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HUBBARD
PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS
Arcade Bldg. - Seward, Alaska
Audits * Systems * Taxes
Phone Main 201
Meets 2nd and 4th Mondays
I.O.O.F. Hall - Adams St.
N. G.. Art McKcough
V. G., George Kipsgard
Sec., Tom Jones
SEWARD POST
No. 5
Meets
lst-3rd Wed. of Monti
Legion Log Cabin
SEWARD
ij
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ctK
P. O. ELKS
1773
Meet 2nd & 4th Wed. of Month
OPEN DAILY 5:00 P. M.
United Brotherhood ot
CARPENTERS and JOINERS
Seword Carpenters* Union 2304
Telephone: Black 216
Meetings at Lutheran Church
Affiliated With A. F. of L
Meeting 2nd Tuesday of Month
James L. Reed — President
R. M. Bevan - Fin.-Sec. & Bus. Agt
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Main 171 228 4th Ave.
Letter to the Editor:
We, the taxpayers of Seward,
have been literally snowed-under
with propaganda about the need
for a new hospital. Those pro
ponents urge us to go to the
polls on January 20th and vote
for their proposition.
Let us examine the arguments
on the other side of this bond
issue.
The first argument against
is the fact that the recently con
structed nurses home can be
immediately converted into a 40
bed hospital, one of the finest
in the Territory, without any al
teration. This building was con
sti acted with our money—75
per cent Federal and Territorial
funds—our tax money re-invest
ed in Seward. The land on which
it rests was donated by the tax
payers of Seward. At the present
time only seven persons live in
this beautiful structure, which
hardly justifies its use as a nurs
es home.
The second argument against
is we cannot afford the addition
al tax burden created by such
a project. We have not yet been
assessed for our sewer, water or
school projects. These three pro
grams will be an addition to our
present tax payment. Examine
your own pocket book and see
if it will stand anothej quarter
ox a million dollar expenditure.
In this same connection the pas
sage of this bond issue would de
prive us of any thought of pav
ing our streets or tiro construc
tion of side walks for many years
to come.
The third argument against is
that we may lose out in receiving
Federal aid for our much need
ed school. Any slice in the bud
get request would endanger our
project being accepted. Do net
forget this: The hospital program
enjoys a priority on the list of
projects submitted for approval
and the only way to assure our
school being constructed is to
vote against the hospital propo
sition. It is unnecessary here to
point out the necessity for addi
'■'onal school rooms. Everyone
is weii aware of the need. How
ever, there are those who con
tend that the old hospital, which
is reported to be a fire-trap,
would make a wonderful school
house. These people are not the
parents of children who are now
being turned out of their base
ment class rooms because of
water covered floors or dismiss
ed because a heating stove has
been found ready to explode in
an unsafe building.
Now is the time to construc
tively plan for our future and
our children's future. Let us
pull together toward a common
goal. A new mental hospital
will be constructed soon in Al
aska Seward is a wonderful
JOIN THE MARCH OF DIMES
THE NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR INFANTILE PARAL/SIS -FRANKLIN 0. ROOSEVELT. FOUNDER
IT'S YOUR HOSPITAL
AND YOUR LIFE
By Paul Nelson
The hospital is not a private
enterprise but a Community re
sponsibility. It serves the Com
munity and must, in a sense,
be served by the Community. In
the early days of hospital his
tory when hospitals housed only
the destitute dying, it was the
Clergy alone who felt the need
to support them. Today the hos
pital has grown into a service
that cares for everyone and
which has become the Com
munity’s “Arm of Preservation”
as well as for use in emergency.
One of the biggest changes in
the hospital business lias been
the change in the “idea" of a
hospital. It used to be a private
concern run by a few people.
Now it is turning into a Com
munity responsibility. This re
sponsibility in your Community
is vested in a hospital board,
wltose major concern is best care
for the patient.
Much is happening today in
the hospital field. A recognition
of the deficiencies are bringing
to light the many problems in
hospital administration.
Take the nursing shortage as
one example. A nurse down the
hall from your hospital room
gives another patient a difficult
inlra-muscular injection.
Student nurses in classrooms
all over the country frown over
a psychology lecture.
Nurses in other areas bandage
gashed hands.
Meanwhile you lie in your
hospital bed and ring for a nurse
and she doesn’t come as fast as
you want her to.
Actually there are more nurs
es in the nation than ever before,
yet hospitals face the greatest
nursing shortage in their his
tory. Opinions differ as to the
principal reason for the shortage:
Expansion in the hospital field,
increased use of nurses in indus
try. shorter hours, early mar
riage, changed medical practice
that recu:res more intensive
location for this building and
would be a new industry for
this area. We can assist in many
ways in making this a medical
center without taxing us beyond
our capacity. We can have a
beautiful city with good schools,
churches, streets, utilities and
a wonderful progressive spirit.
However, to safeguard our rights
as citizens of this great land
against the wishes of a minor
few (many of whom do not own
any real property) REGISTER—
you have only six days left and
must have registered during the
past week to be eligible—and
vote against this hospital propo
sition on January 20th.
Clarence P. Keating, Jr.
Seward Taxpayer and
Former Mayor of Seward.
nursing care, higher educational
standards for nurses, higher
wages and more convenient
hours offered in other areas.
Doctors are giving over to
nurses many duties that former
ly were performed entirely by
doctors such as intra-muscular
injections.
A doctor now takes it for
granted that the nurse can ob
serve and report the slightest
changes of significance in the
patient’s condition.
Wages are also cited as a rea
son for the difficulty in getting
staff nurses in the hospital. Nurs
es that have trained for three or
four years, at little or no salary,
for their profession find they
can enter other fields of em
ployment at better salaries than
are paid the nursing profession.
Beset by rising costs, hospitals,
are sympathetic to the nurses’
demands but cannot boost nurs
ing salaries to meet outside lures
without raising rates to patients.
When your grandfather went
to a hospital, he probably com
plained about high hospital
costs. "A dollar thirty-nine a
day,” he may have muttered.
“It's outrageous!”
Back in 1888 the average pa
tient day cost as shown by fig
ures collected from fourteen se
lected American hospitals was
SI .30. In 1951 the average pa
tient-day cost all over the coun
try for short-term general hos
pitals was $16.77.
Yet today, even though you
are often paying more than ten
times as much, you have less
reason to complain about the
high cost than your grandfather.
His hospitalization actually cost
more in real wages than you pay
for yours.
When grandfather went to a
hospital he probably had to stay
there much longer for the same
disease than he would today.
This longer stay not only ran
up his hospital bill, but also
meant a greater loss in his in
come because he was away from
his job for more days.
liie average length of stay in
voluntary hospitals is decreasing
steadily. In 1939 it was 15 days
and today it is only 8 days. So,
despite today's comparatively
high costs, todays patients are
actually paying less in real wag
es than they would have paid
fifty years ago. The more in
crease in patient-day costs is
not the real indication of in
creased total cost to the patient.
It can tru'y be said that the
patient day “Isn’t what it used
to be." For instance, each day's
care for the pneumonia patient
packs twice the punch it used
to. Much more treatment, much
more prevention of pain and suf
fering and much greater chance
for survival face the patient.
Today's high costs of hospitali
zation reflects the quality care
provided by skilled personnel
who use costly medicines and
drugs which take much time
and effort to prepare and admin
ister.
There is a great interdepen
dence between doctors and the
hospital. It would cost each doc
tor between $65,000 and $75,000
to set up his own laboratory
and facilities (to give adequate
service) if he did not have the
use of the hospital.
Medical treatment is constant
ly changing, and as it does there
are demands for new and im
proved equipment, surgical in
struments and diagnostic facili
ties. In a hospital field, new
drugs and new advances in med
ical science add to the complex
ity of the services performed.
Thus, hospital costs go up.
Hospitals are doing their share
to see how they can best be
financed so that not only the
highest quality of care is given
tiie patient, but the most effi
cient and economical. Hospitals
throughout the nation are im
proving facilities and services
making available to the indi
vidual better care when it is
needed.
In terms of money, health,
comfort, safety and improved
emotional outlook, today's pa
tient is far ahead of the one in
the past. Because of the better
facilities and service offered
the patient in recent years, peo
ple are coming out of hospitals
on the way to recovery from ill
nesses which would have caused
their death a decade ago. The
death rate from all causes in
1952 was the lowest ever re
corded in the history of ouf^
country.
The hospital today is trying
to prevent disease as well as to
treat it. With the growth of hos
pitals, in the past few fclecades
has come a new concept of com
munity service. It is no longer
concerned only with its individ
ual affairs. It is now recognized
to be a Community health agen
cy. With this continued advance
ment, the hospital will soon be
come a health center as well as
a center where illness is treated.
We are discovering, as a na
tion, that the -right to health
belongs to everyone. But, with
that right goes the obligation to
support the facilities that make
that right possible. We cannot
ask for something important
and not give in return. The citi
zens of a Community can play
a large part in shaping the work
and facilities ottered at their
hospital. Each community will
get the kind of hospital care it
deserves. The greater the con
cern of the public with the ade
quacy of the hospital, the strong
er the spirit of the hospital and
the better care each patient will
receive. Hospitals need the pub
lic relations that come from the
hearts of men and women who
believe in what they are doing.
"Never mind/ your Honor.
Since he took that relaxing
trip on The Alaska Line/ he'*
been a different person."
GET A NEW LEASE ON LIFE! Relax
...get a good rest...enjoy yourself
...and you, too, will feel like a new
person. Make your trip a real vaca
tion! See your local agentl
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