Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-09-02
New Ga||ingefs
Building Eases.
|0vercrowdinq
Necessity Of Beds
In Corridors Is
Eliminated
The recent opening of the nev,

The recent opening Of the new
medical building at Gallinger Hos
pital has greatly relieved overcrowd- .
ing, eliminated the necessity for
beds in the corridors, and made
more room for the departments OF
general medicine, surgery, obstetrics
and X-ray.
Omcials today emphasized the in
stitution now is better equipped thai
ever before to take care of tn
city's INDECENT.
While every effort will be made to
take care of bona fide cases in tn
hospitals Increased capacity officials
emphasized an increasingly careful
check is being made of all applicants,
with q view to keeping out impostors.
DR.. Daniel Seckinger, assistant
health officer, and DR.. Edgar A. b.
cock, superintendent of Gallinger,
have gone over the system of admis-
sions carefully. They have set up
an additional check in the form of a
social worker at the hospital. The
social worker gives help to bona fide
cases which come direct to the hos
p1tal, but serves as an additional
bar to any who might not deserve
free treatment provided there by
taxation.
No Likelihood Of Impostors.
There is no practical likelihood
OF lmpostTs getting in" DR.. Bocock
said. The fact that there now is
more adequate bed capacity will
neither stimulate nor permit admis-
sion of the unworthy or ineligible"
Patients placed In the new medi-
cal building last Tuesday were
moved out Of old ward No. 4, which
had been badly overcrowded. In
this older building the departments
Of general medicine, surgery, OBJ
stetrics and x-ray had been so con-
gested that the management had
been forced to crowd "a patients
into wards built for 10: to place
three patients into two-bed wards
and six patients into four-bed wards.
At times mothers awaiting child
birth had to be given beds In the
corridors.
The first move resulted In trans
ferring ITO patients from old ward
No. 4 to the new general medical
ward. The X-ray department has
been transferred from ward No. 4
to the first floor of the new medical
building, where modern X-ray ap-
paratus costing about $4,000 has
been installed.
Sixth Floor RemodeIed.
| The X-ray department vacated
space In ward No. 4, on the sixth
floor, which Is being remodeled to
add more operating rooms for sur
gerry.
Removal Of the ITO patients from
ward No. makes more space in the
old building for both surgical and
obstetrical patients. The new med
lcaI building is to be used for in
ternal medicine cases only.
IN the new medical building have
been installed also a number Of bed
side bags, the gift of the hospital
work OF the Washington Federation
OF Churches. Mrs. Elizabeth Muir
ray supervised installation of $50
of the bags.
Several New Buildings.
The new medical building Is the
latest in a series of DEVELOPMENTS
which have seen Gallinger Hospital
grow substantially over the last 18
years. Other structures built during
That time on the 65-acre property
which borders on Kingman Lake of
the Anacostia River section include
the new tuberculosis Building.
adjacent to the Medical Building
opened August 10: the new power
plant, put into commission June %:
the Nurses Home Annex, opened in
November, 1889; contagious pavilion
in September. 1895; ward No. 4. in
June, 1929; Psychiatric Building, in
January, 1922.
The total daily average occu-
pancy" of the institution has grown
from 279 patients in the fiscal yea
1880 TO 9l07 patients In the fiscal
year 1910. During January, Febru-
airy and March, the average occu-
pancy will run over 1,10O.
Gallinger Hospital takes care of
INDECENT patients only, with the ex-
ception Of some contagious cases
and some psychiatric cases, which
paw