Evening star., 1943-09-26
The GuIIinqer Inquiry

OUCH luVeSIlSdGlOllS DIS Tie OIlS VI
Gallinger Hospital, which begins to-
morrow, usually deal in extremes.
That is understandable, for the OBJ
ject of the Investigators is to bring
out what is wrong, not what is good,
But the Senators in charge of this
investigation will make it more con-
structive if they can develop the cor
rectible defects in administration or
facilities without damning the inSti-
tuition as a whole and leaving the
public, when they are through, with
an impression that Gallinger Hos
pital is a pesthouse run: by incom-
petents. The same thing holds true
IN connection with the broader i'm
plications of the Gallinger investiga-
ton, suggested by Senator Holman's
desire to learn more about the back
ground and capabilities of the health
officer and the Commissioners and
conditions in other municipal de-
partments.
For, while there are many defects
In Gallinger, as we'll as the municipal
government, there are more effective
ways of remedying them than by in
discriminate welding of a tar brush.
Gallinger Hospitals valuable service
to the city will be injured if empha-
sis on it's deficiencies is permitted to
overshadow it's merits to the point
that they are entirely diScredited.
So it is with the personalities con-
cerned in the inquiry. 1t is not be-
lieved that Senator Holman or his
colleagues wish needlessly to smear
regulations by presentation of criti-
cism designed merely to show an
inefficient, confused muddle of mu-
nicipal government, manned by unfit
administrators.
p That would be distorted picture,
and in the case of Gallinger Hos
pital it would be injurious. to the
institution, where good results de-
pend to some extent on the conf
dence of the clientele. Some of the
things that are wrong with Gallinger
are symbolic of some of the. def
ciencies of municipal government.
A hospital building still used for pa
tients, for instance, was used as a
prison In the Civil War. The insti-
tuition is still unrecognized as an ac-
credited nurses school. The house
keeping Is poor, and whether this
results from wartime shortages, mis-
placed economies or maladministra-
tion is for the investigators to de-
ternine.
On the other hand, the improve
ments at Gallinger reflect the new
and more sympathetic interest in the
cityis welfare shown by congressional
appropriations committees in recent
years. The hospital has won recog-
milton by the American College Of
Surgeons in its departments of gen.
eral surgery, gynecology, obstetrics,
urology and orthopedics. It's mater
nifty wards have just completed a
year with one of the finest mortality
records in obstetrical cases in the
city. It's mortality rate of per cent
in the surgical wards is as good If
not better than for comparable in
stitutions catering to a class of pa
tients who in most cases have lacked
the resources to avail themselves,
before coming there, of private med
ical care. New buildings, new equip
rnent, qualified professional direction
have brought about steady improve
rnent in the quality of service at the
hospital without reaching the high
standards which are generally recog-
rized as the goal.
The Senators on the legislative
committee have fine opportunity
in this investigation to review the
administration not only of the
Commissioners and the health and
hospital officials, but of their own
colleagues on the appropriations
committees, who annually sit in
judgment on the expenditure of ap-
preparations and the performance Of
city officials. If there is something
rotten, 1t should be exposed and got
hid Of. If the inquiry is discrimi-
mating in its search and balanced in
It's appraisals, 1t Is capable of pro-
ducing beneficial results.