HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT HOSPITAL

More than 240,000 Dallasites will “go shopping” for a hospital this year. Most will follow their doctors’ recommendations, but some will take the time to search out a hospital that suits their needs. If you are one of them, you won’t have to look far to find the kind of sophisticated facilities or specialized services you need, regardless of what your physical problem may be. You can take your choice between a luxuriously appointed $94-a-day private room in an admittedly profit-minded institution or a $64-a-day semi-private room in more spartan surroundings (or just about anything in between). You can go to a prestigious “big name” hospital or hide yourself away in some remote, little-known facility. If you’re broke, you can even check into one of the nation’s largest charity hospitals, where 61 percent of the patients get their care free.

If you check around, you’ll find you have no fewer than five $500,000 computerized axial tomographic (CAT) scanners at your disposal to pinpoint possible tumors without exploratory surgery. You’ll also find hospitals capable of performing such five hospitals capable of performing such complicated procedures as kidney dialysis, open heart surgery and the latest types of cancer therapy. Even if you need a new kidney or a delicate corneal transplant, you won’t have to leave home to get it. But if you have something as undramatic as an ulcer, pneumonia or appendicitis, and don’t need all the expensive and often duplicated equipment and facilities local hospitals have amassed, you will still have to pay your share of the cost of it, anyway. The more complex and costly medical apparatus spells the difference between life and death for some patients, but it also adds to the average cost of a hospital stay for everyone. This is one reason- but far from the only one-that the average daily hospital bill in Dallas has risen by as much as 80 percent in just five years. At St. Paul Hospital, for example, the average daily per-patient cost has risen from $112 in 1972 to $202 in 1977.

Among Fort Worth’s four major hospitals, meanwhile, you can expect to pay as much as $85 for a private room and as little as $67 for a semi-private one. Tarrant County hospitals have gone much further toward eliminating costly duplication of services and equipment than have their Dallas counterparts. All of Fort Worth gets by on one CAT scanner, and 19 Tarrant County institutions share the facilities of a single centrally located radiation therapy facility.

But even so, over-all costs of an average hospital stay in Fort Worth can be even higher than in Dallas. Fort Worth’s Harris Hospital, for example, reports an average daily per patient cost of $203.

Tarrant County hospitals have gone much further toward eliminating costly duplication of services and equipment than have their Dallas counterparts. All of Fort Worth gets by on one CAT scanner, and 19 Tarrant County institutions share the facilities of a single centrally located radiation therapy facility.

These facts, plus a wealth of other, never-before-published information on hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, surfaced during an intensive, monthlong consumer survey by D Magazine. In all, 28 area hospitals were contacted and asked to participate in the survey by filling out detailed questionnaires on prices, budgets, services, staffs, equipment, physical facilities and virtually every other major aspect of the business of operating a modern hospital. More than half the hospitals – 17 out of the 28 – ultimately replied to the survey in some form, and the results provide a clearer insight into the area hospital industry than has ever been available before.

Which hospitals have “the best” in one respect or another, and how much of it? The following brief profiles of the ho’s-pitals participating in D Magazine’s exclusive survey, plus the chart accompanying this article, should give you a better idea than you’ve ever had before.

AH Saints Episcopal Hospital

1400 E. Enderly Place, Fort Worth; Phone (817) 926-2544; Visiting Hours: 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Since All Saints opened its doors in 1901, it has grown from a small, 24-bed facility into a major health care institution. Its room rates are among the lowest in the city, and it has taken a leading role in cooperative efforts to curb rising costs, donating the land for the city’s centrally located Radiation Center, to which 19 hospitals send cancer patients for treatment. Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical and surgical, 2 units with 20 beds.

Other Special Units: All Saints owns the only CAT scanner in town, an expensive device which it makes available to other Fort Worth Hospitals but has demonstrated a conservative approach to the purchase of ultra-costly equipment which is untypical of large metropolitan hospitals. The CAT scanner, located in the hospital’s full-service radiology department, was purchased with a donation. Also has rehabilitation programs for stroke victims and patients with neurological disorders.

Obstetrics: 1,000 babies (est.) born per year; 22 nursery cribs; I intensive care isolette; 200 caesarians (est.) per year; no abortions performed.

Surgery: 11 major operating rooms; 2 minor operating rooms; 8,500 surgeries annually; 650 cardiac catherizations annually; provides plastic surgery (no figure available).

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures $16.3 million; 1976 bad debts total $135,000; 1976 charity care, $300,000 (est.). Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid; 35%; from private insurers, 64%; from individuals, 1%.



Baylor University MedicalCenter

3500 Gaston Ave., Dallas; Phone 820-0111; Visiting Hours: 2 to 4 p.m., 7 to 9 p.m.

Baylor is a vast medical complex encompassing five separate hospitals – George W. Truett Memorial, Hoblitzelle Memorial, Jonsson Medical and Surgical, Minnie S. Veal Teaching and Research, and Collins Hospital. In number of patients admitted – more than 44,000 last year – the Baylor complex ranks as the sixth largest among all nongovernmental general hospitals in the country, and is the second largest church-related hospital in the United States. It is the acknowledged giant in the Dallas hospital community.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical, 8 beds; surgical, 12 beds; thoracic, 13 beds; neurological and cerebrovascular, 8 beds.Other Special Units: Cancer center has radiation therapy, chemotherapy and surgery; arthritis center; heart center; cardiology unit; colon and recta) surgery: gynecological surgery; nephrology unit; neurological surgery; ophthalmology unit; peripheral vascular surgery; plastic surgery; thoracic and cardiovascular surgery; urological unit; orthopedic unit; complete radiology-nuclear medicine department with CAT scanner; adolescent medical and surgical unit: adolescent psychiatric care; rehabilitation and occupational therapy programs for neurological, orthopedic surgical and medical patients; large outpatient service with 127,000 patient visits per year, etc.

Obstetrics: 4,079 babies born per year; 62 nursery cribs; 11 bed newborn admitting unit; 8 bed neonatal care unit; high-risk pregnancy unit; 675 caesarians performed annually; specialized pre-natal testing; family-centered maternity care; no response on abortion question.

Surgery: 30 major operating rooms: 23,000 surgeries annually; 1,697 cardiac catherizations annually; 700 open heart surgeries annually; 780 plastic surgeries annually; performs corneal transplants: day surgery; day plastic surgery.

Budget Information: Total est. 1978 expenditures $80.7 million; 1978 est. bad debts $2.5 million; 1978 est. charity care $6.5 million. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 38%; from private insurers, 49%; from individuals, 13 percent.



Children’s Medical Center



1935 Amelia St., Dallas; Phone 637-3820: Visiting Hours: 2 to 4 p.m., 6 to 8 p.m. for non-family: no restrictions for immediate family members.

The 117-bed Children’s Medical Center has evolved into a statewide – and even nationwide – referral center for seriously ill children who can find help nowhere else.

Children’s has an occupancy rate of 70 per cent. Its room rates are $90 private and $88 semi-private, and its average cost per patient day is $153 – a figure well below those of many general hospitals. There are 140 full and part-time registered nurses and nine licensed vocational nurses on the staff.

The hospital’s emergency room is open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Monday through Friday; from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Many types of emergency cases are transferred to Park-land’s emergency room, which is connected by a corridor to Children’s first-floor rear entrance. Newborns transferred from other hospitals for surgery or intensive care are accepted at any time, and the emergency room is also available to any physician on the staff for treatment of an emergency patient.

Intensive Care: 23-bed unit.

Other Special Units: A craniofacial team, which has transformed the faces of literally thousands of malformed youngsters; pulmonary functions lab, which tests children for chronic or suspected lung problems; cystic fibrosis center; cardiology center for children with heart defects; birth defects center, providing counseling and diagnosis; diagnostic and evaluation center, offering tests for mental retardation and learning disabilities; hematology clinic, offering treatment for leukemia and other blood diseases. The hospital also provides kidney dialysis and has 29 outpatient clinics that have a patient load of 48,000 per year.

Surgery: Physicians at Children’s perform about 350 cardiac catherizations annually, 100 open heart surgeries, 100 closed heart surgeries and 225 plastic surgeries. In all, about 4,800 operations – including corneal transplants – are performed annually in seven operating rooms. Budget Information: 1977 expenditures $9.2 million: 1976 bad debts totaled $441,849; 1976 charity care, $1.070 million.



Dallas Medical and Surgical Clinic and Hospital

4105 Live Oak St., Dallas; Phone 823-4151; Visiting Hours: 2 to 4 p.m., 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. This small 43-bed hospital, established in 1917, is located on the second floor of a four-story clinic building in downtown Dallas. Most of the 32 physicians at the clinic serve their patients on an outpatient basis, meaning they are treated without admission to the hospital. When they must admit patients, they utilize their own facilities for routine surgeries such as appendectomies, gall bladder removals or hysterectomies, or Baylor University Medical Center, located nearby, for more complicated procedures.

All physicians practicing in the hospital are specialists in one of the following areas: internal medicine, rheumatology, cardiology, gas-troenterology, dermatology, radiology, surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, ophthalmology oro-tolaryngology. Most of its physicians are also on the Baylor staff.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): ICU beds combined with coronary care (2 beds).

Other Special Units: Provides rehabilitation programs for patients with orthopedic and neurological disorders and arthritis; offers nutritional counseling for diabetics.

Obstetrics: None.

Surgery: 3 major operating rooms; 940 surgeries annually.

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures, $2 million: 1976 bad debts total $90,000: 1976 charity care, none. Reimbursements from Me-dicare-Medicaid, 52.5%; from private insurers, 40%; from individuals, 7.5%.



Harris Hospital

1300 W. Cannon, Fort Worth; Phone (817) 334-6011; Visiting Hours: 1 to 4 p.m., 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., restricted to shorter periods in certain areas.

Fort Worth’s largest hospital, with 590 beds, Harris also has the city’s highest occupancy rate among hospital’s surveyed. It also reports the area’s highest cost per patient day – $203.

But Harris has taken steps to cut costs. The hospital saved an estimated $3 million through cost-cutting programs between January 1976 and April 1977. And as far back as 1963, Harris was pioneering programs to curb excessive duplication of equipment and services. That year, it joined with neighboring Fort Worth Children’s Hospital to form Fort Worth Medical Center, thus eliminating the need for double pediatric facilities. In 1967, Harris phased out its psychiatric services and St. Joseph Hospital closed its obstetrics department. Since then the two have worked together to provide care in these respective areas.

Harris also has one of the most advanced medical computer systems used in day-to-day operations in the entire nation, allowing patients to bypass usual check-in procedures and go directly to a pre-assigned room. The system also stores all patient data, providing instant access to medical histories of past and present patients. It has drawn attention to Harris from many foreign countries, including the Soviet Union.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): 51 beds, 6 units including facilities for critically ill and post-operative patients, patients with respiratory, cardiopulmonary, neurological and renal diseases.

Other Special Units: Nine-member rehabilitation team for persons with neurological disorders; five specialized infant-care nurseries; intra-aortic balloon pump unit for cardiac patients; radiology-nuclear medicine department.

Obstetrics: 4,456 babies bom in 1976; 98 nursery cribs: 10 bed newborn intensive care unit; 10 bed neonatal care unit; 735 caesarians performed in 1976; abortions performed.

Surgery: 12 major operating rooms; 4 minor operating rooms; 1,150 surgeries annually; 800 cardiac catherizations annually; 438 open heart surgeries in 1976; 238 plastic surgeries annually.

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures, S32.5 million: 1976 bad debts total $844,585; 1976 charity care, $781,342. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 33%; from private insurers. 62%; from individuals, 5%.



Irving Community Hospital

1901 MacArthur, Irving: Phone 259-5616: Visiting Hours; open, except for intensive care and coronary care units.

An average-size suburban hospital, Irving Community has managed to restrain its per-patient costs in the face of rampant inflation, and keep its charges to consumers at a minimum by sticking to the basics in hospital care. Its operating motto seems to be: “Provide what is really necessary, but skip the fancy stuff.”

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical-surgical.

Other Special Units: Physical rehabilitatior programs for victims of stroke and heart attack pediatric unit.

Obstetrics: 1,200 babies born per year; 28 nur sery cribs; one bed newborn intensive care unit; failed to supply information on caesarians no abortions performed.Surgery: 6 major operating rooms; 5,000 (est.) surgeries annually; provides plastic surgery (no figure available).

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures, $8 million. The hospital supplied no information on bad debts, charity cases, or the percentages of reimbursements by Medicare-Me-dicaid, private insurers and individuals.



John Buist ChesterHospital

3300 S. Lancaster, Dallas; Phone 376-5411; Visiting Hours: 2 to 4 p.m., 6 to 8 p.m. This is the type of small community facility that faces increased pressures in an era of super-hospitals, medical complexities and highly specialized treatments.

Although John Buist Chester is licensed to operate 100 beds, only 72 are currently in use – still a sizable increase from the hospital’s 19-bed capacity when it opened in 1954. The occupancy rate of 65.75 percent is among the lowest reported by hospitals participating in the survey. This is one of the few area hospitals that has actually cut its operating budget (by some $350,000 annually) in the past five years.

While the affiliated Chester Clinic offers outpatient care for almost any illness not requiring hospitalization, the hospital itself can be characterized as a general care facility with limited specialized treatment capabilities. The hospital prefers not to treat such highly contagious diseases as tuberculosis, smallpox and infectious hepatitis, but will admit such patients in emergency situations. Intensive Care: ICU combined with coronary care, 6 beds.

Other Special Units: Radiology-nuclear medicine department; cardiovascular laboratory; stress testing for cardiac patients.

Obstetrics: Services temporarily suspended. Abortions performed.

Surgery: 2 major operating rooms; I minor operating room: 850 (est.) surgeries annually; 200 cardiac catherizations annually.

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures, $2.4 million. 1976 bad debts total 5 percent of total charges. Charity figures not available. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 41.8%; from private insurers, 51.2%; from individuals, 7%.



John Petersmith Hospital

1500 S. Main St., Fort Worth; Phone (metro) 429-5156; Visiting Hours: 2:30 to 4 p.m., 7 to 8 p.m.

After years of financial trauma, climaxed by its near shutdown last year in the face of a huge debt, John Petersmith now appears to have a secure future under new director Eugene Deut-scher, who has slashed costs dramatically. Licensed for 420 beds, the hospital now operates only 339 and has shut down the affiliated Elm-. wood Hospital, a psychiatric facility of 38 beds, moving psychiatric services to the main hospital to save some $500,000 in renovation costs.

As the only public hospital in Fort Worth. John Petersmith’s patient load is 50 percent “county sponsored,” meaning all or part of half the patients’ bills are paid by the county. Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Two medical and surgical units with 21 beds.

Other Special Units: Program for training family physicians for rural areas in association with the UT Health Science Center in Dallas; radiology-nuclear medicine; rehabilitation programs; 56 outpatient clinics; full-range of pe-diatric services.

Obstetrics: 2,848 babies bom per year; 36 nursery cribs; no newborn intensive care unit; 24-bed neonatal care unit; 263 caesarians per year; abortions performed.

Surgery: 11 major operating rooms; 5,411 surgeries annually; 50 open heart surgeries annually; 205 plastic surgeries annually; performs bone grafts and teeth transplants.

Budget Information: Total 1975 expenditures (most recent available), $25.1 million; failed to give information on bad debts; 1976 charity care, approximately 50% of patients. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 30%; from private insurers, 35%; from individuals, 5%.



Kessler Hospital

201 E. Colorado Blvd. Dallas; Phone 942-8711; Visiting Hours; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The smallest hospital responding to the survey, Kessler’s current 3 l-bed capacity is slightly less than when it opened its doors in May. 1959. At first, hospitals of this type may appear to have little in their favor, since they offer virtually no specialized facilities or equipment. Kessler does not even operate a regular emergency room, although a physician is on-call 24 hours a day to handle emergencies that arise within the hospital.

But to a certain type of non-critical patient, Kessler may represent a real “find.” Its room rates – for both private and semi-private accommodations – are the lowest in the survey, as is its total average cost per patient day of just $97.50. It is also one of the least crowded hospitals surveyed, with an occupancy rate of just 65 percent. (Even so, Kessler plans an ambitious expansion this September, when it will open a second 26-bed facility.)

Few consumers would choose to go to Kessler for coronary care, cancer treatment or kidney failure, since it has little to offer in these areas. About 50 percent of its admissions are for “minor surgery.”

Intensive Care: None.

Other Special Units: None.

Obstetrics: None. Abortions performed on selected basis.

Surgery: 2 major operating rooms; performs minor plastic surgery.

Budget Information: Failed to provide information on expenditures or on charity care; 1976 bad debts, 5% of billings. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 40%; from private insurors, 50%; from individuals, 10%.



Medical City Dallas



7777 Forest Ln., Dallas; Phone 661-7000; Visiting Hours: 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., except for intensive care areas. If you’re looking for unparalleled luxury in a hotel-style setting during your hospital stay – and are willing to pay the price – Medical City is the place to go. Since it opened in October. 1974, the profit-making 367-bed (273 are open) hospital has been challenging Presbyterian for attention on Dallas’ wealthy north side.

Medical City has the highest private room rate in town – $94 per day – and the second highest average cost per patient day – $200. But look at what you get for your money: suite-like, lavishly decorated rooms with original paintings on the walls; closed-circuit TV featuring private concerts and flower shows; a ’large interior shopping mall with retail stores, a delicatessen, exotic plants and fountains; champagne dinners for parents of new babies, etc.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical-surgical, two units with 16 beds.Other Special Units: Largest independent computerized clinical laboratory in the Southwest; latest equipment in radiology and nuclear medicine; CAT scanner; pain clinic; pediatric unit.Obstetrics: 1,700 babies born per year; 27 nursery cribs; no newborn intensive care unit; 4 bed neonatal care unit; 700 caesarians per year; abortions (therapeutic only) performed.

Surgery: 11 major operating rooms; 7,000 surgeries annually; 500 (est.) cardiac catheriza-tions annually; 200 open heart surgeries annually; 480 plastic surgeries annually.

Budget Information: Failed to provide information on 1977 expenditures; 1976 bad debts, 1.5%; 1976 charity care, 1%. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 20%; from private insurors, 64%; from individuals, 10%.

Memorial Hospital of Garland

2300 Marie Curie, Garland; Phone 276-9511; Visiting Hours: vary according to individual hospital departments; check before visiting. Recognized as one of the better suburban hospitals in North Texas, Memorial has specialists in 21 medical fields on its staff of 240 physicians and is well qualified in virtually all areas of general medicine, although it does not boast the sophisticated equipment found in some of the larger inner-city hospitals.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical and surgical, 2 units with 10 beds.

Other Special Units: Hearing Conservation Division, one of only three such units in Texas with testing facilities for many types of hearing disorders, mobile hearing lab and noise level survey equipment. Also has pain clinic; pe-diatric services; radiology-nuclear medicine; rehabilitation programs for persons with multiple sclerosis, multiple dystrophy, etc.

Obstetrics: 1,150 babies born per year; 19 nursery cribs; 3 bed newborn intensive care unit: 200 caesarians per year; abortions performed; classes in prenatal care.

Surgery: 5 major operating rooms: I minor operating room; 6,000 (est.) surgeries annually; 38 plastic surgeries annually; day surgery (600 patients annually.)

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures, $10.5 million; 1977 bad debts total $586,727; 1977 charity care, $141,949.



Methodist Hospitals

of Dallas

Methodist Central, 301 W. Colorado, Dallas; Phone 946-8181; Visiting Hours: 2 to 8 p.m. Charlton Methodist, 3500 Wheatland Rd., Dallas; Phone 296-2511; Visiting Hours: 2 to 8 p.m. The gold cross atop what is now known as Methodist Central Hospital as long been a familiar landmark in the heart of old Oak Cliff. But today the landmark is also a symbol of change – a changing concept of hospital service in a rapidly changing area of the city.

Now, for example, there are two Methodist Hospitals. In addition to the original 508-bed facility on Colorado Boulevard that has been the hospital for Oak Cliff for half a century, there is the two-year-old, 127-bed Charlton Methodist, located on the extreme southwestern edge of Dallas and designed to meet the needs of a mushrooming suburban area.

Central, which continues to offer the only obstetrical services in the southwestern part of the county, is currently undergoing a $14.5 million remodeling program to give it a new surgical suite, medical records department and expanded laboratory and radiology facilities. The alterations will equip it to serve as a specialty and referral hospital for a huge and populous area while retaining its time-honored role as Oak Cliffs home hospital. Charlton, meanwhile, will offer a more generalized type of patient care in the areas of medical, surgical and pediatric services, in hope of eliminating costly duplication.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): One unit, 13 beds.

Special Care Units: Cardiovascular Institute; diabetes control center; in-patient renal dialysis center; oncology (cancer) unit; pediatric unit; general surgical unit; orthopedics; urology; eye, ear, nose and throat: pulmonary-respiratory care center; gynecological unit; rehabilitation programs; large outpatient clinic service with about 10,000 patients per year; radiology department; endocrinology; gastroenterology unit.

Obstetrics: 2,323 babies delivered per year; 44-bed nursery; six-bed combined newborn-neonatal intensive care unit; full range of obstetrical services, including pre-natal care and testing; 283 caesareans annually: abortions performed.

Surgery: 12 major operating rooms; two minor operating rooms; 15,457 surgeries performed annually; 704 cardiac catherizations in 1976; 226 open heart surgeries annually; performs plastic surgery (no figure available); assists in finding transplant donors through Organ Retrieval Program at UT Health Science Center.

Budget Information: 1977 expenditures $33.7 million; 1976 bad debts totals $450,000; 1976 charity care $1.3 million. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 34%; from private insurors, 569?; from individuals, 10%.



Parkland Memorial Hospital

5201 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas; Phone 638-1800; Visiting Hours: 2 to 4 p.m., 7 to 9 p.m.; varies in maternity and specialty units.

Despite the fact that it is frequently dismissed as “just a charity hospital,” county-operated Parkland has done a great deal to focus national attention on Dallas as a medical center. When it comes to emergency medical services, Parkland has become the recognized prototype for the whole country, with its enlarged and remodeled emergency wing that now covers 32,000 square feet. Most Americans first heard of Parkland because John Kennedy died there; most people today hear of it because so many critically injured trauma patients survive there. Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): 10 units with 61 beds, for respiratory, adult burns, pediatric burns, neurological, thoracic, surgical, trauma, renal, and obstetric care. Other Special Units: Burn Center; rehabilitation programs for victims of catastrophic illness and injury; high-risk unit for pregnant women; center for advanced research on heart attacks: gynecological cancer unit under construction; 87 specialty clinics with an out-patient load of about 300,000 annually; department of patient services, which oversees patient stays to minimize difficulties: full-service radiology-nuclear medicine department with CAT scanner; pain clinic, etc.

Obstetrics: 7,620 babies born per year; 102 nursery cribs; low birthweight newborn intensive care unit with 43 beds; 12 bed neonatal care unit; 1,178 caesarians performed per year; abortions performed; genetic and infertility counseling; hypertension screening; specialized prenatal testing.

Surgery: 12 major operating rooms; delivery room equipped for surgery; 17,586 surgeries annually; 1,041 cardiac catherizations annually; 132 open heart surgeries annually; 889 plastic surgeries annually; only Dallas hospital performing kidney transplants; day surgery.

Budget Information: Total 1977 expenditures $59 million; 1976 bad debts total $15 million; 1976 charity care, $33.3 million. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 20%; from private insurors, 16%; from individuals, 3%.



Presbyterian Hospital

8200 Walnut Hill Ln., Dallas; Phone 369-4111; Visiting Hours: vary according to individual hospital departments; check before visiting. Since it opened on May 1, 1966, Presbyterian has established itself as the place to be sick for a large percentage of the population of North Dallas. Among the city’s major hospitals, it undoubtedly enjoys the greatest prestige with the well-to-do residents of its section of town. It is the city’s second largest private non-profit facility (after Baylor University Medical Center).

Presbyterian officials estimate that its day surgery facilities (to which patients come in the morning for minor surgery and leave in the afternoon without occupying a bed overnight) have resulted in a saving of some $500,000. Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical-surgical and neurosurgery, 2 units, 14 beds.

Other Special Units: The new Presbyterian West building includes facilities for advanced care and treatment of arthritis, emphysema, stroke, and other illnesses. Presbyterian also handles 7,500 psychiatric in-patients annually, and 24 patients a day at the Community Mental Health Center, an outpatient facility located on the hospital grounds. The hospital also has a high-risk pregnancy unit, pain clinic, a full-service radiology-nuclear medicine department, featuring a computerized brain scanner, ultrasound and mammography, and rehabilitation programs for arthritis, emphysema and rheumatism patients.

Obstetrics: 3,000 babies born per year; 50 nursery cribs: 12-15 bed newborn intensive care unit: 4-5 bed neonatal care unit; 590 caesarians per year; failed to respond to question about abortions performed; classes for expectant mothers.

Surgery: 18 major operating rooms; 15,000 surgeries annually; performs cardiac catheri-zations, open heart surgeries and plastic surgery (no figures available): day surgery.

Budget Information: Presbyterian Hospital officials failed to answer any questions about expenditures, bad debts, charity care, or reimbursements.

Saint Joseph Hospital

1401 S. Main St., Fort Worth; Phone(817) 336-9371; Visiting Hours: 1 to 4 p.m. and 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Established in 1889, the oldest of Fort Worth’s major hospitals, Saint Joseph has the lowest room rates and the lowest cost per patient day of any hospital surveyed in the city. Even so Saint Joseph has taken a number of steps to cut costs even further, including participation in the management engineering program of the Texas Hospital Association to better determine personnel needs and the establishment of a cost-containment task force within the hospital to oversee operating expenses.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical, 16 beds; surgical/neurological, 13 beds. Special Care Units: Adult psychiatric; adolescent psychiatric; special rehabilitation programs for stroke victims; psychological counseling; full radiology and nuclear medicine department with computerized head scanner; chemotherapy treatment for cancer patients. Obstetrics: No OB; no abortions performed. Surgery: Nine major operating rooms; six minor operating rooms; 8,800 surgeries annually; 372 cardiac catherizations in 1976; 440 plastic surgeries annually: performs corneal transplants; outpatient surgery.

Budget Information: 1977 expenditures $19.2 million; 1976 bad debts total $432,000; 1976 charity care $452,412. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid 41%; from private insurers, 40%; from individuals, 19%.

St. Paul Hospital

5909 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas; Phone 689-2000; Visiting Hours: medical/surgical 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., maternity 2:30 to 3:30, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Founded in a cottage in 1896, St. Paul will have grown into a 602-bed hospital complex by 1978. But it has retained its image for personalized attention as a big hospital that still cares about the individual patient.

Among its cost-trimming efforts, St. Paul has saved $265,000 over the past 11 months through a “personnel productivity program” instituted by hospital officials, and participation in the Daughters of Charity Shared Services Association has resulted in such economies as a $100,000-a-year saving on intravenous (IV) solutions and a$75,000-a-year cut in the cost of sutures.

The 1978 expansion, which will also give the hospital a larger emergency room, pharmacy and pathology and diagnostic radiology departments, is being financed by St. Paul’s first community subscription drive since 1958, an effort that has just succeeded in raising $6.4 million.

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical-surgical and renal units with 28 beds.Other Special Units: Sections set aside for emotionaly disturbed, cancer patients, renal dialysis, high-risk pregnancies, neurosurgical cases, orthopedic cases, pediatrics, etc. A 113-bed addition planned for construction will include a radiation cancer treatment center. Also has complete radiology-nuclear medicine department with CAT scanner; rehabilitation programs for cardiac and pulmonary patients.Obstetrics: 2,565 babies born per year; 50 nursery cribs; 6 bed newborn intensive care unit (includes neonatal care): 321 caesarians per year; no abortions performed. Prenatal and parent education classes; natural family clinic; prenatal testing and counseling.

Surgery: 13 major operating rooms; 2 minor operating rooms; 15,181 surgeries annually; 716 cardiac catherizations annually; 340 open heart surgeries annually; 768 plastic surgeries annually: performs corneal transplants.

Budget Information: Total 1976 expenditures. $25.9 million; 1976 total bed debts, $684,109; 1976 charity care, $1.1 million. Reimbursements from Medicare-Medicaid, 30%; from private insurers, 50%; from individuals, 20%.



Veterans AdministrationHospital

4500 S. Lancaster, Dallas; Phone 376-5451; Visiting Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

One of the busiest of the 171 VA hospitals across the country, the Dallas VA had 16,758 admissions in 1976 and its patients stayed for a leisurely average of 12.9 days – by far the longest average stay for any hospital surveyed.

Although it is the designated hospital for a 40-county area of Northeast Texas and Southern Oklahoma, the Dallas VA will accept any U.S. military veteran for treatment. Such care is free to veterans, but the VA calculates its average cost per patient day at $124.67 for budgetary purposes.

Unless you are a veteran, it is highly unlikely that you will ever occupy one of the 724 regular hospital beds at the Dallas VA. However, it is entirely possible for a non-veteran to be treated in the hospital’s emergency room, which operates 24 hours per day and accepts all emergency cases as a “humanitarian gesture.”

Intensive Care (Other than Coronary): Medical-surgical, 2 units, 16 beds.

Other Special Units: Psychiatric care; home health programs; radiology-nuclear medicine: rehabilitation programs for all hospital services; weight control unit; mental hygiene clinic; hemodialysis unit; pain clinic; reality orientation for elderly; extensive outpatient facilities (176,000 out patient visits per year.)

Obstetrics: None.

Surgery: 8 major operating rooms; 2 minor operating rooms: 2,628 surgeries in 1976; 392 cardiac catherizations annually; 100 open heart surgeries annually; 367 plastic surgeries annually; performs total knee and hip replacements.

Budget Information: Total 1978 expenditures, $42.7 million; other questions about bad debts, charity cases, and reimbursements not applicable.