Ambulatory Collapse Therapy of Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Sanatorium Care versus Care by Private Physician

¹ Assistant Professor of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois

This paper is a plea for the emancipation of the tuberculous patient. As soon as he is labeled tuberculous the patient should not become an outcast, regardless of his station in life. He should be given all the benefits of modern care and be saved from pauperization. The care of such patients should be entrusted to properly qualified private physicians in order that the patient may not become just another case but may be treated as an individual. Private care by properly qualified physicians will aid the patient in keeping his own identity as a member of his local community, avoid his becoming a pauper, and assist in his early rehabilitation physically and socially. All this can be brought about by encouraging and training the private physician to look for cases of pulmonary tuberculosis and properly take care of them. The family and physician can work in close cooperation with the chest specialist so that the patient may not be neglected at any time. By special arrangement with the tuberculosis authority in the local community indigent ambulatory patients may be treated in the office of the chest specialist and bed patients be treated at home or in the local general hospital at a cost much lower than that of maintaining a large sanatorium. The sanatorium should be restricted especially to negligent open cases who are dangerous to their contacts and also to toxic bed patients who do not have the necessary facilities at home for proper care. Tuberculosis should not become synonymous with pauperization and socialized medicine. With proper training the general practitioner, the hospital administrator and his resident staff can be made tuberculosis conscious so that the disease can be more easily detected and proper humane isolation be established. Tuberculosis will always be a problem and should concern not only the few specially trained persons, but all who are interested in treating human illness.