Does It Pay Seventh-day Adventists to Operate Sanitariums?
By W. A. George, M. D.
WITH over two and a half million dollars invested in some eighty sanitariums, and these institutions operated at large expense, and sometimes at a loss, the question may arise, Does it pay? This question might receive either an affirmative or a negative answer, according to the standpoint from which we view it. From the worldly standpoint of a money-making business, our sanitariums can never hope to be made great financial successes. Our sanitariums, which are more than self-supporting and are making good gains, are paying salaries which the people of the world would consider too small for the kind of work performed. If the wages in our institutions were in proportion to wages for similar work in other institutions, none of our institutions could hope to make expenses. So from the financial standpoint, the answer would be, No; it does not pay to operate sanitariums. This same answer might be given to the question, Does it pay to run our schools and colleges? Does it pay to run publishing houses? Does it pay to send out ministers and Bible workers? Does it pay to go into the canvassing work? In each case we would find that from the worldly standpoint, our work is a financial failure. But there is a much broader side to this question, and it is the object of this paper to call attention to some of the reasons why it does pay Seventh-day Adventists to operate sanitariums. First, however, let us compare briefly the workers engaged in our sanitariums and those under conference pay, as ministers, licentiates, and Bible workers. In the Year Book for 1908 the number of conference-paid laborers is given as 1,786. In the Year Book for 1909 the number of conference-paid laborers is not given, but the total number of workers in our sanitariums is given as 1,786, exactly the same as the paid conference workers given in the previous Year Book. The tithe per annum is given as about one million dollars. This, of course, is distributed among these paid conference laborers. A fair estimate of the wages of all the workers engaged in our sanitariums would be seven hundred thousand dollars a year. Although our medical workers and our conference workers are not engaged in the same kind of work, and have talents quite different, yet we believe that the former will compare favorably as workers, both in mental training and in faithfulness to the work in which they are engaged, with the latter. We see, then, that for an equal number of workers the medical work is being conducted at an expense of about three hundred thousand dollars a year less than the conference work. It seems safe therefore to conclude that from the standpoint of wages to sanitarium employees, this line of work is being conducted economically. It should be remembered also that these employees are self-supporting missionaries in the majority of cases. Another item which amounts to over sixty-seven thousand dollars a year is the charity work done. Our sanitariums actually earn over sixty-seven thousand dollars more each year than they are given credit for. Many are taken in who are unable to pay anything, or at most only a small fraction of the expense for their care. This represents actual work done, but it is credited to the discount and charity account. If this item were cut out in some of our institutions, they would become self-supporting, whereas they are now running behind. But what are our sanitariums doing? What is their work? Are they doing any good in the world? Are they doing that for which they were established? We answer, Not all for which they were established, but to some extent at least they are fulfilling the purpose of God in doing their part to carry the third angel's message to the world. The influence of our sanitariums has become world-wide. There is scarcely an intelligent person in many communities even hundreds of miles from a sanitarium who does not know something of Seventh-day Adventists through the work of the sanitariums. Our health workers reach a class of people not easily reached by other workers. They reach both the rich and the poor. They reach those who, in their condition of ill health, would not listen to the truth if it were taken to them by other workers; but when brought in contact with the truth lived out in our institutions, they are susceptible to its influence. While our sanitariums can not report large numbers coming into the truth, yet they sow the seed, which is often watered and the harvest gathered in by other workers. Many times the minister comes into a new field, and among the first individuals to become interested in the truth are those who have been to a sanitarium. They know something of Seventh-day Adventists, and they respect this people because of their sanitarium work. Many persons of influence who would look with disdain upon our methods of work in going from place to place with a tent, or in sending out men and women to canvass for our books, are led to respect our work by means of our sanitariums. The Year Book for 1909 gives the total number of patients treated in our sanitariums during the past year as nearly twenty-two thousand. It would be safe to say that the majority of these patients spent, on an average, several weeks in one of these institutions, and that they had opportunity every day to attend worship, and several times during the week to attend other religious services. It is true they do not all attend, but there is a constant sermon preached to them by the workers. It is very common to hear patients say, “How kind these helpers are to one another! I never hear them speak a cross word.” When the work is closed down on Friday evening, it is not necessary to preach the Sabbath to these people. It is a weekly sermon without saying a word. Our workers become truly epistles, known and read of all men. Many leave our institutions, having fully accepted our views, and others carry away favorable impressions, which will ripen into fruit later on. While the physicians and many persons of the world would not admit it, we believe it is safe to say that the influence of our sanitariums has given rise to many of the great reforms in regard to health principles which we find being taught in different parts of the world. So there is a great influence going out to enlighten the masses. Not a small part of the work of our sanitariums is the help rendered to our own people. Undoubtedly many lives among our people have been saved through the ministration of our sanitariums, and many workers are now in the field, who, without these institutions, would have been in the grave. What estimate can we place upon the value of these lives? These institutions are not only conducted as medical institutions, but are educational. They are continually training and sending out nurses who are carrying not only health principles, but the light of the third angel's message, into many of the best homes of the world. They find entrance to homes where the minister and the Bible worker could not find entrance. Undoubtedly many of these nurses are not doing all they could, but on the other hand, many of them are faithfully carrying the gospel of Christ to their patients. As the work of the third angel's message advances, it will undoubtedly be necessary to erect many more sanitariums. We trust, however, that those who are instrumental in starting these institutions will profit by the mistakes and failures in other institutions, and also by the excellent instruction given by the spirit of prophecy, and will be more cautious in investing large sums in large sanitariums. The light is that we should start small sanitariums in many places; that these institutions will grow. If this instruction had been followed, there would be fewer institutions burdened with heavy debts. But the present situation confronts us. Many of our institutions are crippled by these large debts, and we believe that the Lord would have something done by this people by which these debts can be diminished and finally wiped out. This has been done for other institutions, and we believe it can be done for our sanitariums. We are glad to know that in the present campaign with “Ministry of Healing,” definite plans are laid not only to diminish these debts on the present institutions, but to hasten forward the medical missionary work in all parts of the world. W. A. GEORGE, M. D.