Evening star., 1942-03-10
Letters to the Editor
Discusses Compelling Need

Discusses Compelling Need
For Hospital Priorities for Emergencies.
To the Editor of The Star:
This letter is written in the hope Of
bringing sanity and order and safety TO
this voteless community in respect to
our present chaotic and dangerous short
age in disqualification facilities. Despite
the fact that each one Of our newspapers
has conscientiously publicized the alarm
ing facts, the responsible leadership OF
this community has taken no remedial
action and by the hour an 1ntoleraole
situation increases its avoidable threat
to every expectant mother. every acute
surgical emergency and every gravely
Ill medical case. dependent upon hoepi-
talization facilities. The loss OF single
human life Is too big q price to pay
for an evil which conscientious foresight
and intelligent leadership can easily
prevent. It might be you or yours!
Our greatest bottleneck Is with the
maternity case and as two lives are
placed in Jeopardy, its remedy Is the
more urgent 1t is recommended that
some responsible and adaptable agency
like the Committee on Maternal Welfare
Of the local medical society Immediately
canvass the physicians of the city and
require them to register all expectant
mothers at q central registry. giving their
expected date Of confinement and choice
of hospital. This would permit those
In authority to anticipate peak loads on
existing facilities, and enable them prop
erly to prepare for them. Until more
hospital beds actually are available, two
other mecnanisms must be developed to
tide us over the present shortage: First,
the Instructing Visiting Nurses must
be encouraged to re-establish their home
care delivery and maternity service, dis
continued several years ago because
reduced demand made its further main
tenance too costly. AS this Is a service
rendered a solvent group there is no
reason why the cost of subsidizing this
service should not be borne completely
by those whom 1t would benefit, both
in respect to providing safe delivery
less costly than the hospital or in pro-
viding an essential facility not avail
able at the time. Secondly, for an
expectant mother having her first child.
the present policies and practices Of
hospital administration must be mod
flied so as to permit short-term admis-
sion with an early return to home care.
1t is generally conceded that the mother
having her first child should have 1t
under conditions which permit the
attending physician to have at his
immediate command every facility and
resource which would prevent needless
mortality. Prematurity, asphyxia of the
newborn, maternal hemorrhage and the
necessity Of instrument delivery are far
more apt to characterize mothers first
delivery than subsequent ones, and for
that reason she should be given pref
erence Once q mother Is safely deliv-
cred there is no valid reason why she
should not be sent home and another
expectant mother given her bed at a
time when It's lack would be . real
danger
In respect to acute surgical and med
ical emergencies, where undue delay in
obtaining hospital facilities jeopardizes
human life, the remedy obviously is
administrative in character. This means
that priorities upon available facilities
should be given those whose need is
greatest, irrespective Of ability to pay
higher price in competition to obtain
them. This means that elective surgery
like tonsilectomies, repairs and plastic
surgery on chronic conditions must yield
precedence to grave emergencies like
The appendectomy and internal perfo-