Page:LewisMeriam-TheProblemOfIndianAdministration.djvu/308

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Health
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vation school. These wards, which would accommodate approximately from sixteen to twenty more patients, are thereby rendered useless, especially during the winter months. The Indian Office is now planning to correct this situation and to open this space for patients. In some hospitals the heating plant is of limited capacity, and it is with difficulty that the buildings are kept warm. When the head nurse in one of the hospitals became ill, she had to be removed to a hospital in a nearby city because she could not endure the low temperature of her own hospital.

Utility room facilities, such as slop sinks and other equipment for aids in nursing, are generally either of a poor design, in a bad state of repair, poorly placed, or absent.

Frequently the laundry equipment in general and agency hospitals is of an old inefficient design, such for example as a single-roll mangle. At the school hospitals the laundry work is frequently done at the regular school laundry. As these units usually have old equipment of limited capacity, difficulty is often experienced in getting prompt service.

Movable equipment, such as beds, mattresses, hospital furniture, dishes, and culinary equipment, is of poor quality, is frequently limited in amount and is often in bad condition. The beds and mattresses especially are of inferior quality. Many of the springs sag and the mattresses are lumpy, a combination which does not assure the patient the needed rest and relaxation. Much of the difficulty is due to the fact that such equipment in the past has been purchased at the lowest bid with little apparent regard for quality, wearing power, or hospital needs. The medical service is now endeavoring to raise the standards of specifications for such equipment so as to compare more favorably with those approved for other federal hospitals. It is assumed that the future will show a marked improvement in this respect.

Operating room equipment is of a varied character. In many hospitals the amount is adequate, but it has almost invariably been crowded into too small a space. The usual rule is to have all equipment, such as the regular operating room pieces, scrub-up sinks, sterilizers, sterile linen closets, in fact, practically everything connected with an operating suite, placed in one room. This results in serious congestion, in many instances leaving barely enough space for the operator and his assistants to walk. At the Laguna