US Army School of Nursing - Taps Yearbook (Washington, DC)

Page 26 text:

pi.€ a The Hospital was formally opened on April 14, 190S), there being on duty at that time five officers, sixty-two enlisted men. and three civilian employees. The patients in the hos])ital at the end of May included five officers, eleven enlisted men, and one civilian. On June 21, 1911, one chief nurse and three nurses joined the personnel, a fifth nurse arriving three days later. The enormous expansion which became necessary may be better understood when we learn that the bed ca])acity increased from 930 beds at the end of 1917 to 2,500 beds at the end of 1918. Though the construction of temporary build- ings had been begun in 1917. additional land was acquired a year later and more temporarv buildings were constructed to meet this need. The first real contingent of overseas wounded arrived in July. 1918, and thereafter until the end of the year averaged about 300 monthly. . t the close of the year there were 865 orthopedic cases, 620 being amjjutations. With the increase in the numbers of patients followed a Cdrresjionding increase in the personnel and all the hospital facilities. All indications that the hospital is building for the future, when it will undoubtedly be the Army medical center of Eastern United States, is manifested by the complete and thorough equipment of its various dei)artments. The Laboratory, X-Kay De- partment. Hydro and Electro Therapy De])artments. ( )ccu])ational Therapy 1923 [23]

Page 28 text:

a©.n. Department, the E. N. T., Eve and Dental Clinics are all supplied with the most approved and modern ajiparatus and appliances. The Army ] Iedical School Building- is now in the course of erection. Plans are also made for a building to contain the Surgeon General ' s Library, the largest collection of medical literature in the world, and the Army Medical Museum. In addition to the htispital. the training activities conducted at Walter Reed include the Army Medical School, the Army Dental School, and the Armv School of Nursing ; also training courses in dietetics, physio-therapy, and laboratory technique. Thus liesides being the largest military hospital in the country, it is an important training- center for the personnel of the vari- ous branches of the Medical Department of the Ami}-. When all the plans for its future exj ansion are realized, it is ])robable that the name of the hospital will be changed to the Walter Reed Medical Center, the hospital proper com- prising one deiJartment and the various training activities another. Walter Reed is a hospital, and it is a paradise of natural beauty — gardens Ijetween the wards, gardens everywhere, and trees and shrubbery and lawns. This beautiful hospital, which has restored to health and usefulness so many men from across the seas, is a glorious memorial to the brave American surgeon who gave his life to rid the world of a great scourge. I IJRGEOM ■l N: rAL IJ, [. A 1 !r(ucj !9:a I 1923 [2, ' ; ]