The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-27
HOSPITAL HERE
TO BE BEST

Board OF Directors.
"One of the first acts of the pres
emit Executive Committee was to sep
arate entirely the purely administra-
tive, and the strictly medical ana
professional, in the management of
the hospital. This was accomplished
by placing the charge of the hos
pita1 as regards all but the medical
and surgical work under a medical
superintendent. DE-. George MacIver,
who came here about the middle of
April, from the Massachusetts Gen
eral Hospital in Boston. In addition
to his service in that institution, Mr..
MacIver was Major of a Medical
Corps in the army.
"All the various activities involved
IN such an institution, including the
nurses, the nurses training school
and the nurses home, are directly in
charge Of and report to DR.. Mac
1ver who. in turn is responsible to,
and reports to, the Executive Com
fnnittee; and this Executive Commit
tee as said before, supplies a rec
lord of its minutes to the Board of
directors; so you see the Board as a
whole is in direct charge of the hos
pttal."
THE organizing of the medical
and surgical staff, the setting up of
l1ishment of methods to scrutinize
Ahe work of each individual was left
ITO the doctors themselves. To meet
1.-THE situation the doctors of the staff
Idfvtded themselves into five groups
each group to be responsible for a
particular branch of medical or
IsurgicaI work. These groups select
Sed chairmen and these five chair
men meet with the Executive Com
while TN
administrative and the technical
branches of the work are entirely
lseT.arate at the same time they are
Scoor dinated in this joint meeting.
"These five chairmen really form
AN efficiency committee to watch over
1.-THE medical work and keep the STAN
Sdards high. They have formulated a
set of rules which every doctor or
ssurgeon who practices in the hospital
must follow whether he belongs to
the staff or not 1t is no longer pos
ssible for doctor to place a patient
IN room at the hospital treat it
AS he sees fit and no one know any
thing about it. There must be
written record of each case showing
all the facts about the case, the treat
.ment and the outcome. These rec
pords are filed for future reference
and study. II a patient insisted on be-
ing treated by a doctor whom the
STAFF considered Incompetent he would
sbe barred the use of the hospital.
Under the present methods no out
side doctor can bring in a patient,
place him in a private room and ex-
pertinent
cat meetings of the staff the rec
ords of the cases are reviewed and
all instances where there is any ques-
ton about the treatment are discuss
ed by them. This tends to keep
each one on his mettle, gives him the
benefit of friendly criticism and re-
suits in a high standard of work for
the hospital and keeps the discipline
OF the doctors wholly in their own
hands. There was some little OPP
position to the method at first, but
1t has all died out now.
j. "One man was going to take his
kit and leave if he was obliged to
conform to the rules, but he is still
there. Every ward patient at the
hospital gets the benefit of the dag
Enoeis of several doctors and x ray
extra cost"
TT is costing more to run the hos
pftal than ever before on account
of high prices. For instance, we
charge $14 a week for ward patients
and TO per cent of all our patients
are ward patients. Now the actual
cost per patient is $25 per week.
Semi private patients, that is, four pa
ttfents in a room, pay SCI per
week. The absolutely private rooms
tare $50 and there are three very
exceptional ones which bring $40 per
week. The two last classes are the
only ones which show a profit.
I'VE are paying a good deal Of at
stention to the kitchen and buying
only the best that can be had, not
z only for the special diets needed for
individual patients, but for the
patients in general and the nurses
as well. we are also trying to make
the nurses home more pleasant by
I. providing a recreation room, some
thing they have not had before.
I'VE are working NOW on a scheme
to get each individual director per
sonaIly Interested in the hospital by
giving him some one thing to be re-
sponsible for. 1t might be, for in
stance, a kitchen or the diet, or the
nurses home, or a ward, or private
rooms. 1t would be his duty to keeI
in touch with that particular branch
of hospital affairs and report to the
Board and in case of requisitions by
the superintendent the Board as 9
whole could be guided by the judg
ment of the individual member who
was familiar with the needs Blu
more than all else it'would get a 10
of people personally interested anc
kin all possibility of a 'one-man hos
pftaI'
Another thing which we are try
ing to do is to make 1t as pleasan
and convenient for visitors pos
sfble. In the vestfbule is a registe
which shows the name of ever.
patient in the hospital and the ware
or room he is in. A girl is in charg
and helps visitors to go directly Il
the patient in whom they are inter
ested. For the benefit of the patient
themselves we have made a rule tina
they can only see two visitors a
once; If more than that come a
one time we ask them t
wait until those ahead Of them hav
finished their call"
Yes. I feel that Bridgeport is get
ting more in the Hospital for it
money than ever before and gettin.