Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1921-12-24
TELEPHONE GUARDS
HEALTH OF STATE,
A SURVEY SHOWS
Diseases, Epidemics, and Ills
Quickly Reported by Wire
to Headquarters.

W stSoe1dC&l lOt
Would you know the state of health
OF New York? asks the Telephone Re-
view, N. Y. Watch the increase and
decrease of telephone calls which flash
on the switchboards at Health Depart
ment Headquarters
10 these telephone operators the
switchboard Is not q barometer with a
rise and fall of calls indicating the
well-being or the unhappiness of the
public, as a casual observer might re-
gard 1t. TO them 1t is q most ade-
quate instrument for bridging distance
quickly, for getting in touch. with
workers and transferring s. o. S. sig
nails to the proper channels for imme-
date action. They perform q mighty
important part of the work Of mercy
and disease prevention. A knowledge
of how every case should be handled
is theirs, from the most serious to the
most trivial.
BY no means are all calls received
by the department of a serious nature
Here are some of the questions which
reach Health Headquarters and are re-
ferred by the operators to the proper
department.
MIR. McDougals dog bit me. Can I
shoot the dog? Well, what can l do
them?
1.-THE baby in the fiat above is being
brutally treated. Through the airshaft
l can hear it yowling."
"Send an inspector Immediately to
test the canned milk at Blankety
Blanks store"
"Just want to report a horse dead
on Nth Street"
"Please send q man to shoot the
parrot next door Either the bird or
l will have to be shot in short time"
"The people above me constantly
play the same tune. Can't you stop
it,"
And SO on ad infinitum.
Direct wires connect the headquar-
tiers with the health clinics, including
the baby stations Individual cases are
often referred directly to the local Of
flee for attention md of course these
branches of the Health Department
are always in direct communication
with the n. Y. Telephone Company
central offices.
In the hot weather the wires for the
Bureau of Foods are apt to be longest
ed with complaints for spoiled fruit,
fish, meat, milk and what not. Each
case requires an investigation, fol-
lowed more than likely by condemna-
ton of food at the store where it has
been purchased.
Summer Is also the time when the
Bureau of Industrial Hygiene is most
often called upon to visit factory or
office buildings to insure adequate ven-
tilation.
With the exception of New York
City the entire state health activities
are managed through the Albany office
and almost half of the work Of admin
istration is carried on by telephone.
Indispensable Upstate
the State Department of Health Cup
state) that without the use of the tele-
phone thousands of preventable deaths
would occur In the year. Ninety per
cent. Of all calls coming into the gen.
eral headquarters of the department
are in regard to disease, inquiries as
to treatment, calls for doctors, nurses
or to report cases of communicable
sickness. In the State Laboratory In
Albany the switchboard operator re-
ports that ninety-nine per cent. of all
calls received are requests for disease
representatives., antitoxins and serum.
Diagnosticians employed by the de-
partment rely almost entirely upon
the telephone in their work. If it IS
found that John Smith in some outly-
ing district is suffering from malady
puzzling the rural doctor, a depart
ment physician is sent Immediately to
call upon him.
On an average day-that Is, when
there is state Of normally for births,
deaths, marriages, cases of contagious
diseases and general complaints
1920 calls are received in New York
City Ten to eleven o'clock in the
morning Is the busy telephone hour
with a total of 656 calls when doctors
and inspectors are taking care of rou-
tine matters and reports and state
ments for the files, consultation, ap-
pointments and other arrangements