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Why ask your service day and night Saturdays some days holiday around the clock and around the calendar hospital all wrap yourself in the been. COOL WHEN THE of you are going to Hospital Association and its member hospitals in your community present at your service I transcribe series in the public interest designed to take you behind the scenes in your hospital loot war worth in the beginning is a dream a dream born of a need in the hearts of people family people with children to bring up the new generation must have the best and only the best when it comes to health care in the beginning all hospitals are like that a project of the mind not break and mortar and girders of steel and how is the dream changed to reality Well it might be something like. I am Sam Burton a banker in our town I guess this place isn't really any different than a few thousand other towns each with a few thousand people in it but it seems pretty special to us who live here we are a part of it we're proud of it and I guess we're proud of our new hospitals and anything else we've got because it took a lot of work and planning and effort I wish you could have dropped right in the middle of that first little meeting we had Mary Jackson was there the editor of our newspaper old Dr Thompson who delivered a few third generation babies in our town and George Taylor our most influential citizen at least our richest it almost turned up the. All I know is we can't get doctors to come here and I don't blame the young ones with good training think they don't want to come to a community where there aren't any hospital facilities How about that doctor if I didn't know Mary Jackson so well I might think she was taking a backhanded slap on the now doctor I never met no need to blow sure apologize Mary or exactly right you all know how long I've been practicing and see almost a half a century doctor and you know and my colleagues know that we just can't interest the young physician who should be coming here to take up polices as we move out of the picture it's too far to the nearest hospital we're in the city too far to the equipment and the trained personnel and the facilities they need to practice modern medicine that's right Dr that's the way I feel about it there's of changed a lot in the past fifty years disease may be the same but it's no shoes and treatment changed tremendously we've got to keep up with them that's all there is to it well I knew that was the way you fall about a doctor now with just a minute said Paul I wondered why you hadn't said anything George I knew it was too good to be true she urged her Mrs Jackson Oh you women can get sentimental about the children and how they're going to be taken care of I don't see anything wrong with that let the tailor do you but you never look at the practical side of things you have to leave that up to the man now George I'm supposed to be chairman of this committee. Suppose you just address your remarks to me OK OK but I've been listening here the scene in for quite a while and I have been thinking this thing over for quite a while too there are some of the rest of it but we want to get everyone's opinion so go ahead George we have been getting along all right without a hospital where let's just say we've been getting along your building our hospital is an expense to the town the whole county and it's not just the building after it's built you've got to keep it going it'll be a continual drain on the community. There seems no sense to it to me not in these days a good road and fast cars just no sense to it and you think George that we ought to keep on using the hospitals in the Senate as I certainly do of course you realize that it's better than a two hour drive in good weather and the dog doesn't have the patience sometimes to wait two hours and sometimes there are emergencies that need care right now that doesn't hold a lot of water and the doctor himself said that people overplay that emergency business George I did say that argument for hospitals given on do wait some time. And that through emergencies like the patient bleeding and then shot not happen as often as some people think that's what I said but what I'm thinking mostly about is the expense word you're better than most anybody else to help paper on how there is now and maybe that's the way I got it not spending it foolishly I putting out money when I didn't have to well it seems to come down to a matter of community need and responsibility. Should we as a town or county for this hospital would serve a good sized area should we take on our own responsibilities in health care do we really need a hospital and if we find we do where do we go from there you're. Those with the problems that were behind every hospital before it became a reality the very hospitals in your own locality even though some of them have been established for more years than you can remember behind all hospitals are the dreams of people who put their dreams into action to produce reality but today the building of a hospital is a more complex project than it ever was in years past even determining the needs isn't a simple matter far from it in fact Sam Burton's committee work hours and days and weeks as Sam said we can't make any mistakes we can't afford to make mistakes after all we know so little about finding out whether our town in this county and other towns around even need a hospital you don't just take a yardstick and measure you don't just take a yardstick but you can measure a community for a hospital Sam Burton's committee found that out from the American Hospital Association the first steps the need for a competent consultant services outside assistance experienced in the hospital field. They learn certain basic facts which every community should know you build a hospital only if there is a need demonstrated not just because a neighboring town has a hospital and you want one to simply as a matter of community pride to build a hospital only if you are assured of the personnel the staff or a hospital is not an empty building or even one filled with gleaming equipment a hospital is people trained people skilled in getting the care for which you have proved the need to build a hospital only if you are sure that its operation can be soundly finance or a completed building isn't the end it's the beginning the community must support its hospital once built and staffed. Those where the facts which Sam Burton's committee found out in their investigations painstaking work brought them forth careful planning followed a competent survey was done and then came the day when Samberg and stopped in at the newspaper office to tell Mary Jackson. Well looks like we're going to have some real hospital news this week Mrs Jackson something to make our folks sit up and take notice all that's music to an editor's ears What's the latest on the hospital this is it the completed survey report just got in the mail Tell me quick do we or don't we do of course we have a full meeting of the committee and go over it very carefully before you can print anything about it naturally we certainly don't want any premature announcement of it but it looks from there says if we've got a big enough community here three bigger towns in the county the outlying area are our hospital would serve I just knew we could prove a need for a hospital I knew it all the time let's not kid ourselves Mrs Jackson we really didn't know what not on any sound basis not until we had the survey suppose knob but well I'd still like to think it was woman's intuition and I'm a banker Mrs Jackson I don't do business on integration when you come right down to it neither do I and I can see now that it would be pretty irresponsible to go out and crusade for a hospital without knowing the facts sure it would because we figured on living here a good long while yet if we made a mistake got off half shot on this project we'd never heard the last of it not if we built the hospital and then found that the community couldn't support it or didn't need it it would have been a white elephant No you're right I'm glad we did it the right way but tell me what are these figures going to sway George Taylor We need him you know to be practical about it he's not only rich but he's got a lot of influence has an O. and if he'd come to see this in the right like he'd make a fine person to head up the fund raising campaign Yeah he would course we'll need all the expert help we can get in fundraising I guess it'll depend on how much we'll need and what size hospital will build Well the reverse of that at least the size will determine how much money will mean you're right as usual when it comes to money but George Taylor would be just the man now somehow somehow we've got to persuade him to. Take over the chairmanship of that committee or we're going to lose our with. As it happened it wasn't necessary for the local committee to persuade George Taylor to lend his help tragedy stepped in and took over tragedy in the form of a big truck that slipped its brakes while parked on the hillside slipped backward and silently down the hill gathering speed and beginning to sway from side to side it reached the intersection just in time to intercept a bright blue coupe. Everyone knew that car it belonged to George Taylor's oldest son bought the. And after it was all over Sam Burton had a visitor someone to see him about the house. Said I'm. Here the organizing groups been having a hard time to get somebody to head up the fund raising Yes George we haven't quite decided yet. I hear that you've been thinking about asking me. Back before it happened that is yes yes we had George even though we knew how you felt about the hospital we thought maybe you would well you know you mean change my mind frankly yes you know what the doctor said don't worry about. On I look George you shouldn't It was in shock bleeding it couldn't possibly live long enough to have got to the city but he might have had a chance if it hadn't been so far George you know yourself at all Dr Thompson said about emergency cases they're not the reason a person out of support a hospital or a lot of other things to be considered point is I wouldn't listen to any of it I didn't have an open mind about it but well I feel different now. Like the new hospital would be well a sort of memorial. And here that's what I came in for I want to give you the first check and if you want me to take over the chairmanship. I'll take it. Yes Where proud of our hospital our whole community is proud of it it belongs to us you see we worked out all the problems like deciding how to handle the care of folks who couldn't pay we decided that was a community responsibility not to be paid only by the sick people who use the hospital but by all of us like sponsoring the Blue Cross community enrollment so our hospital would have a steady dependable source of operating income like organizing the hospital exhilarated so I wives could feel they had a part in it too yes we built our hospital with the money we raised and with the help of some government funds because we're not a big nor really rich community and now that its doors are open we wonder how we ever got along before for our hospital is a part of us. An important part of our lives you're. More like in the beginning is a dream born of a need in the hearts of people and in its fulfillment the hospital takes its place as an essential part of community life and help to learn how you can help and support your hospital listen to at your service transcribe series by the American Hospital Association and its member hospitals in your community who believe that a high quality of hospital care should be available to you and to all people or are. Poor. Poor. Poor. Poor. Or are.