Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-06
DOCTORS TO STUDY
PLAN TOESTABL|SH
D|AGNOST|C CLINIC
District Medical Society viii
Discuss Proposal at
Session Tonight.
MOVE is TO HELP CUT
COST OF TREATMENT
Increasing Charge for Diagnosis Is
Held Chief Item to Be Solved
by Profession.

Dy fro1eSSlon'
Proposals for diagnostic clinic ir
Washington, formulated this Summer
by voluntary committee composed Of
some of the city'S foremost physicians
! working independently. will come before
the Medical Society of the District OF
Columbia at a meeting tonight fol-
| official action.
The voluntary committee, represent
! ing various viewpoints, has conducted
an investigation of diagnostic clinics
conducted in other cities, such as the
Johns Hopkins University Clinic in
Baltimore and the Cornell University
Clinic in New York.
The tentative proposal put forth was
! for the establishment of a clinic,
equipped with all desirable scientific
apparatus, in some central location in
| Washington, the staff to consist of the
| city's foremost specialists assigned by
the Medical Society. These men would
serve for q moderate compensation and
complete diagnoses of the condition of
| patients referred to the clinic by family
| physicians would be made at cost price
the idea being to apply the principle
of mass production to diagnosis.
Attack on Costs of Service.
This was an effort on the part of
local physicians partly to solve the
problem of the increasing cost of
medical service to families in moderate
circumstances, unwilling to accept the
charity service of hospitals and unable
to pay the fees of high priced specialists
which their condition called for.
Analysing this situation. members of
the committee concluded that the chief
item In medical service which had in
creased markedly in cost was diagnosis,
due to the growth of the specialist sys-
! tenn, the increasing cost and complica-
ton of scientific apparatus, and the
advances of scientific medicine in
| specialized fields.
Thus, 1t was explained at the time,
the patient first goes to the family
| physician, who either makes a hit-or-
miss diagnosis or refers the case to a
| specialist. Treatment on the findings
| Of the first specialist may not prove
another specialist. In the end, four
or five specialists may have entered the
case. each working independently, be-
fore the final correct diagnosis was ar
rived at At the proposed diagnostic
clinic everything would be handled CO.
operatively in one place, experimental
treatment would be reduced to a mini
mum and the family physician would
have from the first complete data on
which to base his treatment. It was
estimated that complete diagosis could
| be provided at a minimum price of
around SIS.
Committee Is Divided.
The committee was not entirely of one
mind on this proposal, however, and
some took the position that the "Spe-
AkAIa H. -
with the medical profession; that such
a diagnostic clinic would be only a
temporary expedient. which would not
affect the fundamental problem of in
creaSing medical costs, and that the real
answer must be found in better trained
general practitioners qualified to treat
each patient as medical and physical
unit.
The committee held several meetings
during the Summer, DR.. Benjamin F.
WeemS acting as chairman and DR.
Coursen B. Conklin as secretary. At
the last of these voluntary meetings,
which was attended by DR.. William
Gerry Morgan, president-elect of the
American Medical Association, this reso-
luton was adopted for presentation to
the Medical Society of the District of
Columbia.
THAT it is the consensus that there
| would tend to promote team work in
ascertaining the underlying causes of
the patients illness, and that further
it would reduce materially the costs to
the patient of making a diagnosis"
DR.. Morgan, as leader of the organ
lied medical profession Of the United
States, is advocating that medical men
in each locality solve for themselves,
as far as possible, the problem of medi-
cal costs to offset various moves toward
| state medicine" He also Is convinced
of the extreme Importance Of diagnosis
| in medical practice and of the neceS-
sity of placing this within the means
of the average family. He has not
committed himself to any specific plan,
such as Is proposed In Washington, but
holds that the problem should be treat
ed everywhere in accordance with local
conditions.
Arguments Of Committee.
Among the arguments advanced by
| the committee. as stated in the notices
of the meeting tonight, are:
THE United States Government has
shown unmistakable signs Of tendency
| toward State medicine. 1t is believed
that State medicine does not afford the
best opportunity for the distribution of
skilled medical care. The humanitarian
! dSpeCIS u a CllkllC OpcIdbCO ny Vi BdIllAcu
| medicine should appeal as a deterrent
factor toward the establishment of Gov
eminent diagnostic clinics. The clinic,
IL established, should rebound to the
credit of the profession.
Such buildings as proved necessary
for the maintenance OF the clinic should
be erected and furnished entirely by lay
funds. The personnel operating the
clinic would be obtained from the So
ciety's membership. The services would
be rotating, so that a relatively large
number Of physicians would participate
and no one member would suffer any
hardship. An honorarium would be
given for services rendered.
"All patients examined would be re-
ferred by practicing physicians. No
treatment of any character whatsoever
would be given at the clinic"
The committee also concluded that
no move should be made without ex-
hauStive examination of all phases OF
the question and without practical
unanimity of opinion among District
medical men.
The Medical Society tonight will pre-
sent framed resolutions to DR.. Joseph s
Wall for his services in the campaign
which resulted in the present medical
practice act.
| DR.. Wall was chairman of the So
cietys committee which investigated
conditions and furnished congressional
committees with information as to the
vast amount of quackery in Washington,
where hundreds of practitioners of vari-
Gus healing cults were operating with
no regulation whatsoever and no quail
fication requirements, and with several
diploma mills In the Capital passing
out doctors degrees" TO any applicant
at a moderate fee. These operated In
competition with regular physicians,