HEALTH, SANITATION AND SOCIAL SERVICES The period under review witnessed steadily increasing demands upon hospital services, and a broadening of social service functions to cope with all types of human problems hazardous to health. The Guam Memorial Hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, and is a member of the American Hospital Association, the Association of Western Hospitals and the Hawaii Hospital Association. J. H. Feller & Associates recently concluded a study on the physical fa. cilities of the Guam Memorial Hospital with the recommendation that the Government of Guam establish an Islandwide Health Care Center composed of facilities that would provide every type of health service for its people. The proposed Health Center would be a concentration of all major groups, both public and private, interested in health care, on a common site surrounding a core of shared services. Under such an arrangement, services would be provided by an independent, voluntary, nonprofit corporation. In the belief that such centralization of health services would lead to the best possible heal-th care at rates the patient could afford, the recommendation by Feller & Associates was accepted by the board of trustees of the hospital, and the decision made to seek
legislative support to implement the recommendations . Meanwhile, the "F" wing of the hospital was under modernization and reconstruction to provide 48 beds for tuberculosis patients. The new facility increased the number of hospital beds from 237 to 285. Vacation of the present TB wards will provide room for the much needed extended care facility. Further construction at the hospital took place on the "C" wing to provide for a public health diagnostic and water quality analysis laboratory at a cost of $220,683. Patient services rendered during the fiscal year totaled $2,439,408, an increase of $272,080 over the previous year. Admissions to the hospital, including 1,819 newborn, numbered 7,667, an increase of 338. Outpatient visits totaled 37,246, and 34,363 X-ray examinations were performed as compared to 21,430 last year. Total collection in accounts receivable was $1,581, 222, an increase of $320,853 over the previous year. There was an increase in free services offered to TB patients, to persons seeking Mental Health Services, ALS, NINDB, School Injuries assistance, Public Health services, etc., amounting to $458,059, an amount $92,624 in excess of last year. Eighteen social service cases were approved for abatement, amounting in dollar value to $15,570, a decrease of 207 cases and a decrease in dollar value of $110,212
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