The Nome Nugget

Hospital Administrator
Reports to Chamber On
Costs of Operation

Robert Reed, administrator of the MMM Hospital, presented a comprehensive report on the functioning of this institution during the past year, at the NWA Chamber of Commerce luncheon Monday. He stated that the operating expense for the past year has been about $200,000 and the income was about the same with half of it coming from local sources, a quarter from the Alaska Native Service, and a quarter from the Women's Division of Christian Service.

He explained that the income per patient day is about the same as it is in West Coast hospitals, which is approximately $40, and expenses run about $50 per day, per patient.

Reed recently made a trip to Anchorage to confer with BIA officials on the handling of more native cases originating in this area instead of their being shipped to Anchorage or Kotzebue. because the transportation costs more than offsets the increased cost of care. He was unsuccessful in his quest thus the only privately owned hospital to which white people can be admitted, is actually in competition with government enterprises limited to the care of native people-which in turn is contrary to the concept of equality. or equal rights for Alaskan citizens.

Victor Urban, of the Department of Health and Welfare, was also a visitor at the meeting and gave some assurance of better assistance to this area in connection with juvenile problems.

Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton, who is in the state for the dedication of the new railroad terminal at Fairbanks. was to be invited by the Chamber to make a flying visit and confer on the BIA vocational school for students of this area many of whom were turned away at Mt. Edgecumbe last year because there was not enough room, and in some cases because it was economically impossible.