Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War
History
Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War
Medicine, Military; Military hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Veterans -- Medical care -- United States
Dr. Dedman took up the work of the Red Cross in taking care of relatives
of patients who come to the hospital. Often these people spend all their
money for railroad fare, and have none left when they reach the
hospital, and the hospital has to take care of them. He said he had
arranged that four or five rooms be fixed up for such people as this and
believed some definite authority should be had from the Veterans’ Bureau
to house these people and furnish their meals. He stated that some boys
will ask for things and others will not. He referred to an instance in
which a patient had told a lady that he needed a shirt, and two days
later when she brought him one she gave it to him before the whole ward
and the boy was ridiculed for a long time afterward. He had had trouble
in getting the work done through the social welfare workers in the
hospital, as the public wants the individual glory of handing something
to the boys themselves. The Red Cross has also been a great aid in
investigating home conditions of the patients, especially of tubercular
patients who want to go home to die. Also, in the case of a man who asks
for a long furlough because his mother or sister is dying, the Red Cross
will investigate and get an immediate report, and many times it will be
found that the mother or sister is not sick at all.
SURGEON PAYNE: stated that he did not want to be misunderstood, that he did
not mean to take credit away from the Red Cross.
LIEUT. BOONE: stated that the discussions had gone afield, that real social
service work is summed up in four or five heads—securing social
histories and other data for the use of tuberculosis specialists and
psychiatrists, securing reports on home conditions for help of
physicians in deciding whether or not to discharge a patient to his
home, corresponding with home communities to adjust home situations,
thereby making it possible for patients to remain in hospitals, and
arranging through local communities for men who return home to have
proper care and assistance in adjusting themselves to civilian life. He
believed a great deal of this entertainment work should be separated
from social service.
ADMIRAL STITT stated that the question had been considered by the Federal
Board of Hospitalization, and it had been recognized that only the Red
Cross has this tremendous machinery and it was considered that the Red
Cross is the proper agency and organization to take care of that sort of
thing. The Red Cross should coordinate and control these outside
agencies. He announced that the next discussion would be on
“Disciplinary Regulations”.
DR. KLAUTZ took up first that in tubercular institutions the rules must
always be stricter than in the general government hospital. He
emphasized the fact that tuberculosis in a civilian is the same as in an
ex-service man, that the same methods of procedure must be applied in
treatment, and that the patient must recognize the importance of
discipline in the tuberculosis hospital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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