TESTIMONY OF CHIEF MEDICAL DIRECTOR, VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION CONCERNING VETERANS' HOSPITALS, FACILITIES, AND PERSONNEL WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1947 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10:30 a. m., in room 356 Old House Office Building, Washington, D. C., Hon. Edith Norse Rogers (chairman) presiding. Present: Representatives Rogers (chairman), Kearney, Ramey, Crow, Meade, Vail, Meyer, Mitchell, Patterson, Phillips, Ross, Sarbacher, Bakewell, Davis, Rankin, Allen, Huber, Price, Teague, Johnson, Évins, Lusk, Wheeler, and Donohue. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. STATEMENT OF HON. DEAN P. TAYLOR, A REPRESENTATIVE IN Mr. TAYLOR. Madam Chairman, and members of the committee, in the interest of saving time, I would like to submit a statement with reference to the Veterans Hospital at Saratoga Springs; and along with it, I would like to put into the record a summary of the types of treatments afforded at the hospital and the record of treatment and the number of discharges. The CHAIRMAN. Very well, Mr. Taylor. The statement and summary will be included in the record. (The statement and summary referred to are as follows:) STATEMENT BY HON. DEAN P. TAYLOR BEFORE COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUNE 18, 1947 The Saratoga Veterans Hospital located at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., originally was set up as an annex to the Veterans' Administration facility at the Bronx, N. Y. It so functioned from the first day of February 1943, until the first day of February 1945, when it was separated from the Bronx facility. Since that date the Saratoga Hospital has operated as an independent hospital, primarily for the treatment of veterans by physiotherapy. The curative value of mineral waters at Saratoga Springs has been known for many, many years, and the effective use of these waters for the treatment of arthritis, poliomyelitis, hypertension, and cardiac diseases have long been recognized by the Veterans' Administration. The record of patients treated at Saratoga Hospital conclusively indicates that a high percentage of patients completely respond to the treatment afforded them there. In fact, the number of permanent cures for the ailments previously mentioned have been greater than in any other established veterans' hospital. 35 The record further indicates that in the course of years there have been innumerable transfers of patients from other facilities where the patients did not make satisfactory progress, to Saratoga, where they responded rapidly to treatments. These transfer cases from other facilities show hospitalization of those veterans at other facilities for periods of from 3 months to 3 years without improvement; whereas, at the Saratoga the cure was speedy, and in the greatest number of cases permanent. The Veterans' Administration has been so impressed in the past with these records that it has sent patients to Saratoga Hospital from as far west as Michigan, south from the Carolinas, and east from Maine. The numerous letters from the veterans who have been treated there speak for themselves. I have personally visited the hospital on several occasions, and have seen at first hand the fine results that have been accomplished there. I have heard from the mouths of patients who were undergoing treatment their expressions of appreciation for the care which our Government was providing for them. There can be no plausible reason for abandonment of the Saratoga Hospital. The argument that hospital personnel is necessary elsewhere, is without merit. It might be that the hospital is presently overstaffed with personnel, but such a situation can be easily dealt with without impairing the use of the hospital. There can be no refutation of the argument that the Saratoga Hospital is a place where the veteran can find a cure for his ailments. The Veterans' Administration records establish that fact. In these days when the Veterans' Administration is seeking more and more money for additional beds, it seems unreasonable to argue that the existing beds at Saratoga Springs should no longer be used. Nowhere in this country, nor, in fact, in the world, can be found mineral waters that possess the curative values that the Saratoga mineral waters possess. People from all over the world come there now for a special kind of treatment. From a dollar-and-cents standpoint the city of Saratoga Springs would be better off perhaps without the hospital, but the people of Saratoga Springs are patriotic enough to want the veterans, above all others, to come to Saratoga and be cured. Nothing should create a hindrance to that objective. Summary of patients treated and discharged, Veterans' Administration, Saratoga Springs, N. Y., period May 1 to Aug. 1, 1945 [Total number of patients treated and discharged during period, 117] Summary of patients remaining as of Aug. 1, 1945 [Total number of patients remaining, 50 (not included in preceding tabulation)] The CHAIRMAN. We will next hear from General Hawley. STATEMENT OF GEN. PAUL R. HAWLEY, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. H. A. PRESS, DIRECTOR OF MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING, DEFARTMENT OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY, VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION The CHAIRMAN. General Hawley, have you made a statement with respect to the hospital at Saratoga Springs? General HAWLEY. No, I have not. The CHAIRMAN. Will you please do that, please? General HAWLEY. The position of the Veterans' Administration is that the property is not owned by the Veterans' Administration but is leased. It is a small hospital of only 50 beds, and the administrative overhead in small hospitals is higher; and, in an effort to consolidate without reducing the number of beds but to save on personnel and on money, it was selected as one of three hospitals to be closed with the patients to be cared for at other places. Mr. KEARNEY. General Hawley, I, like Congressman Taylor in whose district this hospital is located, am also vitally interested in this hospital. It is located about 28 miles from my home town. Now, as I understand the situation, this hospital is set up as an annex to the veterans' hospital in the Bronx, Bronx No. 81; is that true? General HAWLEY. I believe that was true, sir, but it is now operating as a separate installation. Mr. KEARNEY. And it functioned from the 1st day of February 1943, down to the present date. Now, there isn't any doubt in the mind or the Administration as to the curative value of the mineral water at Saratoga, is there? In other words, people come from all over the world to Saratoga to take the cure. General HAWLEY. Yes, that is true. Mr. KEARNEY. The same as they do at Hot Springs. Mr. KEARNEY. And Hot Springs and Saratoga are the two outstanding resorts in the United States of America, and in this veterans' facility at Saratoga, which occupies a portion of the Roosevelt baths, as I understand it, the total bed capacity there is, I believe, 49. General HAWLEY. Fifty, we call it, sir. Mr. KEARNEY. Now, from the day that this annex was established at the Roosevelt baths there have been numbers of patients treated, for instance, for arthritis, neuritis, poliomyelitis, heart conditions, hypertension; and isn't it a well-known fact, General, that as a result of those treatments in Saratoga not 100 percent but a great majority of those veterans who have been treated at Saratoga have been returned to their homes either partially cured or permanently cured? General HAWLEY. I should say that without being familiar with the detailed history of the hospital in the 2 years I have been with the Veterans' Administration, that that was probably true; but I should like also to say that that is true of many other hospitals in the Veterans' Administration. Mr. KEARNEY. But outside of Hot Springs you have no other hospital in the country General HAWLEY. We have no hospital in Hot Springs. We have a small bed allocation in the Army and Navy General Hospital in Hot Springs. Mr. KEARNEY. If this hospital is closed, there would be no hospital in the country outside of the small number of beds that you have at the Army and Navy Hospital in Hot Springs that takes care of this type of patient; is that correct? General HAWLEY. That is a matter of professional opinion. I think that the great majority of physicians at the present day in the country would say that, in regard to arthritis, such treatment as can be given can be given in almost any hospital. I think the value of the waters and the baths is rather seriously doubted. That is my professional opinion, and I am sure you could get an opinion opposite to that. I would point out also that with only 49 beds there, there are thousands of cases of arthritis today in veterans' hospitals who are improving in other hospitals and who couldn't possibly be admitted to that one small hospital. Mr. KEARNEY. What I am getting at, General, is this: You will recall some time ago, I talked with you about the Saratoga Hospital, and even as late as only several months it was contemplated building a 250-bed hospital at Saratoga. I believe that was for the 1948 program. General HAWLEY. If I was ever aware of that, sir, I have forgotten. I will check on that. Mr. KEARNEY. I can't understand for the life of me, and I am simply asking for my own information-and I know that the veterans in our area are vitally interested, if possible, in keeping this hospital open due to the wonderful, let us say, cures that have been effected · on the part of the veterans' doctors in that hospital and, as I say, the curative features of the waters at Saratoga-and I can't for the life of me understand why, let us say, the about-face on the part of the Veterans' Administration when they had contemplated building a 250-bed hospital at Saratoga, realizing the benefits that the veterans had received from the treatments at the hospital, as to why, we will say, within 24 hours the program is cast overboard and it is decided to close the hospital. I realize that where you have 43 patients, and I believe it was 62 employees, that that doesn't make an awful lot of sense, but isn't it possible to keep that hospital open? I believe there are three physicians there. Isn't it possible to keep it open with a less number of attendants, paid employees, so that these lads will have an op |