Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-07-22
REMARKABLE WORK DONE
At FREE DIsPENsARY
Operated Under Joint Auspices of
City and Medical
College.
TREATED 1s,41s LAST YEAR
Free Clinic Goes on All Summer,
With Assistance of Many Of the
Best-Known Physicians and Sur
geons Of Richmond.

Even a casual visitor to Richmond
would be interested in a forenoon spent
at the free clinic maintained by the
Medical College of Virginia and the
city OF Richmond-but mostly by the
Medical College Of Virginia. except for
the tuberculosis work-in the basement
OF the big building at the corner of
Twelfth and Clay. which before its
amalGamation with the Medical College
OF Virginia was known as the Uni
versity College OF Medicine.
There is a dignity and a pose about
the work OF the dispensary which is
rather unexpected by one Unfamiliar
with the splendid type of professional
service rendered the city daily in the
treatment and cure of patients suffer
ing with diversity of ailments
Everything is done "decently and in
order" by physicians and nurses whose
business IL is to know the best way to
solve the problems presented to them
by suffering humanity
NO better equipment for the work at
hand can be found III the State and
the scope of the work is such that the
free clinic goes on all summer whether
the Medical College of Virginia keeps
open doors or not. AS the public be-
comes more and more educated, IT be-
comes more and more appreciative OF
the dispensary as a factor in promul-
eating the better health of the COM
munity, and there is correspondingly
smaller degree Of the feeling that only
those go to the dispensary who cannot
anord to pay doctors and druggists
bills
The best professional service in the
city is TO be had a the free clinic
Once arrived at the point Of putting
ones pride in ones pocket, the dis
pensary and all il stands for becomes
Nr.f
ing the profered aid Of Il powerful
and influential friend.
TOTAL OF IS,4ls CASES
WE'RE TREATED LAST YEAR
In the new order of things brought
about by war conditions the dispensary
VIII serve n double purpose in supply
ing the professional services of the
physicians at the front In addition to
the usual routine. Interesting are the
figures excepted from the as yet UNI
published report Of the physician in
immediate charge of the free clinic
One learns. for instance, that lS.4lS
cases were treated during 1916 at the
clinic. OF this number. ~ per cent
we're colored people. and the remaining
IS per cent white patients There is
an average Of sixty patients daily APP
plying at the dispensary for treatment
The number fuctuates, naturally. being
always greater. for instance. on Mon
days.
Approximately per cent Of all cases
are hospital cases. Not always under
stood Is the fact that the part the city
plays in this great constructive work
relates only to the treatment, preven-
ton and cure OF tuberculosis Five city
nurses look after this par, of the work,
which is under the supervision of the
Virginia Antituberculosis Association
cooperating with the Boards of Health
OF State and city.
An innovation. In n way but one
which nils a great need Of the Medical
College of Virginia. working through
the free clinic, is the social service de-
partment. the head OF which is also
chairman Of the Red Cross nursing
service OF the city and State and a
member of the Instructive Visiting
Nurses Association. which co-operates
closely with the dispensary and lends
its local prestige to the broadening of
the scope of the work being carried on.
The Instructive Visiting Nurses AS
ISOLATION does the general visiting. but
the routine nursing Of the dispensary
is done by the undergraduate nurses
Of Memorial Hospital, who thus gain
invaluable experience under the best
the city has TO offer in trained medical
service. SO. the work goes quietly on
in the wide. cool spaces of the base
ment of the Medical College of Vir-
ginia methodically. skillfully. with a
careful attention to detail and with the
beautiful order of trained intelligence.