Evening star., 1951-09-08
ST. E|izabeths
May Put Limit
On Admissions
Overtuxed Facilities
Impede Treatment,
Dr.. OverhoIser Says

AAS HCDh4SAAASJ b4AoG clll
barge" might have to be placed
on admission of patients to over
crowded st. ElizabethS Hospital
was raised today by Supt. Winfred
. Overholser.
I'VE haven't put the lid on yet"
DR.. Overholser said. But I'm not
sure we won't have to before the
end of the year"
He said the institution, largest
Federal hospital in the country
is considered to have maximum
capacity of 5000. Yet there are
currently about 7,100 patients reg
istered. The space problem will
be emphasized in DR.. Overholser's
annual report. on which he is now
working.
Many wards in the mental in
stitution are far more crowded
than Howard Hall, the hospitals
maximum security wing, although
five men adjudged criminally in
sane are in jail because there is
no room for them in the hall.
Chief Judge Harold M. Ste
p'7enS of the United States Court
Of Appeals has asked the United
S ates Attorneys office to inveSti-
g9te a case in which a criminal
adjudged insane on July 2. was
not transferred from District Jail
to the hospital until this week.
Actually. we're not overcroWd-
ed at Howard Hall because we
can't put in any more beds than
we have already" DR.. Overholser
said. The wing. built for IT'S
p ientS. has 179 now.
Each patient has his own
room ne pointed out. And with
this type of patient, We don't dare
double them up"
Points to Wording of Law.
He said he felt the wording of
tie law dealing with commitment
Of prisoners to the hospital gave
him the right to refuse to take
more than he could handle.
The law states that, if st. Eliza
be IS is overcroWded, officials may
make arrangements with hospitals
in other Jurisdictions to care for
C lminally insane patients who
ca"Qot be accepted here.
However. the hospital official
Sc 4. the Howard Hall situation
is merely the most dramatic
pEese" Of the space problem.
There are 80, and even some
times 80. persons accommodated
IN some wards built for 80, he
said.
Beds in Sitting Rooms.
officials have been forced to put
beds in areas designed for sitting
room purposes.
Oyercrowding is bad also, he
said, because the patients are
more apt to become irritable and
quarrel with each other. This
emotional upset, of course, i'm
pc1es their treatment.
When patients are crowded to-
&C her, he said, there is also
the danger that one who is I'M
proving will be Overlooked and
not moved toward where there
are similar patients Thus. the
day of the patients eventual dis
charge is delayed.
Dr. Overholser said use of a
new 500-bed ward for old persons
will not take the pressure off,
because nearly that number of
beds in other buildings have been
closed in the last few years be-
bauSe of fire hazards.
Elderly to be Moved.
Elderly patients will be moved
into part of the new building on
the arrival of new beds, which
hive been on order for months.
Tie hospital does not have suffi-
C. Mt personnel to operate the
Wrole building at this time.
FUNDS were voted for plans for
new 400~bed admission ward,
BIT the project was temporarily
ABANDONED after the United States
entered the Korean war. The last
new ward building at the hospital
was built in 1914.
In addition to the physical prob
lens raised by the overcrowding,
many medical services are not as
effective because more persons
must be treated and personnel
has not increased in ratio to the
patients. DR.. OverholSer said.
He said there were more patients
at the hospital during World War
II than there are now, but he
added, the problem was not con-
sidered acute then because many
OF the new patients we're from
the armed forces and usually only
temporary care was necessary.
Servicemen are no longer cared
for there.
"May Spend Rest of Lives"
Nov, more and more of our
patients are elderly" he said. ut
is harder to care for them, and
they usually don't tend to i'm
prove. Some may spend the rest
of their lives with us"
About 25 per cent of the patients
at the hospital are Federal de-
pendents that is. such persons
as veterans, Indians from reSer-
vations and patients from such
Federally administered areas as
the Virgin Islands, where there is
no mental hospital.
There are about $50 Veteran
Administration beneficaries at the
hospital. DR.. Overholser said that
paradoxically, removal of these
men to VA hospitals would not
solve the oVercroWding problem
because tournover Of these mer
is usually rapid. Most VA patients
who are not seriously i'll, are KEEP
in the Receiving Building, which
would have to be used as an ad'
mission building, anyway.
The rest of the hospital popu'
1o+;o,, ic made IN DrinciDa1ly q