Do You Need a Hospital? 



DCH ;> your cominuiuty need a new 

 lio^pital? Is the health of the 

 j tople in your area endangered 

 lui.iuse of poor hospital facilities/ 

 It your answer is "yes ', you mitiiit 

 then a-.k What can 1 do about it? As 

 an indi\idual, you can do much but co- 

 operation of the rest of the community 

 is essential. 



Time, effort, and money are the im- 

 portant contributions that must be made 

 by people in the community to insure 

 the success of a drive for a new hospital. 



How IS it done.-* Lets take a look 

 at the job being done at Jacksonville, 

 Illinois. During the war the people of 

 that community felt that hospital facil- 

 ities were woefully inadequate — hardly 

 able to take care of Jacksonville's own 

 sick and mjured without counting in the 

 thousands of rural people dependent 

 upon the city's hospital facilities. 



In 19n a drive was started to rai.se 

 $sO(),()()() and 5330,000 was pledged. 

 But priorities on materials stopped cold 

 plans for improved hospital facilities. 



About two years later federal funds 

 became a\ailable for hospital construction 

 under the Hill-Burton Act. State author- 

 ities came in, surveyed the community, 

 mapped out the area (see map) which the 

 hospital would normally serve, set a min- 

 imum of 200 beds for the hospital, and 

 specified that the hospital must be built 

 from .Scratch, that no repairs or additions 

 to the old hospital in use would be con- 

 sidered. 



Like many things nowadays, the most 

 staggering thing about a new hospital is 

 its cost. For small communities the cost 

 per bed at today's prices runs about 

 $1^,000 to 517,000. The hospital must 

 be fullv fireproof whicii adds an esti- 

 mated s:.t)00 to the cost per bed. If 

 the area to be served has more than 

 2"^. 000 people, to meet recpirements for 

 federal assistance you must plan for four 

 beds jxr 1000 population and you must 

 abide by tiie state plan for hospital con- 

 struction which has been approved bv the 

 surgeon t'tneral of the I'liited States 

 Public Health Service. 



1 he Kuksonville area as outlined in 

 the Illinoi'i State Plan (see map) includes 

 all of Morgan and Scott counties, and 

 jiarts of Greene, Cass, and Macoupin 

 counties. Since this area comprises a 

 population of 51.000 (1947 estimate) 

 the formula showed a need for a 200-bed 

 hospital. At Sn,000 per bed that 

 amounts to 53,000.000. Rural and city 



Pilmyrj ' 



By JIM THOMSON 



Ass't Editor, lAA RECORD 



hospital committeemen felt the cost was 

 out of the question. They conferred 

 again with state authorities and it was 

 agreed to build about 70 per cent of the 

 total beds needed because there was an- 

 other 80-bed hospital in Jacksonville. 

 Permission was then granted to build a 

 1-iO-bed hospital at an estimated cost 

 of S2. 100.000 with expense to be borne 

 thus: federal S'OO.OOO; state, 5700.000; 

 and voluntary community contributions, 

 $700,000. 



Heading the drive in the rural areas 

 was ^X'arren Brockhouse of Concord and 

 Lawrence T. Oxley, Morgan County Il- 

 linois Agricultural As.sociation general 

 agent of insurance. Both men did an 

 outstanding job and met with a splendid 

 response among farmers and their fam- 

 ilies. Two farmers gave 53°'. 000 each. 

 Close to half of the money raised has 

 come from rural areas. 



Both Hrockhouse and Oxley com- 

 mended the county Farm Bureaus in- 

 volved for their excellent cooperation. 

 Oxley was particularly impressed by the 

 remarkable work done by many of the 

 farmer solicitors. Oxley said he believed 

 that many of the men had developed 

 their leadership qualities through close 

 association with the Farm Bureau. 'I 

 was never so appreciative of my F'arm 

 Bureau connections." Oxley said, as I 



was during the hospital campaign. The 

 response was marvelous. " 



As of May 1, total pledges and cash, 

 including money pledged in 1945, a- 

 mountcd to 5850,000. With a reason- 

 able amount of shrinkage, sufficient 

 funds should be assured to complete the 

 job. 



Flans tor the T-shaped, three story 

 structure are expected to be approved 

 by late summer with construction to 

 begin early this fall. The site is a tenth 

 ot a mile beyond the city limits of Jack- 

 sonville. When completed, the hospital 

 will be the largest built in Illinois thu-> 

 tar under the Hill-Burton Act and will be 

 the largest and most modern hospital 

 between Springfield and St. Louis. 



Some of the things that must be re- 

 membered if you plan to follow the lead 

 of the Jacksonville-area hospital are: (1 ) 

 The people of the community must feel 

 that there is a definite need lor a hos- 

 pital; (2) A responsible local organiza- 

 tion must be set up; (3) This latter 

 organization must contact the State Health 

 Department at Springfield if grant-in-aid 

 money is to be requested; (4) In re- 

 sponse, the State Health Department will 

 discuss the program w ith you and tell you 

 whether or not you are eligible: ( > ) If 

 eligible, they will outline a program of 

 (C-'.r.-'.'iuJ ■■>: t'.rie U) 



JUNE- 1949 



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