Community health services for New York City : report and staff studies.

  • New York (N.Y.). Commission on the Delivery of Personal Health Services.
Date:
1969
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Community health services for New York City : report and staff studies. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    688/704 (page 664)
    a service does not in itself insure improved services. However, as happened at Lincoln Hospital between 1958 and 1967, when the staffing of a pediatric service containing eighty in-patient beds and a very large ambulatory service is increased from a house staff of two foreign-trained interns and three part-time attendings to a house staff of twenty-five interns and residents including ten graduates of American schools, a full-time staff of ten university faculty members and an additional staff of twenty-five attend- ings and consultant pediatricians, there can be little question concerning the improvement in medical care. Striking improvement in staffing at all professional levels also followed the affiliation of Morrisania Hospital in 1962, Greenpoint Hospital in 1962, at City Hospital at Elmhurst in 1964, and at Harlem. Although the quality of in-hospital patient care depends largely upon the quality and adequacy of the house staff and the time devoted to their supervisory duties by a well-qualified attending staff, it also depends upon the availability of up-to-date clinical, laboratory, and x-ray equipment and upon an adequate staff of nurses and ancillary personnel. In many of the City hospitals replacement of obsolete equipment has been long delayed by red tape and, when acquired, delays in installation have been frustrating. Nurse manpower is still in grave short supply. As a result, the full benefits of the affiliations have not as yet been achieved. In a few instances, affiliation contracts were made with weak voluntary hospitals because the number of strong voluntary hospitals with superior standards and full-time professional leadership has been ex- hausted. In such instances, the benefits of affili- ation have been less than satisfactory. These should be critically reexamined. The funds available under the contracts may have materially benefited the small voluntary hospitals professionally and this has tended to improve the care of city-pay patients hospitalized in the parent institution, although this was not the primary pur- pose of the affiliation. The strong voluntary hospitals have benefited less in this way, although the affiliations have provided them with additional opportunities for good clinical teaching of medical