Milford chronicle., 1961-02-24
Important Meeting
Held At Hospital

to the community and this area
was held last week at the Milford
Hospital Since it may have been
the first step in the possible in
stallation of most significant step
forward in medical care in our
local hospital at some future date.
DR.. e. T. Thompson, who is Medi-
cal Director and Chief of the In
tramural Research Activity of the
Division of Hospital and Medical
Facilities in the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare in
/ Washington, ID. c., came to Mil
of the Medical Staff. Board of
Trustees, and Hospital Employees
on the subject of Progressive Pa
tient Care. DIR. Thompson explain
ed in detail that Progressive Pa
tient Care is a new concept of
treatment of patients consisting of
five specific phases: % Inten-
sive Care; (2) intermediate Care,
(3) Self Care; "a Longterm Care
| 90 Home Care.
In most incidents hospitals have
been instituting Intensive Care and
/ Self Care units as well as Inter-
mediate Care. Until this new con-
ceDt came into being several years
ago general hospitals were giving
what is known as intermediate
Care to all patients. In studying
the needs of the patient it was
! felt that there was much need in
putting seriously i'll patients in one
area under the direct supervisor
of a nurse at all times during the
first few serious days of illness.
This came to be known as In
tensive Care. From this area the
patient would progress airgant con-
dition warranted to intermediate
| Care unit, in which less nursing
care would be demanded At lat
er date in the hospital stay the
patient could be transferred to a
| Self Care unit when he was in a
recuperating stage and could do
many things for himself. Most hos
pitfalls getting into this program
has stopped at this point. Many
of the long term patients are con-
t;nued to be treated in the general
hospital or referred to nursing
homes or to their own home The
fifth phase, the Home Care has
been attempted by only a few
areas. 1t has sometimes come un-
der the jurisdiction of hospitals.
and in some cases in a large pro-
ject conducted by other agencies
within a city.
Members of the Medical Staff,
and the Board of the Milford Mem
orial Hospital have been interest
ed in investigating this program
for sometime and DR.. Thompson's
| invitation to meet with the group
in Milford was an out growth of
this interest. Before attempting
to install any concept of Progress
i've Patient Care, exhaustive study
must be made and all people in
terested in the program must be
throughly orienated," said DR..
| Thompson. 'In the few incidents
where attempted programs have
failed, the failure was a direct re-
suit of lack of sufficient study and
orientation. II was also his advice
that one phase of the program
be accomplished at a time. start
! ing with Intensive Care If this
was felt to be the most pressing
need at the moment.
Following the one hour talk by
DR.. Thompson a question and an
swer period followed The interest
shown in this question and answer
period gave every indication that
further steps will be taken to ini-
| tiate a study of the advisability of
attempting such a program in our
community hospital. And a special
meeting of Intensive Care was
held in the Nurses Home of the
Milford Memorial Hospital at nine
pm, February Is. 1861. The fol-
lowing persons were present.
Mr.. 1. G. Burton. Mr. Sipple, Mr..
Schabinger. Mr.. NAPLES. Mr.. Lin
dale Fisher, Mr.. Robert Fischer,
Mrs. Fred Ireland. Dr. Dobson. DR..
Portz, DR.. Fitchett, DR.. James, DR..
Sills, Mrs. Whaeton, Mrs Willis,
Mrs. Foraker, Mrs. Barnett, Mr..
Shockley. Miss Hamburger. Mrs.
Carlisle, Mrs. Lacy, Dr. Lora, DR..
Pezarras. Mr.. Lorenz, DIR. Mick. DR..
Baker. Dr. Avizonis. DIR. Sye. Spec
ial Guests: Mr.. Patrick Meconi.
DR.. E. T. Thompson.
DIR. Thompson, who is the Chief
of the Intramural Research Activi-
ty of the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, primiliary
interested in Progressive Patient
Care spoke for approximately an
hour on the various aspects of the
concept. There was considerable in
terest as manifested by the quest
ion and answer period which fol-
lowed and utilized close to an ad-
ditional hour. The meeting adjourn
ed at 1880 pm.