A Survey of the Fiscal Policies of the State of Pennsylvania as Related to Charitable Institutions and
Hospitals
December 1922
(An excerpt)
State Sanatorium No. 2 at Cresson is located on 500 acres
of land in a mountainous woodland region. The investment in land, buildings and equipment amounts
to $1,195,473. (Exclusive of store-room supplies.) The Department estimates a 25% depreciation, leaving a net present valuation
of $896,604.
The Medical Director, Dr. W. G. Turnbull, is recognized as one of the foremost sanatorium
administrators in the United States. A survey of the institution confirms his reputation. The morale among patients
and employees appeared to be all that could be desired. The discipline of the children in hospital,
school and dining-room appears to be complete and thorough. That
implies what is apparent, that the children are contented and happy.
Your investigators ate three meals
in the institution, which according to the menu records was no different from the customary service.
We do not recall ever having been served so good food in any similar large sanatorium.
The
medical personnel is not so large as called for by the standards of the American Sanatorium Association.
The four physicians, however, have been with Dr. Turnbull for several years, and, in his opinion,
have their work so organized and systematized as to make it unnecessary to employ a larger corps
of assistants.
The outstanding need of this sanatorium is a new amusement hall similar to the one
now being completed at Hamburg.
A significant paragraph in the report of the Medical Director under date of October 24, 1922, reflects
great credit upon the local management and the State Department of Health:
In looking back over the ten years
of work in this institution, the outstanding feature of the past four years is one that cannot be well shown on a statistical
report. It consists of humanizing of our institution; making it less of an institution for the routine treatment of a disease,
and more of a community and home in which sick people can live.
For the first time state money has been available for the entertainment of patients, for promoting social life among them,
for buying books and conducting our schools properly, and for
equipping and maintaining proper playgrounds for our children. Our construction expenditures
during this period have been not for increasing the number of hospital beds, but for making life more pleasant for the patients
we already had. At no time during the past four years has anything been refused the Director of this institution if he could
show that it would add anything to the welfare, comfort, or happiness of our patients.
