An analysis of the income of public ward patients discharged from the Winnipeg General Hospital in the month of November, 1956, in relation to savings, size of family, debts and cost of present illness

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Date
1957
Authors
Metcalfe, Barbara Emma
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Abstract
It has long been assumed that the teaching wards of university hospitals have been used primarily by patients who are medically indigent. With recent trends in the growth of government support for public ward beds, and in the growth of insurance plans and of government sponsored agencies who care for persons with special illnesses or disabilities, this assumption was questioned by a group of doctors on the staff of the Winnipeg General Hospital, the teaching hospital of the University of Manitoba School of Medicine. Expected changes in the public ward accommodations--the replacement of the twenty bed dormitories by smaller four bed rooms, similar to the two or four bed semi-private rooms -- supported the belief that there might be further changes in the type of person using the public wards. The lack of information available on this subject led the doctors and eventually the administrative staff of the hospital to request a study of the social and economic status of the patients who use these wards. The request, made to the Director of the School of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, was accepted as a pilot group research project. The purpose of this study is to analyze the income of the self-supporting patients discharged from the Winnipeg General Hospital in the month of November, 1956, in relation to such factors as savings, size of family, debts and cost of present illness, and out of this study to select special cases...
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