Show I I I Tells Cost Of f Running Hospital Editors Editor's Note Inasmuch as each Ephraim and Manti are building or otherwise acquiring a hospital hospital hospital hos hos- pital the following information furni furnished furnished fur fur- ni hed the Ephraim City council by bythe bythe bythe the operator of a bed 20 hospital in inan inn tin an n adjoining county might be of special interest to both communities It cost approximately to torun torun torun run run my bed 20 hospital during the year 1945 wrote the superintendent of a hospital in an adjoining county in response to a list of questions sent him by th the Ephraim City council He stated they had a total of hospital hospi hospi- tal patient days which made the cost per patient per day He believes the 1946 1916 cost will be about due to the rise in practically all aU prices It will require about as much help for a bed 10 hospital as for one of 20 beds the superintendent states and lists the minimum hired help and approximate monthly salary or wage as follows 1 Supervising nurse R. R RN N. N 1 Graduate nurse R. R RN N. N 3 Practical nurses each 1 Cook u. u 1 Laundress 1 Housekeeper 1 extra to help the above 3 For 1945 he listed some of the expenses ex expenses expenses ex- ex as Salaries with the rate of pay considerably lower than is the case this year groceries and they are up some 50 per cent this year surgical supplies up 25 per cent this year lights power phones and miscellaneous expense 11 AO 85 oc The average in Utah is about three hospital beds per 1000 population so soa soa soa a bed 15 hospital should take care of about population or about that of Ephraim Manti and Sterling About 5 out of each go to the hospital each year but some of these would g go o to Salt Lake or some other larger center It is hard to say how many pa patients patients pa- pa ti it wo would take to meet e eo o operating E t expenses the superintendent writes It depends on how much you charge how long the patients stay and also the types of cases If the cost of running your hospital is a year and you charge 5 a day for fora a bed 15 for use of operating room for major operations for minor operations 60 flat rate for maternity cases for 10 days you will have to have an average of 13 to 14 patients aday a aday day basing it on 1945 costs It is really a very hard thing to say how need in order ma many y patients you will to come out even You will probably have to adjust your rates several times in order to meet your expenses and you will likely likely likely like like- ly have to use city funds for awhile in order to insure keeping the hospital open If you have a competent staff of nurses and your hospital is well equipped and the doctors cooperative I see no reason w why y you should not be able to maintain your hospital even if others are larger Af After er all aU they will wm have t. t their troubles too only more of them because they are larger I III do believe however if a plan could be worked out to consolidate the two proposed hospitals into one unit that in the years to come it would work out much better for both and you could give the people much better service and hospitalization and that after all is the only excuse for hospitals o |