The Associated Out-Patients Clinics of the City of New York : a social force / by E.H. Lewinski-Corwin.

  • Corwin, E. H. L. (Edward Henry Lewinski), 1885-1953.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Associated Out-Patients Clinics of the City of New York : a social force / by E.H. Lewinski-Corwin. 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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    Present conditions are not very different from those of 1877, despite the fact that since 1899 we have on our statute books a law which makes false representation by dispensary applicants a misde- meanor punishable by fine, and in the opinion of the State Board of Charities the law has already ac- complished almost all that can be expected of it in this matter. As a result of this as well as the fact that the dispensary clientele is drawn from all over town the overcrowding in most of the dispensaries is rendering efficient treatment impossible. In a neurological clinic of one of the dispensaries it was figured out that, granting that all of the physicians were on duty for fully two hours daily, that no time was lost, whatsoever, that no two physicians at- tended one case at the same time, etc., the amount of time given to each patient, under these ideal con- ditions, was a little over one minute. There is no need to speak of the value of medical work to the patient and to the average physician under such cir- cumstances. If it be added that modern scientific equipment is lacking in very many of the dispen- saries and that the physicians are unpaid in a ma- jority of them; that social investigation and follow- up work are almost untried because of its great cost under the present system, or rather lack of any sys- tem ; that home visiting is practiced on a small scale; we will have a faint picture of the dispensary prob- lem, which urgently calls for an immediate and sat- isfactory solution and is equally pressing in this' city as in every other large city of the country. The Chicago Medical Society, in a special report issued November, 1910, states the problem in the following series of questions: “Are the sick poor obtaining really efficient serv- ice? Is the system accomplishing its purpose? “Are there conditions involved in the system which necessarily impair its efficiency? Is it con-