University Medical Center News, Volume 1, Number 3, Mid-November 1960 Page: 1
8 p. : ill. ; 28 x 21 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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UNIVERSITY ME CENTER R
The University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston, TexasW . I, No. 3
Hospitals' Year Marked By Space Shifts,
Gains In Patient Service, Cost Hikes
Despite a reduction in beds because of renovation programs, more patients
were hospitalized in fiscal year 1959-1960 by virtue of a shortening of patient-stay
periods, Daniel J. Bobbitt, Director of Hospitals, reports.
Temporary conversion of the Faculty House into a 74-bed hospital unit andmid-year re-opening of the former Negro
Hospital as the 57-bed RandIall Pavilion
-plus some rearrangements in Psycho
II and III greatly offset a major bed
reduction necessitated by the closing of
the Galveston State Hospital for total
renovation and air conditioning. These
arrangements held the net loss of bed
capacity to 33.
Thus, by carefully planned utilization
of available space and some sacrificing
of facilities during a period of extensive
plant remodeling, only fractional changes
in patient care statistics resulted.
Average patient stay in all hospitals
was reduced from 19.6 to 18.4 days, a
cut of 1.2 days per person. This accounts
for the fact that 183 more patients were
hospitalized and discharged - 16,278
compared with 16,095 the preceding year.
Discharged patient days totaled 275,319.
Births totaled 1,736.
Out-Patient clinics treated 12,514 pa-
tients on 145,068 visits under more effi-
cient and convenient conditions achieved
through conversion of the former Nurses'
Home to temporary out-patient facilities.
The cost of operating the hospitals
rose to a record high of about $7,479,000,
which is $319,000 more than was needed
the year before. That amounts to an in-
crease of about $2.60 a day per in-pa-
tient, compared with the previous year's
cost of $21.91. Higher standards of pa-
tient care, reflected in the number of
vacant staff nurse positions filled, in
obsolete equipment replaced and in new
and advanced equipment purchased, ac-
counted for most of the increase, offi-
cials reported. (Also, shortening of pa-
tient stay invariably results in average
per-day cost increases, since the most
expensive part of hospitalization comes
in the early days, the latter days being
relatively cheaper.)
(Continued on Page 7)Elected To AANS Post
Dr. Samuel Robert Snodgrass, profes-
sor of neurosurgery at The University of
Texas Medical Center here, has been
elected president of the American Aca-
demy of Neurological Surgery for 1962-
64, it was announced this week.
Dr. Snodgrass, who joined the faculty
here as assistant
professor in 1937,,
s' following i n t e r n-
ships at General
Hospital, Indianapo-
lis and at Lakeside
Hospital in Cleve-
land, and residen-
cies in pathology
and surgery at Uni-
versity Hospitals,
Indianapolis, and at Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital, Boston, is the author of a
chapter on "Treatment of Spontaneous
Intracerebral Hemorrhage" in a book
to be published by Charles C. Thomas,
Inc., this season.
He was a fellow in Neurological Sur-
gery at Washington University and did
work at the National Hospital, Queens
Square, London, on a Rockefeller Foun-
dation traveling fellowship in Neurology.
He is a member of several professional
societies and received his B.S. and M.D.
degrees from Indiana University.
THE NEWS will look nicer next
month.
That's when we'll present pictures of
our new nursing students - the 29
Sophomores who were capped on the
Galveston campus, and ten others who
now are matriculating in Austin under
the new baccalaureate program, prepara-
tory to spending their last two years
at the Medical Center.Mid-November, 1960
Certification As
Congenital Heart
Center Given M. B.
The Medical Center of The University
of Texas in Galveston has been certified
as a Congenital Heart Center by the
Crippled Children's Division of the Texas
State Department of Health, it is an-
nounced by Dr. John B. Truslow, execu-
tive dean and director.
Certification means authorization of
funds for assisting families in paying
for the care of young patients suffering
from the kinds of congenital heart de-
fects which usually result in extraordi-
narily large medical costs. Treatment
under the program here will include the
broadest spectrum of diagnosis, surgical
and medical procedures, the departments
of surgery, medicine and pediatrics re-
port.
All cases will be by referral from doc-
tors, authorized by the Crippled Chil-
dren's Division, and will utilize a wide
variety of Medical Center departments
usually hingeing on the functions of the
departments of surgery and pediatrics,
and the program will include the services
of the out-patient clinics and public
health nursing for post-hospital follow-
up.
The program's primary team is com-
prised of Dr. John Derrick, surgeon, Dr.
James Leonard, cardiologist, Dr. William
Daeschner, pediatrician, Dr. Robert
Cooley, radiologist, and Dr. William
Eggers, anesthesiologist.
Medical Branch personnel acting as
consultants for the Center are: Drs.
Howard C. Hopps and John A. Webb,
(Continued on Page 8)
WARREN IN HEART POST
Dr. James V. Warren has been named
a vice-president of the American Heart
Association. Dr. Warren, who received
his M. D. degree at Harvard Medical
School in 1939, is professor and chairman
of the department of internal medicine.i.
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Truslow, John B. University Medical Center News, Volume 1, Number 3, Mid-November 1960, periodical, November 1960; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1504364/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rosenberg Library.