc. mistakes in dispensing and
similar evils. Let us then not get
four-ounce or a six-ounce habit, but
the habit of estimating how much of
a given remedy the patient is likely TO
need to take, and ordering only that
amount
In all these and a hundred other ways
which will occur TO the ingenious the |
nhvsician can help the country. Let US
disabuse the public mind of the IDEA that |
illness is necessarily a time for great |
expense. We have too long seen the |
mental attitude which makes the fam. |
iy call in the best doctor and hang |
the expense." and then when the pa !
tient has recovered make this best doc. |
tor wait months for his bill--a bill |
based verv properly on his skill II has |
been considered a very sor1i1 affair % |
count the pennies where there is illness !
"a MESSENGER sent for medicine. a tax
icab even Is used. sick room SUPPLIES |
are bought recklessly for an Illness |
which may last only a few days.
The phvsician. by q display OF tact |
and Judgment, can curb this folly and |
hold expenses down to a minimum. BV
20 doing he win insure the gratitude of
'he family when they have become
-essonable again and he viii be doing
his bit in the conservation OF resources.