The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-10-22
Keene, ". H., Not Alone
in Need of Mez0 Hospital

hospitals are being built and modernized
as never before.
Here in New Hampshire, for exam
! pie Portsmouth has only recently raised
| fund of 100000 for a new hospital, in
part through donation conditioned
upon a public fund and in part through
the raising of that fund, which was over
subscribed. Concord, Laconia and Man
chester are among other New Hampshire
places which, after careful study of local
needs, have realized that their hospital
! facilities no longer meet urgent require
ment and which either are about to start
active campaigns or already have started
! them.
1T is interesting to. note somewhat
more closely some of the causes that have
contributed toward this nationwide cam
paign for better hospitals.
Few persons, perhaps, have reflected
that hospitals are medical and surgical
i service organized. They bring to bear
upon the needs of the individual patient
the maximum resources in equipment and
skill that twentieth century medical sci
I ence can muster.
| The modern hospital provides the
physician with certain facilities which
are not available in the patients home.
The patient cared for at home can secure
, these benefits only at greatly added ex-
pense, and with loss of time.
Again, the hospital brings many spe-
cialiStS together. Medicine now is so
highly specialized that no one physician
can master all the science Many cases
require examination and study by physi-
clans each representing a different branch
of medicine, in order that all the neces-
sary facts be obtained Through CONSUL
tatiou a diagnosis can then be established,
, which embOdies the combined skill of
specialists.
1.-The staff of a modern hospital thus
provides group of specialists working
with joint equipment, and under a mu-
tually acceptable plan of team work,
which should render, and usually does
render, the service of each of the very
greatest value to his colleagues, as well
as to himself and to the patient.
so great and so important for public
health are these and other advantages of
/. hospital care that there is q growing use
of hospital publicity for the express pur-
pose of bringing them home to the peo-
pie. The public is more and more in
formed, through this means, as well as
through personal experience with hOspi-
tails, concerning the place which the mod
ern hospital holds in the health life of
the community and in the life of individ-
uals.
Once. not so many years ago, hospi-
tails were dreaded because they were little
understood. Even yet, especially among
those who come as outsiders into the com
munity and do not speak the language of
the place in which they live, there remains
feeling of nervousness toward what are
too often the unknown and mysterious
seeming methods of hospital management
and care. But the whole trend is toward
juster appreciation of what hospitals act
ually mean and do. The result is new
confidence in hospital service and a con-
sequent public demand for that service
whichshas outstripped facilities every
where.
so the movement to build a new and
better hospital for Keene and the neigh
boring communities Of the county is,
after all, but a part of a greater move
ment that embraces the whole country
All the more on that account ought the
people of keene and Cheshire county to
undertake with confidence and pride the
campaign which will give them a hospital
abreast of the highest standards and ade-
quate to meet the insiStent and growing
demands for its care