CARE QUESTIONED

A Critical Study

Medical care had always been trusted as competent and adequate, but a study published in 1962 by Dr. Ray Trussell from Columbia University questioned that trust. He examined the medical charts of Teamsters Union members and their families who were admitted to New York hospitals.

Shocking Findings

Trussell deemed the care of about half the patients to be good or excellent, but he judged that one-fourth of the admissions received poor medical service. Patients fared better in nonprofit hospitals, especially those associated with medical schools, where faculty members supervised physicians in training. One out of five hospital admissions he considered unnecessary, and many hysterectomies, or surgical removals of women's uteruses, he thought were being done without good reason.

Concern over Costs

The study was sponsored by both the Teamsters members and their management, who paid the bills for medical care. They were concerned about quickly rising costs, but 80 percent of the patients them-selves thought they received excellent care.

THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE

In 1960 the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) introduced a service to take advantage of a captive audience—patients in doctors' waiting rooms. The Medical Radio System piped "therapeutic" music into the waiting rooms, interrupted every fifteen minutes by a spot called called Medical Newsy which actually consisted of drug-company advertisements. Drug manufacturers paid $338,000 a year for the opportunity to provide Medical News material.

To keep Medical News from putting too much pressure on patients, Dr. Chester S. Keefer of the Boston University School of Medicine acted as censor. He also evaluated the music.

Source:

"Music While You Wait," Newsweek, 55 (22 February 1960): 92.

Source:

"The Patients' Perils," Time, 79 (18 Mav 1962): 47-48.