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
I found the other day a petition had gone to Washington from my
hospital. It was necessary to discharge two men for drinking. It was
their first offense. They came to me and said, “You have not treated us
fair because it is our first offense.” Just before I left my station I
received a letter which was addressed to these men by Colonel Forbes. In
that letter he said “I have received your petition signed by 27 patients
and asking that the hospital be investigated on account of a few
patients being discharged for drinking. I wish to state for your benefit
that I have given the matter consideration and I am standing right
behind the medical officer in charge.” Leaving out the names, I had
copies made of those letters and placed one of them on the bulletin
board of the hospital.
When I went out to Whipple Barracks there had been some little
disturbance there among the men. They were dissatisfied in various ways
and it seemed like a big problem how to handle these men. When I once
had their confidence I handled them.
I have found this in my experience, that I have never been able to have
a satisfied personnel unless I give them the best I can. So long as you
feed them well you will not have much trouble, because that will keep up
the morale better than any other one thing I know. If you will feed
them, be honest with them, be fair, you will have very little trouble in
running the hospital.
SURGEON J. F. WALLACE, USPHS (R): The subject of entertainment probably
would cover the subject of recreation at hospitals. It is rather hard
for me to describe what recreation should be given at a tuberculous
hospital because it depends on the location of the hospital. At the
hospital at Fort Stanton where I am located we do not have any
entertainment. If any social workers come down there I will be glad to
entertain them, because we have only three visitors a year down there.
That is one of the things in which I would compare our institution with
some of these other institutions.
For many years I have been connected with a large sanitorium where we
had strict discipline and little entertainment. The patients were
satisfied. Our average stay of patients is six months. In looking over
your sanitoriums you don’t find many patients staying six months.
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