More Hospital Room Needed

The cry has been so ndustriously circulated tliat there was iilsufflcient clinical material at the university hospital, and the Courier took upon itselE on Saturday tl e task of investigating to soine extent the real facta in the case. The flrst thiiig discovered was that there was far from room in the regular hospital fór all or nearly all the patients who present themselves for treatment. This has been especially true for the past nionih. There are sixty beds iu the hospital, and the immber of patients cared for during the past year lias ranged from the highest number of 82 to the lowest number of G9, Supt. Clark packing them in as best he could. Besides this number in the hospital, and the number of patients in private rooms outside, waiting for operations or treatment. At present there are 110 less than twenty-five patients waiting to get into the hospital. During the month of -May, the number of "outs," as they are called, has far exceeded the number of "ins," as the patients in the hospital are designated in contra-distinction to those outside. And this situation does not bid fair to change. The number of patients accommodated in the hospital from year to year is constantly on the increase, as the following table for the past eight years will show : 1888 979. 18S9 9S9. isoo t,oao ]S'ji__ 1.J77 ,-,98 1.470 SJ3 1,51 lü 894 1,502 1S95 (up toMay 21) 1, 79 If the same rate be kept up this year from this time until the end of the year, the total number of patients of 1895 will aggregate 1,617, over a hundred in excess of any previous year. To explain the large increase in 1891, it must be said that that was the first year in the new hospitals and the institution was tlien for the first time kept open the year round. This does not appear to strengthen the case of those who keep up the cry of "not enough material." However, it must be said, that the objection urged that there are not enough emergency or acute cases, is to soine extent true. Yet there is another side to this part of the question. It is a t'act that the most of the emergency cases of the city hospitals come in during the night, .and at a time when the students can derive no benefit from them. Ilere it is different. Whenever there is an emei-genoy case here, it is peculiar how qnickly the students are aware oí, the situation. Supt. Olark says that the largest crowds that are ever in the clinical nmphitheatre are those that are "brought together for au emergency case in the middle of the night. The reason is this. Here in Aun Arbor the Btudents are within easy range of the hospital, no matter where they room, while in a large city, they are Bcattered over so large an area that it is with diffiöulty that they eau be brought together except dnring recitation hours. There i.-s another difficulty iu the way of clinical advantages to be derived from a private hospital like Grace or Harper's in Detroit. A largo number of cases coming to them are private and not subject to the Lnspection of a crowd of students. They are ander the direct care of a certaiu physician, and the students have little experience with these patiënte. Here they have every advantage in the world. Each patiënt is turned over to one, or in most ei to two students, whose duty it is to watch the case, to note every symptom and to report it from day to day to the physician in charge, who will then prescribe for the following twenty-four hours. In tbis way the students have the best of clinical advantages, which they could only have iu a hospital like the one here. ISTo one can elect here whether he shall be under the care of students or not. He is placed there, because he comes to a hospital where he pays a minimum price for bis board and necessaries, and his medical attention is thrown in. He is here not only for his own benefit, but for the good of the students as well. There is another thing to be said in favor of this hospital, wben compared with tliose of the larger citios. It eerages as maiiy patiënte as does per's in Detroit. That hospital tast year contained at one time 92 patients, the highest number of the year. While the lowest numbenvas 39, a point to whieh the tiniversity hospital does not ad, except at a few times daring the summer racation. It would seein, therefore, that the assertions that the local hospital jjiyes insuffidient clinical advantages is ill-timed. There are only a few kiuds of i of which it does not present as many 8 as do the hospitals of any city.