Contract hospitals particularly, through lack of a proper and direct connection in channels of communication between such hospitals and the District offices, were carrying patients over long periods of time. Patients got into contract hospitals for whom no proper authorization was ever provided, and the records of whom were never clearly defined in the District offices. The scattering of patients anywhere from one to a considerable number in several hundred contract institutions in each District extended the lines of communication between the Government and the District Offices until it was practically impossible to keep the contact clear. The Central Office in Washington felt that it was time to take stock, and stock-taking at almost any time is an enlightening process. The Director desired to remove claimants from contract hospitals; he desired further to utilize as much as possible the existing Government facilities which have been provided for this purpose. Under date of September 1st, about the time of the issuance of General Order No. 26 there were 9,592 patients in _862_ private hospitals; there were 18,698 patients in _92_ Government hospitals. Today there are _8924_ patients in 757 contract hospitals and _20339_ patients in _92_ Government hospitals. From these figures it would appear as though the clearing out of hospitals, as provided for in General Order No. 26, has not been productive of results. This, however, must be viewed in the light of what is actually taking place in the field. About the time of the issuance of General Order No. 26, or a little before, every District was putting into the field a Clean-up Squad for practically every state, the function of which Squad was to make contact with all potential beneficiaries of the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau for the purpose of establishing claims, of offering hospitalization for examination, for emergency treatment, and for other situations. These Clean-up Squads served to feed a considerably increased number of patients of all types into hospitals. Anticipating that such period of hospitalization would be brief, they have used contract hospitals because of this fact, and because of their location in the near or immediate vicinity of the patients handled. The turnover has thus been largely increased. The increase of patients in Government hospitals has risen steadily at the rate of approximately 600 a month until it has reached the figure of _20339_ patients, as against _18698_ patients in the early part of September. There has been a slow but gradual decline of patients hospitalized in contract institutions, notwithstanding the very material influx into the hospitals by reason of the Clean-up Squads just spoken of. It might appear to you who are actually caring for patients in your institutions that notwithstanding the explanation of the meaning of General Order No. 26 and 26–A, that the holding of a patient in a hospital until all of the several matters necessary can be taken care