Conference of Officers in Charge of Government Hospitals Serving Veterans of the World War — John Shaqi
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
In this connection, attention is called to the fact that the Home
functioned in a two fold capacity. It furnished hospital service to the
man who actually needed such attention and it also furnished domiciliary
service to men who were disabled and prevented from taking care of
themselves in the active competition of life but who were not actually
patients. This latter service is called our domiciliary service and is a
service that probably will increase very materially in its scope with
the passage of time, as men who have served in the World War, owing to
disability will find themselves unable to meet the active competition of
the world outside and will therefore need this domiciliary service in a
very acute way.
By the Act of October 6, 1917, eligibility in the Soldiers’ Home was
given to men who had served in the World War, on exactly the same terms
and conditions as it had been given to the veterans of the other wars,
and therefore today the disabled soldiers of the World War stand in
exactly the same position in their rights to care and treatment in the
National Home as does the soldiers of the Civil, or Spanish American
Wars. But few men of the World War had taken advantage of this privilege
prior to the year 1920 when the Sundry Civil Bill for the F. Y. 1921
gave authority to the Director of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, now
the Director of the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau, to make allotments to the
Board of Managers of the National Military Home for alterations and
improvements of existing facilities to meet the demand of
hospitalization from the Bureau of War Risk Insurance. Such changes were
thought necessary as a large amount of space available was barrack space
which while satisfactory for domiciliary service, was not satisfactory
for hospital service.
Acting in accordance with the desires of Congress, as shown in this
bill, the Board of Managers at once entered upon an energetic campaign
of construction to prepare their plants for this work. Conferences were
held with the Director of the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, and the
statement made by him that the greatest need of the Bureau of War Risk
Insurance at that time was for tuberculosis and neuro-psychiatric beds.
To meet this need, and to grant to the fullest the wish of segregation
on the part of the World War men, two branch Homes were set aside and
their domiciliary and hospital population moved to other branch Homes,
and acting under the advice of the most competent experts, the Board
could find, the branch at Johnson City, Tennessee was changed into a
tuberculosis sanatorium, and the branch at Marion, Indiana was changed
into a neuro-psychiatric sanatorium.
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