The need of care for the convalescent from the hospital standpoint / by S.T. Armstrong.

  • Armstrong, Samuel Treat.
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The need of care for the convalescent from the hospital standpoint / by S.T. Armstrong. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Reprinted from the Nt Mai or THE NEED OF CARE FOR THE CONVALESCENT FROM THE HOSPITAL STANDPOINT.* By S. T. Armstrong, M. D., New York. In 1899 the surgeon in charge of a general hospi- tal in Manila deemed it inadvisable to have his con- valescent soldiers eat their meals in the wards, and in conformity with military procedure forwarded a request to the commanding general for authority to have a messhall constructed. The request was re- turned disapproved, with the endorsement that sol- diers who were well enough to go to a messhall were well enough to be out on the firing line. The gen- eral’s attitude impresses one as harsh, unnecessary, and subject to condemnation; and yet the attitude of many hospitals to the convalescent is similar, though it is true that the motives that prompted the general referred to were not the same as those that have op- erated in civil hospitals, because the latter have had to provide the greatest amount of relief to the great- est number, and the convalescent has had to be dis- charged to make room for the acutely ill or for those in need of operative interference. In many ways a hospital is a manufactory of health, a repair shop for mankind; and like all man- ufacturing establishments its efficiency is based on a complexity of organization that has carefully con- sidered the relation of means to ends in accordance with the class of patients treated. But, unlike a fac- •Read before the Section in Public Health, New York Academy of Medicine, January 14, 1908. Copyright, 1908. by A. R. Elliott Publishing Co.