Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Nov. 13, 1969, edition 1 / Page 1
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HOSPITALIZATION COSTS PROBLEM OF INDIVIDUALS AND HOSPITAL OPERATORS by Jack Rider Lenoir Countians like their cousins in ail counties in which county-owned hospitals operate are alarmed by the prices they have to pay When they use the services of their hospitals and as taxpayer^ they are generally concerned t>y the sky-rocketing costs of these health facilities. If it is any small consolation, at least to the'taxpayers of Le noir County, they are relatively much better off than the vast majority of the counties in the state that are in the hospital business. The Duke Endowment’s an nual reports include a summary of hospital use and percenta ges of free hospital days pro vided by all the hospitals in korth and South Carolina, where funds of the Endowment are al located each year to help under write a small part of that stag gering cost. The 12-month period from October l” 1967 through Sep tember 30, 1968 shows 129 hos pitals in operation in North Carolina which included 17,327 beds, excluding bassinets. These 129 hospitals were operated in 109 towns in 83 of the state’s 100 counties. For the year 13.6 per cent of the patient days in those hospi tals were classified as “free days”, or days for which the hospital did not receive pay for one reason or another. While the per cent of free days statewide was running at 13.6 per cent Lenoir County’s publicly-owned hospital was suf fering only 5.6 per cent. This Kinston hospital report ed for that 12-month period 42, 728 patient days for its 124 beds, of which 2,385 were free-days. For the same period the pri vately operated Parrott Me morial Hospital reported 10,181 patient days for its 50 beds and only .5 per cent of free days for a total of 54 free days. But with a private hospital operated in a community with a publicly owned hospital it is inevitable that the free-day work will be dumped in the lap of the publicly owned hospital, which, of course, is what hap pened in Kinston. Comparisons with other pub licly-owned hospitals in the area shows the following: Duplin General Hospital re ported 5,226 free-days out of 26,495 patient-days in its 81-bed hospital, for 19.7 per cent free days. Onslow Memorial Hospital re ported 5,846 free-days out of 32,626 patient-days in its 95-bed hospital for 17.9 per cent free days. ) Carteret. General Hospital re ported 3,182 freedays out of 39,021 patient-days in its 109 bed hospital for 10.6 per cent free-days. Pitt County Memorial Hospi tal reported 8,725 free-days out of 68,699 patient-days in its 200 bed hospital for 12.7 per cent freedays. Wayne County Memorial Hos pital reported” 8,079 free-days out of 74,712 patjentrdays ip, its 214-bed hospital for 10.8 per cent free-days. Wilson Memorial Hospital re ported 10,622 free-days out of 88,901 patient-days In its 254 bed hospital for 11.9 per cent freedays. . Beaufort County Hospital re> ported 3,749 free-days out of 34,966 patient-days in its 50 bed hospital for 10.7 per cent fr66i>dftys. So ■ Lenoir County’s hospital although far from good • so bad as the state half as bad 'from any taxpayer in any coun ty where there Is a county-own ed hospital is: Who doesn’t pay? The majority of those for whom.the hospital, and the tax payers are left holding this ex pensive hag are emergency cases; wreck victims, shooting and cutting and assault victims. Smaller county hospitals make every effort to transfer these types as quickly as they can to' major teaching hospitals, which results in those major hospitals carrying the major burden of free-day service for the entire state. ; The North Carolina Memorial Hospital of the University of Couple in Trouble Last week in Lenoir Comity Superior Court Dorothy Briggs Faison of Hookerton route 1 vwas convicted of a second drunken driving offense after which a bench warrant was issued for her husband Moses for lying under oath in the trial of the case. Monday she was tried in district court for a third drunk en driving offense and was giv en six months in prison. Moses still ..must .face _the -perjury charge in superior court, which carries a possible 10-year prison term. Airman Franks Now On Vietnam Duty Airman First Class John R. Franks, son of Mr. and Mrs, Odell W. Franks of Route 1, Pol locksville, is on duty at Cam Ranh Bay AB, Vietnam. Airman Franks, a supply in ventory specialist, is assigned to the 12th Supply Squadron, a unit of the'Pacific Air Forces, headquarters for air operations in Southeast Asia, the Far East and1 the Pacific area. The airman is a 1968 graduate of Jones High School. RUTLEDGE IN VIETNAM Private First Class William Rutledge Jr., whose parents live in Maysville, was assigned Oct. 13 to the Aviation Electronic Support Company North in Viet nam, as an aircraft navigation equipment repairman. North Carolina reported 71,353 free-days out of 128,406 patient days in its 407-bed hospital for 55.6 per cent free-day^. Duke University Medical Cen ter reported 91,644 free-days out of 223,262 patient-days in its 684-bed hospital for 41.1 per cent free-days. North Carolina Baptist Hos pital at Winston-Salem of Wake Forest University reported 71, 353 free-days put of 166,430 pa tient days in its 500-bed hospi tal for 36.5 per cent free-days. Also in Winston-Salem For syth Memorial Hospital reported just 9,354 free-days out of 177, 482 patient days in its 551-bed stringent system to eliminate the deadhead types that consti tute the majority of these free days they are caught in a po litical crossfire and if they re lax they are caught by fire from the other direction. It is a constant battle, never won and never lost. These'Duke Endowment figures indicate that some hospitals do a much better job than others, and over the year these figures have re flected that in spite of constant criticism the administration of Lenoir Memorial Hospital is far better than the state and na tional averages for publicly owned hospitals. :THE JONES COUNTY T O U RNAL NUMBER 35 TRENTON, N. C., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1969 VOLUME XVH College Supporters IrrJones County to Hold Dinner Free Will Baptists in Jones County will hold their Fellow ship Dinner for Mount Olive Col lege on Saturday, November 8, at 7 p.m. at King-s Barbecue Res taurant, Kinston. The dinner is one of a series of 17 being held throughout North Carolina as a means of providing financial support to the College located in Mount Olive and sponsored by the N. C. State Convention of Original Free Will Baptists. A county steering committee for the dinner has been appoint ed. Members of the committee are Miss Margaret Carol Banks of Trenton, Chairman; Delmus Brown of Dover; and James Bat chelor of Richlands. Local church chairman include Miss Banks, Friendship Church; Mrs. Mary Hood of Dover, Pil grim’s Home Church; and Mrs. Irene T. Batchelor of Richlands, Whaley’s Chapel Church. Senator Blasts Integration Methods; Proposes New 'Freedom of Choice' Law By U. S. Senator Sam Ervin There is deep concern in our nation about what is happening to our public schools, and no where is this concern' more evi dent than in those school dis tricts where parents arex forced to send their Children to non neighborhood'schools simply to achieve “racial balance.” Last week, I introduced a very broad bill dealing with all as pects of the school desegrega tion controversy. I did so be cause I am mindful of the dam age we are doing, to the public “school system whenweletHEW Officials and Federal judges take over the function of local school boards and administrators. Recently I received a letter from a father which puts this matter in perspective. The Ral eigh School Board was coerced by HEW into adopting a new eographkal zoning by tine threat of cutting off Federal funds oth erwise available to it. Under the rezoning, the Board has to permission to send his sons to the nearby school, he received this reply: “I regret to inform you that your request for trans fer of school assignment . . . for your child has been denied . . . . Honoring your request would have resulted in exposing your child to fewer students of a different race than he would be exposed to in the school to which he has been assigned for for the next year.” The two boys were compelled to walk nine miles (instead1 of four blocks) to go to school. The father-then put this question to pie: Why should children “be herded around! like cattle and shifted like pawns in a chess game?” The question cuts through a maze of bureaucratic and legal language which is stymieing our public school system in its ef fort to educate our youth. It Continued from page 5 - calls for a better answer than to trust tha HEW and federal judges will eventually become better school administrators. The fact is that the situation is grow ing progressively worse because HEW officials and federal judg es are not equipped to operate pur schools even though they are trying to do so. v The policies that ndw sur Woman Shoots Man She Says Made an Indecent Proposal Saturday Afternoon Fifty eight year-old Wilie Ray Out of Kinston was pronounced Local Principals Attend Seminar A seminar for elementary chool principals was held at East Carolina University Thursday, Oct. 23. Teaching strategies, individ ual instruction, school reorgan ization and other innovations to prevent alienation of individual students were the main topics discussed by the group. According to Dr. William C. Sanderson, director of the sem inar: “Contrary to popular opin ion, drop-outs begin in the ele mentary school, not in the high school. We are trying to reach the ‘budding drop-outs.’ This seminar is one in a series of meetings for public school administrators sponsored by the ECU School of Education and the Division of Continuing Edu cation. Participants’ names and the schools with which they are af filiated follow: Jones County — Maysville, James Wynn, Maysville Elemen tary; Poilocksville, John Sim mons, J. W. Willie School. , Lenoir County — Kinston, James A. Harper, J. A. Sampson, Elementary. Jerry Jones to Seymour-Johnson Airman Jerry S. Jones, son of Mr. and Mrs. William J. Jones, Route 2, Trenton, has graduated at Chanute AFB, 111., from the Air Force aircraft me chanics course. The airman, now trained1 to maintain and service reciprocat ing engine aircraft and aircraft systems, is being assigned to Sey mour - Johnson AFB, for duty with the Tactical Air Compand which provides combat air sup port for ground forces. round Federal controls over ed ucation fail to recognize that parents have more stake in the lives and education of their chil dren than anyone else. My bill recognizes this and would grant bo parents of all races the free dom to choose the public schools their children attend. It would deprive federal judges and the Department of Health,. Educa tion and Welfare of the power to deny to any child of any race Continued on page 8 dead upon arrival at Lenoir Me morial Hospital at 4:15 Saturday afternoon from a single .38 cali ber pistol wound in the neck. Sheriff Fred Boyd says his of ficers who investigated the shooting which took place at the Sunoco Filling Station at the intersefction of Highways 70 and 258 just south of Kinston told him the shooting was done by 42-year-old Christine S. Moore of 106 East Second Street in the Rivermont section, who was working at the filling sta tion. Miss Moore told investigating officers that Outlaw made an in sulting remark to her, and ad vanced upon her as she retreat ed behind a counter. When he kept coming she said she grab bed a pistol kept in the station and fired it once in his direc tion. The bullet struck Outlaw in the throat and he bled to death, before help could be reached. Following a preliminary hear ing in district court Tuesday morning Miss Moore was bound over to superior court under $1,500 bond on a second degree murder charge. Revival Services rn^rriliriiiniiimiiiiiMiiiiii....... Revival services are continuing through Sunday at Faith Bap tist Church which is located 3 miles east of Trenton on U. S. 58. The Reverend Mel Rutter, pictured above,' is the speaker. Rev. Rutter is the founder and President of Marantha Baptist Missions, Natchez, Miss. The public is cordially invited to 1 the 7:30 p.m. services each night. hospital for just 5.2 per cent free-days. Charlotte operates two major hospitals. Its Community Hospi tal reported 22,216 free-days out of 36,932 patient-days in its 108 beds for 60.3 per cent free days and in its 766-bed Memorial Hospital out of 240,162. patient days there were 61,534 free days for 25.6 per cent free-days. The Asheville Orthopedic Hos pital had the highest free-day rate in the state with 13,703 free-days out of 14,144 patient days in its 50 beds for 96.9 per cent free-days. If hospital administrators at tempt to establish a sufficiently
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Nov. 13, 1969, edition 1
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