Hospital For Consumptives

HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTIVES

One is Needed Here Says Professor Dock

HE GIVES REASONS

Why Tuberculosis Patients Should Have Better Facilities for Treatment

A very interesting article on why there should be a hospital for consumptives in connection with the University hospital appears in a recent issue of The Physician and Surgeon. It was written by Professor George Dock of the University medical department. Following are some extracts from the article:

The establishment of a hospital for tuberculosis patients in connection with the hospital of the University of Michigan has frequently been considered, but always, when the matter has been brought up many evidences of lack of information have appeared, regarding the various problems involved. It has seemed desirable to discuss some of the problems.

The subject is of more than local interest. Every physician and every taxpayer in the state should be interested in everything pertaining to the University Hospital. The hospital is a great public charity. It was not founded with that aim in view, and there are some who would have the charitable aspect still less prominent than it is. But, built primarily for teaching, and in response to the demand for a shelter for those who sought aid for a shelter for those who sought aid at the hands of the medical faculty, it does a great deal of good as a secondary result of its special function. Of those who are relieved of distress in its wards, or restored to health, a large proportion are manual laborers and producers, that is, those whose time and health can most readily be estimated in dollars and cents.

* * * * *

Tuberculosis cases in numbers come to the University Hospital for treatment. In spite of many drawbacks, many of these are benefited materially, while almost all are helped more or less. Yet we cannot carry on the treatment as widely and as fully as is desirable, and for a number of reasons. In the first place, because of lack of room. The treatment often requiring many weeks, it is obvious that we cannot keep all who come as long as they should be treated, because they would fill up beds needed for other cases. Moreover, all hospital authorities fear the results of exposing other patients to consumptives. The danger is by no means great, and has unfortunately been much exaggerated. The tuberculosis patient is taught first of all to make proper and safe disposition of his sputum as the most certain protection for others and for himself. So successfully is this done that hospitals for tuberculosis are often the places in which tuberculosis is the least likely to be acquired by those who have to work among sick people. Yet even with the greatest care it must be admitted that there is some danger for bedridden patients, whose lungs are necessarily weakened by position and whose general resistance is lessened by disease and by prolonged indoor life, to be in an atmosphere that may at times, notwithstanding the greatest care, contain active germs of tuberculosis. * * * * *

Well-equipped hospitals for consumptives in all stages, therefore, are highly desirable. It is obvious they are needed not only in one place in a state, but in many places, and particularly in all places where sick people are likely to go, including all cities wherein there are general hospitals. In towns with small hospitals special wards would suffice. One is needed at the University Hospital for the reason stated above. But there are other reasons quite as important, though of a different class. The University Hospital is primarily and essentially a teaching hospital. As part of the state medical school it is necessary that its efficiency be kept up to the highest standard. Tuberculosis being one of the commonest diseases it is obvious that facilities for its practical study must be furnished, so that undergraduates, as well as graduates of a time when tuberculosis was not as well understood as now, may have the fullest opportunities for perfecting themselves in every detail of diagnosis and treatment. A relatively small number of cases in various stages, carefully observed in a properly arranged hospital, can be made much more instructive than a larger number of out patients, imperfectly followed up.