Sheet #25
On April 6, 1884, the Atchison Railway Employes' Association was formed for lthe benefit of the Railway Company's employes; with Dr. Sheldon as Chief Surgeon and Dr. G. W. Hogeboom as assistant. The name of the association was changed on July 17, 1887 to the Santa Fe Railway Employes' Association, and the scope of its work enlarged to include all employes on the system located in Texas, California and Arizona, as well as those on the parent line. Dr. J. J. Ransom was appointed Chief Surgeon, June 7th, 1887. Resigned April 8th, 1891. (See Telegram to E. Wilder from J. D. Springer).
On Account of the growth of the Santa Fe and its leased and operated lines, thereby expanding the work of the of the hospital association, it became necessary to divide up the work and organize a separate association for each operating company of the Santa Fe System. The name of the original association was therefore again changed, this time to read "The A.T. & S. F. Hospital Association," and a new charter was filed on June 30, 1891, the purpose of this association being to provide medical and surgical treatment and care for employes of what was known as the A.T.&S.F proper. A corporation called the "G.C. & S.F. Hospital Association," was incorporated in Texas on June 10, 1891, to provide for the care of injures and sick employes of the lines in Texas operated by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway and the "Southern California Hospital Association" was incorporated in California the same month to care for the employes of the Coast Lines. The name of the latter association was changed on July 25,m 1904, to the Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital Association.
The first hospital on the parent system was built at Las Vegas, N.M., and was opened on October 11, 1884. The second hospital was built at La Junta, Colorado and was opened on November 21, 1884. The Hospital at Ottawa, Kansas was completed on July 1, 1888 and the hospital at Fort Madison was opened in October 1888.
As the Hospital Association did not have funds to pay for the construction of these buildings, they were put up by the Santa Fe System, which also provided the land on which the buildings are located, excepting at Fort Madison, Iowa. The Railroad Company also contributed to the hospital association the sum of $30,000 toward the cost of constructing the hospital at Topeka.
By reason of the large increase in the number of employes who were members of the hospital association, the hospital at La Junta became altogether inadequate, and also there was need for better equipment. Therefore a modern hospital building was erected in 1905 at a cost of $70,000. Upon the land originally furnished the association by the railroad company.
The A.T.&K S. F. Hospital Association now is operating seven hospitals used exclusively for the care of its members and the handling of outside emergency cases it is necessary to take care of from time to time. Four of these hospitals, those at Topeka, Mulvane, Clovis and La Junta, are owned by the hospital association and the other three, those at Fort Madison, Ottawa and Las Vegas, are owned by the Railroad Company. The locations and original cost of these hospitals, including the cost of improvements, subsequently made, also the cost of land where purchased by the association, are as follows:
Topeka - $178,428.33
Clovis - 82,510.43
Mulvane - 75,771.40
La Junta - 55,852.74
Fort Madison - 43,000.00
Ottawa - 38,000.00
Las Vegas - 20,467.58
Total - $494,030.48
The Las Vegas hospital is situated on a twenty-acre tract of land three miles from the city it has accommodations for twenty-four patients. Though not large it is well equipped and its patients receive the best possible treatment. Dr. James Chalmers is the surgeon in charge. He receives assistance from Drs. Shaw and Smith, who maintain offices in Las Vegas.
Owing to the delightful and healthful climate of New Mexico, many patients suffering from tuberculosis are taken care of at Las Vegas.
The subscribers or contributors to the funds of the association, so long as they remain employes of the Santa Fe, are entitled to medical and surgical attendance and medicine, on admittance into one of the hospitals or dispensaries operated or employed by the association, excepting that the association is not required to furnish the services mentioned when the injury is received or the disease contracted as the result of personal quarrels or vicious or intemperate habits.
Employes suffering from venereal diseases or from the results of intemperance, vicious habits or insanity, or form old diseases contacted prior to entrance into the service of the road, are not entitled to aid from the funds of the association, provided, however, that chronic diseases, other than the foregoing, that are ordinarily treated under the rules, are excepted, from the operation of this rule if they develop after five years service.
Four months is the limit during which an employe may remain in the hospital at the expense of the fund, excepting by express consent of the board.
When an employe leaves the service his association is automatically released from all claims for benefits from the hospital fund.
Page 28 Meade's Manual transcribed in altered form for the web by Russell Crump
Sheet #26 - The A. T. & S. F. Hospital Association.
Much money is spent in an effort to keep the hospitals in the best possible condition and no details is overlooked that might increase the comfort of injured or sick employes who avail themselves of the great advantages of these hospitals.
The surplus of receipts over expenses is used in making provision for the extension of the hospital service, by erecting and furnishing new buildings and in making permanent betterments to those already existing. Thus, under the efficient management which always has been in evidence, the Santa Fe Hospital service will continue to meet the heavy demands made upon it and continue to be recognized as the most efficient offered the employes of any corporation in the world.
The great hospital at Topeka has no particular territory, as it draws patients from anywhere on the Santa Fe east of Albuquerque, N.M., or north of Purcell, Oklahoma. Dr. Kaster makes his headquarters there, while Dr. J. D. Freeman is the surgeon in charge, assisted by Drs. U. L. Harrison, J. H. O'Connell, J. A. Farley, H. W. Goote, J. L. Thomas. Built in 1895-6. Dr. J. P. Kaster was appointed Chief Surgeon, March 1st, 1897.
The drug stock on hand at Topeka Hospital is worth thousands of dollars and from it the smaller hospitals replenish their supplies.
The Topeka hospital has a capacity of one hundred and ten beds, with linen and rooms as bright and tidy as unremitting attention and effort can make them. The building is well laid out for the convenience and benefit of patients and employes alike and is a model in the adaptation of the most approved methods. With over fifty people employed about the building, including doctors, nurses and general help, the wants of the inmates are amply provided for. J. A. O'Leary, one of the male nurses, has worked under Dr. Kaster over a quarter of a century being first employed byl the latter in Albuquerque. Dr. Freeman has been associated with Dr. Kaster seventeen years.
On the first floor is Ward "A" containing twenty-one beds, also an operating room, a sterilizing room, anesthetic and dressing rooms, laboratory, lavatories, receipting room, lounging and reading rooms, the private offices of Drs. Kaster and Freeman, the general office of the building, a nurse's room, two bathrooms, tow patients' clothes rooms and Ward "B" with twenty-one beds and a laboratory adjoining.
On the second floor are two bath rooms, two nurses' rooms, a patients clothes room, seven rooms for serious cases, a private bath, a recreation room for the use of the doctors' a Mexican ward, a refrigerated typhoid fever ward with eighteen beds and a twenty-one bed ward for regular use.
The third floor has the following appointments: A bathroom, a toilet and wash room a nurses' reception room, linen and sewing room, a matron's room, a doctors' dining room, a patients' dining room with a table capacity of fifty-six, a kitchen and two pantries, two storerooms and several employes' sleeping-rooms.
The fourth floor is devoted to sleeping quarters for employes and consists of ten bedrooms.
The dispensary is located in the basement, and here each day about one hundred and fifty prescriptions are put up. An x-ray room also is accommodated in the basement, as is a vault for the records.
A private laundry is located near the hospital, employing seven people and making snow white nearly five thousand pieces of linen per week. The top floor of the laundry building has accommodations for twelve patients and this is used as the isolation ward when necessary.
At La Junta, Dr. Frank Finney has been in charge for twenty-eight years and he possesses as noteworthy reputation as physician and surgeon throughout Colorado and New Mexico. Dr. Finney is assisted in his work by Dr. R. S. Johnson. Another of Dr. Finney's able helpers is William McKinnon, who for over twenty-six years has been pharmacist and office assistant at La Junta Hospital.
This hospital has its own private water works system, also complete new apparatus for laboratory work, modern bacteriological instruments and up to date clinical facilities.
The hospital has a capacity of forty beds for patients, besides accommodations for a general hospital staff of fifteen people. The second floor is reached by an inclined plane. Throughout the building the most improved system of signaling has been installed, whereby there is no ringing of bells, merely the flashing of electric bulbs. The operating room could not have been planned to better advantage and throughout the building the best practice has been put into effect in such matters as heating, ventilating and lighting. In the ten acre patch surrounding the hospital vegetables and flowers are raised.
The Fort Madison Hospital located about two miles from the city of Ft. Madison, with which it is connected by a street car line, is operated under the direction of Dr. M. L. Bishoff. This hospital, which was opened in 1888, has a capacity of forty-five beds. The grounds are exceedingly attractive being spacious well kept and containing a beautiful little lake stocked with fish. Dr. Bishoff is assisted by Dr. Price. Dr. William H. Newton is the company's local surgeon.
The hospital at North Ottawa in operation twenty-eight years is located on a tract of seven acres containing a well ordered truck garden. It makes a specialty of Mexican patients and many of the sick cases therefore, are well advanced before they are received. Typhoid Fever is an ailment common to Mexican, and in the winter they are susceptible to pneumonia. There are forty beds for patients and an average of over four hundred cases are treated monthly, not including about forty calls a month at the dispensary. Dr. Edward B. Gossett acts as matron at the Hospital.
In November 1911, work was commenced on a splendid new Hospital at Mulvane, Kansas. It was opened on March 1, 1913. The building is fireproof in every way, made of reinforced concrete, the outside finish being of California pebbel dash work. Steel casings were used for the doors and windows throughout.
Page 29 Meade's Manual transcribed in altered form for the web by Russell Crump
Sheet #27 - The A. T. & S. F. Hospital Association.
The main wing of the hospital at Mulvane is 146x46-feet. The other wing is 98x37 feet. The building is furnished with electric light signals in place of call bells and an incline plane is used instead of steps or elevators. The hospital has about sixty rooms, accommodating fifty patients. The construction cost was $80,000, not including furnishings or equipment. It is in charge of Dr. H. W. Goelitz, who has been in the service of the hospital association seventeen years. He is ably assisted by Dr. J. B. Leary, who has been in the service of the association more than twenty-five years.
Last year this hospital took care of 423 patients, a daily average of 20.3. It is located at Mulvane on account of the accessibility of that town from so many different parts of the country, making it possible to take patients from the various branch lines to this hospital without change of cars and consequent discomfort. It is beautifully located about three blocks from the Santa Fe depot and is equipped with every modern convenience, including refrigerating and ice-making machinery with a capacity of one thousand pounds per day. This hospital is well thought of and is well patronized by employes.
The latest hospital built is located at Clovis N.M. Construction was commenced in 1914 and the building was occupied on October 8th of the same year. It is of the most modern fireproof construction and cost $70,000, not including the furnishings. The equipment is complete in every detail, including refrigerating and ice making machinery capable of producing one thousand pounds per day. As at Mulvane, the hospital location at Clovis was chosen because of the various lines from the east, west, north and south passed through Clovis, permitting patients to be taken to the hospital without transferring them from one train to another. It has a capacity of fifty patients. That it is in a healthful location is attested by the results obtained in the treatment of the various cases brought there.
For the eight months ending on June 30, 1915, the Clovis Hospital treated 268 patients, a daily average of 12 being cared for. This was a highly creditable showing for a new hospital and the average daily number treated during the past year has been gradually increasing. Dr. H. A. Miller is in charge, assisted by Dr. A. H. Cecha.
The plan original adopted for obtaining the necessary funds was the deduction of specified amounts from the wages of all employes of the railroad company, varying from 25 cents to $1.00 according to the total monthly wage and that plan having been found to be satisfactory, is still being followed.
Approximately forty thousand employes of the Eastern and Western Lines of the Santa Fe now contribute monthly toward the support of the hospital association for the service of its surgeons and hospitals.
The report of Dr. J. P. Kaster, Chief Surgeon, for the fiscal year which ended on June 30, 1915, shows that 57,400 cases of sick and injured were treated in hospitals and dispensaries and by local surgeons of the hospital association on the Eastern and Western Lines, the greatest number of cases treated in one year in the history of the hospital service in this territory. There were 3,271 hospital cases, 20,850 dispensary cases and 33,319 cases treated by local surgeons. There were only 49 deaths in the seven hospitals, which is regarded as a very low death rate. The death list includes several cases of injury in which patients lived only long enough to arrive at hospital.
A force of 225 physicians and surgeons was necessary for the performance of the service required by the 57,440 cases. All persons treated were employes of the Santa Fe, excepting seventy-six private patients, which were emergency cases and for whom regular fees for treatment were paid. These fees amounted to $1,673.67.
At the hospital tables during the year 296,287 meals were served.
Patients in hospitals, calling at dispensaries or attended by local surgeons received in all 263,288 treatments last year, which gives some idea of the demands on the institution.
Of the hospital cases there were at the Topeka institution 1,070 cases during the year, the patients remaining on an average 19.05 days; at Ottawa 509 cases with an average stay of 17.7 days; at Fort Madison, 454 cases with an average stay of 13.8 days. La Junta, 436 cases with an average stay of 15.7 days, at Mulvane 423 cases with an average stay of 20.3 days. At Clovis 268 cases with an average stay of 12.2 days. At Las Vegas, 110 cases with an average stay of 50 days.
The following statement shows the receipts and expenditures of the hospital association for the fiscal year which ended on June 30th, 1915.
RECEIPTS
Members' dues - $216,310.88
Miscellaneous - 1,984.67
Interest on bonds and bank deposits 12,469.48
Total - $230,765.03 $230,765.03
EXPENSES
Operating - $212,611.29
Repairs and renewals of Building & Equipment 10,781.69
Total - $223,392.93 $223,392.93
Surplus from year's transaction $ 7,372.05
Page 30 Meade's Manual transcribed in altered form for the web by Russell Crump
Sheet #28 - The A. T. & S. F. Hospital Association.
The expenses of the hospital association have been very largely increased by the operation of the hospitals at Mulvane and Clovis, and during the years 1913 and 1914 the members' dues barely covered the total operating expenses. The proceeding statement shows that these dues amounted to $5,097,43 less than the total expenses for the year which ended on June 30, 1915. Fortunately the association has a surplus fund which has been wisely invested by the board of trustees, in bonds, amply secured the income form which the trustees anticipate, will more than cover any deficit, so that the high standard of service of the association may be maintained without increasing the amounts of the dues. The association has never suffered the loss of a dollar from the investment of its surplus.
The association has been and is being fostered by the system, which has given it a total of 4149,629.64 toward the cost of constructing the hospitals at Las Vegas, La Junta Fort Madison, Ottawa and Topeka, as previously mentioned. With out the concessions that have been made by the railway company the hospital association would not have been able to accumulate the considerable surplus fund just mentioned and the expenses would be so greatly increased that it would be impossible to cover them with the dues and miscellaneous earnings.
The assets of the association, as of June 30, 1915 were as follows:-
Four hospital buildings - $304,745.66
Equipment of Hospitals - 27,430.65
Real Estate - 36,047.21
Bonds (with a par value of $250,000
(netting the association an
(approximate income of $11,500) 211,622.03
Cash on hand 23,427.78
Amounts collectable 121.72
$603,395.05
The trustees of the hopital association are C. W. Kouns of Topeka, General Manager of the Eastern Lines, R. J. Parker, of Topeka, Genreal Superintendent. J. H. McGoff, of Topeka, Mechanical Superintendent of the Eastern Lines. J. E. Thomas of Topeka, a Locomotive Engineer and F. W. Butterfield of Kansas City, a conductor. Mr. Kouns is Chairman of the Board of Trustees. E. H. Bunnell is Auditor and Dr. J. F. Kaster is Chief Surgeon, E. IO. Copeland is Secretary & Treasurer.
The original trustees were A. A. Robinson, George R. Peck, Dr. G. W. Hogeboom, C. H. West and William H.Hamilton.
Page 31 Meade's Manual transcribed in altered form for the web by Russell Crump
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