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Efficiency in Our Sanitarium Work

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 2, 1915

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 43.

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Efficiency in Our Sanitarium Work

By George Thomason, M. D.

EFFICIENCY is defined as “power that accomplishes a desired or designed work. The state of possessing adequate skill or knowledge for the performance of a duty or calling.”
The sanitarium work was established by this denomination for a very definitely desired and designed work. Efficiency in accomplishing this work is the state of possessing adequate skill or knowledge for the performance of this calling. And as it was distinctly in the line of God’s providence that sanitariums were established and for a specific purpose, they can be fully efficient only as they accomplish God’s design and purpose. This purpose has been said to be the reaching of all classes in general, and, in a special sense, “the higher classes,” with the principles of truth.
Involved in an efficient sanitarium work is,— First, its board. Second, its buildings and equipment. Third, its staff. Fourth, its results.
To deal with these more specifically—first, the board: It would seem apparent and self-evident that the board of control of an efficient sanitarium, as of any other institution, must of necessity be composed largely of men actually engaged in the work and responsible for its conduct and success, or at least of men having a working knowledge of the developmental needs of such an institution. “Where the burden of labor rests, there should largely rest the burden of control.”
Buildings and equipment: If a sanitarium is efficient financially and otherwise, as it is expected to be, the buildings, and especially the equipment, must be adequate and reasonably modern and efficient. The rapid progress of the world makes demands upon us that cannot be satisfied with inadequate and shabby buildings, furniture, and equipment. As to rooms and furniture, aside from a little increased original investment, it costs no more to maintain and care for well-furnished, higher-priced rooms than it does for cheaper ones. With all that is necessary to be done for patients in our sanitariums, and the necessarily great expense in doing it, the price charged for the cheaper rooms barely covers the actual outlay, and if an institution is made up practically altogether of this grade of accommodations, there can be no hope of financial gain. The financial difference between a forty dollar and a twenty dollar a week room is a gain of twenty dollars. And not only so, but very few patients who are looking for a chance to pay forty or fifty dollars a week will come into the institution and be satisfied with anything else. Many, even in quite ordinary circumstances, now look for private telephone service, stationary hot and cold water basins, and, many of them, private baths in connection with their rooms. Most of our sanitariums in California are woefully lacking in proper rooming facilities for patients; and efficiency in our sanitarium work suggests radical changes in this particular.
Our institutions are primarily hydropathic, and certainly the bath and treatment rooms of our sanitariums ought to be modernly equipped for efficient service. However, as a matter of fact, the deficiencies of most of our sanitariums are painfully, if not, in some cases, disgracefully, apparent in this department.
While it is true our institutions are not primarily for the purpose of making money, it is only reasonable to expect them to pay and keep free from debt if properly and efficiently equipped. And while it takes more than buildings and equipment to make an efficient sanitarium work, it still takes buildings and equipment.
The staff: To do efficient work the staff must be composed of experts in every department—spiritual, medical, surgical, nursing, domestic, culinary, business, and executive. For lack of time, confining ourselves to the efficiency of the medical and surgical staff, we would intimate that it should be large enough to make possible the careful examination and study of patients’ individual cases; ready and sufficient accessibility of physicians to the patients; the periodic trip away from the institution for research and postgraduate work; the careful preparation of lectures for delivering in the institution and various communities; and some means of more directly forming the connecting link between the institution and the homes of the people. The aim of the minister, canvasser, colporteur, and teacher is the homes of the people; and it should be none the less so with the physician. There is no class of workers to whom homes are so widely open and accessible as to the physician, and perhaps there is no one more capable of rightly influencing homes than the Christian physician. Access to the homes of the people by the sanitarium staff means a very marked increase in the patronage of an institution, and thus an increase in its scope and field of usefulness and efficiency.
The staff efficiency is greatly increased, also, by a proper division of the work and specialization. The field of medicine is altogether too extensive to be covered by one man or by a group of men, unless it is made departmental. Institutions not of sufficient size to justify the formation of a staff of specialists devoting their entire time to the institutional work could, with great advantage, arrange for definite visiting hours for this purpose. This feature is becoming more and more recognized as a necessary factor in the most successful clinical work, and ought not longer to be ignored in our efforts to render efficient sanitarium service.
Our medical and surgical service has not been and is not now nearly so efficient as it should be. Patients coming to an institution conducted on Christian principles and under divine guidance, both by right and reason expect superior and expert service. Divine help, unremitting effort, and study are essential to make this possible. Daniel and his companions were found ten times more skillful and efficient than their classmates. The angel could consistently come to Daniel and say, “I have come to give thee skill and understanding,” because Daniel had contributed his part, by sacrifice, study, and hard work. Inspiration is essential, so also is hard work, in developing efficiency.
Results: And what is the measure of efficiency in our sanitarium work? May it not be that that which we look upon as successful and efficient is but very feebly so in the light of God’s standard of attainment and efficiency? Certainly, merely financially successful institutions may be the least efficient in God’s sight. In our shortsightedness, we sometimes congratulate ourselves as having been very successful when we have patched up a number of wealthy and influential individuals, and been well paid for it, but perhaps at the same time, have given but scant attention, or entirely overlooked, some who to the human eye looked less promising and attractive. Is it not a bit inconsistent for us to pray God to send us patients, and then when he sends them to accept those who are well able to pay and who will be a financial asset to the institution, and at the same time turn away from treatment or surgical operation some, none the less sent of God, but too poor in this world’s goods to count for more than an expense to the institution? True, this may involve being imposed upon if we open the door to all who knock, but we must leave the answering of our prayers in this respect to God, trusting him to send us those who ought to come, and to restrain from coming those who cannot be helped and who would unduly impose upon the institution if they came. Christ, the great Medical Evangelist, must have been terribly imposed upon, often receiving scant thanks for his ministrations, yet every appeal brought from him his helpful and efficient response. Probably very few soul-winning enterprises are financially successful.
The financial phase of the annual report of an institution is not an index of its real efficiency. An institution may show financial gain and be estimated by man as efficient and successful, but, in God’s sight, be barren of results that will count in eternity. Another institution may show a financial balance apparently on the wrong side of the ledger because of a large amount of real charitable philanthropic and educational work, but with results as enduring as eternity.
God’s estimate of efficiency in sanitarium work is based upon results in turning men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, receiving forgiveness of their sins and a place among those who are sanctified. We shall attain efficiency in our sanitarium work as we more and more fully realize, appreciate, and personally experience the power and efficiency of God’s grace in our own hearts, and become ever increasingly efficient in soul service and successful as soul winners.