Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1919-07-10

can have instilled into him a very
clear idea of what the construction Of
a hospital will mean to the communi-
ty. Before they attempt to impress
others with point in question, there
fore, financial teams should be thor
oughly informed, and to do this it is
necessary that the general policies
and the function of the hospital ba
definitely determined in advance and
placed very clearly before the finance
committee. The work of collecting
hospital funds is an ardious task, re-
quiring courage, persistence and
high sense of civic duty.
} In all probability large part OF.
the funds will be subscribed by few
i, individuals, but it has BEEN demon
strated frequently that the small per-
centage represented by the large col
um Of small contributors is equally
as important by reason of the fact tha
it popularizes the hospital, and if the
institution is to be community hos
pital in the true sense of the word,
this cooperative spirit must prevail.
One of the most important thingsto
be considered in any campaign fer the
raising of public funds is to secure
the unqualified support Of the public
press of the community. Without such
support any campaign is certaiR Of
failure, and with misdirected effort,
on the part of the press, maximum
amount of good cannot be obtained.
Therefore it is essential that those
directing the editorial policy of the
newspapers be taken into the confi-
dence of the campaign manager and
the full intent of the campaign ex-
planned to them in detail. Too much
emphasis cannot be placed upon the
Importance of this.
Under no condition should the total
amount of money raised be devoted
entirely to construction of the plant.
DIR. HOEFER,
A community hospital, built for the
purpose of taking care of the needs Of
the entire community, must, of neces-
sity, handle fair proportion of nom
pay patients and if the basis Of
charge patients is to be equitable, it
logically follows that these non-pay
patients create deficit Based upon
a sound financial policy this deficit
must be met yearly and one of two
things must follow: Either the hos
pital be fortunate enough to have an
endowment, the income of which will
take care Of the deficit, or the com
!; munity must be solicited yearly for
the maintenance of the institution.
| Therefore if at all possible certain
percentage of the funds raised should
be set aside for operating sexpenseato
take care of at least the first few
years deficit, or until the institution
can get fairly well started. AS a fur
ther means Of dealing with the inc
vitable and undesirable deficit, the
creation at the outset of suitable
list of annual contributors is recom-
lnended.
I; would like to emphasize that in
the collection of funds for hospital,
fpeople are inclined to regard the ef-
fort with certain degree Of skep-
ticism, but by having the campaign
committee thoroughly trained against
probable objections, much Of the hard
work can be greatly ameliorated4 No
solicitor can be a good solicitor A,hs
falters in his attempt, and might
say that soliciting hospital funds can
only be properly performed by the
man OF woman who has the "stick-to-
itiveness" determination to make q
final success of the effort.
The organization having been COM
pleted and the funds ready, the next
step would be the employment of an
architect. shall not discuss. this
phase of the subject at the present
time, except to say that an architect
for this purpose must be one who is
-eminently familiar with hospital
construction. This will leave for our
future consideration the best location
for such an institution, it's type of
building, name of institution, and the
various intricacies Of administrative
essentials. All Of which need natsnow
be discussed, lest it might have its
bearing against the success of the
movement, but let it be said, that this
is to be an institution favoring no. one
person or set of persons, and in the
true sense of the word be strictly q
community hospital.
Very truly yours, ,ys
E. A. HOEFER, NJ. D.