The Augusta Courier

Ga. Has Only Half Of Hospital Beds Needed Williams

ATLANTA Georgia, largely as the result of her participation under the Hill-Burton Act, now has 7,988 general hospital beds in use or under construction, but that is only 52 per cent of the 15,380 hospital beds which surveys show the state needs, Dr. R. C. Williams, director of the State Public Health Department's hospital services division, told the Georgia Hospital Association's recent annual convention in Atlanta.

"Some people think we're building too many hospitals," he said. "We're not building too many . . . We're hardly keeping up with the rate of population increase and the rate of obsolescence of existing hospitals."

In addition to general hospital beds, Dr. Williams said hospital studies show Georgia needs 6,166 more beds for patients with mental and nervous disorders, 237 more beds for patients suffering from tuberculosis and 5,320 more beds for the chronically ill.

A total of 338,468 patients were admitted to general hospitals in Georgia in 1952 for an average stay of 5.75 days and at an average cost to the patient of $93.15, he pointed out. The number of Georgians covered by hospital insurance increased from 483,410 in 1945 to 820,926 in 1952, he added.

To date, thirty-three hospitals have been completed in the state under the co-operative Hill-Burton program, and eleven others are under construction. Although this program has been in operation since 1947, it was not until after Herman Talmadge was inaugurated as governor in November, 1948, that Georgia took the necessary steps to come under the federal act. One of his first official acts was to recommend enabling state legislation in order to bring Georgia these federal benefits.