The Question of Sanitarium Rates by L. A. H.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 4, 1912

The Question of Sanitarium Rates

By L. A. H.

The Other Side

LAST week we considered the question of sanitarium rates as affecting our own people, from the standpoint of the people. The brethren in charge of the sanitariums, looking at the matter more from the standpoint of the institutions’ needs and abilities, can not well be blamed for exercising caution in protecting the interests of the work given into their charge.

From the standpoint of the sanitarium management, the question of rates, and especially of discounts, is a very vital one. This article is written with the desire to give an honest presentation of what our sanitariums are doing in relation to this question of special consideration to Seventh-day Adventists in rates.

The following statement of special rates should not be taken as an advertisement or bid for patronage at these figures. Neither should the figures given be considered terms for general acceptance. They speak for no one sanitarium in particular, nor are they authority for any. Persons desiring sanitarium care, and expecting special rates, must first correspond with the institution to which they wish to go. The information here given is only of a general nature.

Special Discounts

All but two of our conference sanitariums in this country make special terms to our people. The two that are exceptions state that their rates are already so low that they can not give a general discount, but do make an allowance for special cases.

The general aim of our sanitariums seems to be to accept our own people on a basis merely covering the cost of their care. The exact figure would be difficult to ascertain, so a general schedule is adopted by each institution, ranging from twenty-five per cent to fifty per cent discount from regular rates. With some, a difference is made in rates to sanitarium employees, conference workers, and our people in general. In some instances members of the sanitarium family are cared for free of charge during sickness, with wages continued for a time. In some others, free care and treatment are given, with no salary during disability.

In most of our sanitariums, conference and institutional workers receive a liberal discount, the cost of care ranging from nothing to seven or eight dollars a week. Family members dependent on these workers for support are included. Denominational workers visiting the institution are usually entertained for a reasonable time without charge.

Our people in general are offered rates as low as a dollar a day, covering board, room, medical attention, and regular treatment. In some institutions the rates run to eight, ten, or twelve dollars a week. Examinations may be free or with a minimum charge extra. Nursing is usually billed at actual cost. Surgical operations are either free or at greatly reduced rates. Rates to Seventh-day Adventists unable to pay the prices charged our people are generally made by special arrangement with the local conference or church, or with friends of the sick.

A material difference is thus made in dealing with our people. The general discounts are usually given regardless of the financial circumstances of the applicant. The principle governing the matter of concessions to our own people is that of mutual dependence and obligation, the institution recognizing the toil and sacrifice of the people in helping to build up its work, and our people seeing the value of the sanitariums as missionary enterprises and doing all possible to support them as such.

Caution Necessary

These special rates are not quoted in catalogues. They must be carefully guarded. Any departure from them must be an exception, and by special arrangement. If some one writes for terms, the regular rates are, of course, given. Any of our people should not be surprised or disappointed at not getting other information if they do not give careful explanation of conditions requiring it. Neither should offense be taken if the sanitarium people are careful to ascertain definite conditions before granting special rates.

It would seem unnecessary to drop a word of caution to the effect that when our people are extended the special rates, they should be very careful not to speak of this fact to others in a way to cause dissatisfaction on the part of those paying regular rates. Much embarrassment is caused at times when this caution is not heeded. Neither are these discounts applicable to persons not of our faith. It is not particularly helpful to our institutions, either, to recommend largely a class of patients that require discount rates. It might be surprising to some to know how much work in this direction is being done by these institutions.

Operating Expense

The casual observer is not in position to determine the extent a sanitarium can give service at reduced rates. The cost of operating these institutions is heavy, and is constantly increasing. One of them reports that it costs $19.36 a week for each patient, based on an average patronage. Another exceeds this figure considerably. To do much work at the low figures already mentioned, would materially affect the annual balance-sheet of the institution.

No Endowments

Were our sanitariums endowed with funds, or did they receive state help, as is the case with many hospitals, they would be in a position more nearly to meet prices that are made by some of the outside institutions. But they have only their own earnings on which to operate, and we all know too well some of the financial burdens they carry. Even with this, they report seventy-five thousand dollars a year in charity work, without saying anything of the general discounts.

Taking them as a whole, the outside institutions do not offer better terms than our own. Some of them have rate schedules far in excess of ours. Some exceptions are made, and it is possible to get hospital or sanitarium care at very low rates. Perhaps in some instances very large fees from the well-to-do may make this possible, another resource in which we are limited. The same may apply to outside physicians.

The question of expense in operating must affect the ability to do free work, or work nearly so, whether of institutions or physicians in private practise. One factor affecting this considerably in connection with our sanitariums is the nurses’ training-school feature. A careful study of the reports of several years, as covering our sanitarium work, will show that the institutions conducting training-schools have a greater investment and operating cost for the number of patients cared for than those which do not train nurses. More building room is required, more physicians and others to act as instructors are needed, and more general help is necessary. This increases the interest account, makes a bigger salary list, and causes a generally larger expense. Recently three of our sanitariums have discontinued this feature in an effort to save on expenses.

The Responsibility Ours

After all, our sanitarium managers are but representing the will of the denomination. Our sanitarium boards are elected by the people. They then make the sanitarium rates, and place upon the managers the responsibility of making the institutions succeed. Should some of these same board members be unfortunate enough to require sanitarium service, they would not be strangers to the rates offered; for they are their own making. If lower rates are to be made to ourselves, the first responsibility is with ourselves.

With what is generally known about our sanitarium finances, can those institutions afford to do more in the way of general discounts? May the provision for ourselves not already be ample? The class that suffers most in this matter is the poor among us. There is undoubtedly a crying need for more provision in this direction. No sanitarium superintendent or business manager can be oblivious to the distress of this situation and be long in his place. The appeals that come almost constantly pull at one’s sympathy, and lead him to stretch things at times to meet them. But what can be done with our limited resources? It of necessity resolves itself very much into a question of dollars and cents.

There is one solution to the question of caring for the sick, more or less already known and practised among us. It is for our churches to assist in meeting the expense. Hardly an institution among us but will meet the matter fully half-way. A zeal in helping the institution to secure an ample, paying patronage will also greatly assist. Many patients can be referred to the sanitariums if we will be interested in that direction.

Last, but not least, there is the “Ministry of Healing” campaign, with all its advantages, appealing to every one of us for a share of cooperation. Worked to a successful finish, this movement would answer a number of sanitarium questions now before us.

L. A. H.