Medical supply

“ The Red Cross also operates its Blood Services, which collects and processes half of the supply of blood needed by the Nation's medical facilities. Red Cross is continuously seeking new and more economical uses for blood and blood products. ”

“ He who shows the least scepticism as to this practice is at once suspected of being "an old-fashioned doctor," and dismissed to make room for a younger man.
In short, private medical practice is governed not by science but by supply and demand; and however scientific a treatment may be, it cannot hold its place in the market if there is no demand for it ”

“ The health-care market's size is not its only distinctive feature. Unlike the market for almost any other product or service, the market for medical care is one in which all individuals inevitably participate. Virtually every person residing in the United States, sooner or later, will visit a doctor or other health-care professional. ”

“ As to the actual physic—the employment of medicines—it is only in some of the large endowed hospitals that {255} we can see such a dispensary as this spacious room, with its surrounding rows of bottles and drawers, its two open windows, one communicating with the men's and the other with the women's waiting room, its slabs, and scales and measures, on a central counter, where 380 prescriptions will have to be made up to-day before the alert and intelligent gentleman and his assistants who have the control of this department, will be able to replace the current stock out of the medical stores. ”

“ But the time is not yet ripe, and probably will never come, for the incorporation of a great Medical Trust, with the names of a specialist in eye, ear, throat, nose, lungs, liver, sphincter ani, corns and fallopian tubes, and so on to the minutest subdivision, with the addition of some general practitioners and apothecaries, displayed around the casings of some common front door, to scoop in the community and pool the receipts on a graded tariff. Trade is essentially selfish and works for the individual. ”

“ The secret nostrum business in some of its phases has assiduously found its way into the medical arts, and physicians, pharmacists, and manufacturing houses, seem to have forgotten, to a certain extent, the obligations which they owe to the public. Medicine, in all its departments, must be practiced in accord with scientific, and professional requirement, or it will sink to the level of a commercial business. The end of medical practice is service to suffering humanity, not the acquisition of money. ”

“ From all sides comes testimony to the decrease in personal efficiency of workers of all degrees. Medical science has prolonged life, hospitals and visiting nurses have made sickness less distressful, but have also in many cases prolonged the time and increased the cost. Sanitary science aims to prevent the beginnings of sickness, and so to eliminate much of the expense. ”

“ It is all very well to patch up the diseased man with drugs or what not. But at best that is a makeshift method. The Consumptive Sanatoriums have aroused enthusiasm, and they also are all very well. But the Charity Organisation Society has shown that only about 50 per cent. of those who pass through such institutions become fit for work. It is not more treatment of disease that we want, it is less need for treatment. And a State Medical Service is the only method by which Medicine can be brought into close touch with Hygiene. ”

“ I have set up an impartial commission to make a thorough study of the Nation's health needs. One of the things this commission is looking into is how to bring the cost of modern medical care within the reach of all the people. ”

“ This is no where more pronounced than in the demand for hospital supplies. What our patients need is plenty of attention and simplicity in equipment and treatment. Efficiency, yes, but simplicity especially. How often it happens that a medical officer at a governmental institution becomes imbued with the idea that he requires certain special apparatus which must be obtained at considerable cost to the procuring agents to carry out his theories of treatment. ”

“ The securing of such legislation as will authorize all surgeons in medical charge of troops, hospitals, transports, trains, and independent commands to draw from the Subsistence Department funds for the purchase of such articles of diet as may be necessary to the proper treatment of soldiers too sick to use the army ration. ”

“ No one shall be subjected to forcible medical treatment or sanitary measures except in circumstances established by law. (5) The state shall exercise control over all medical facilities and over the production and trade in pharmaceuticals, biologically active substances and medical equipment. ”

“ In health and nutrition, the primary health care approach will continue to ensure the provision of essential health services to the most basic communities. Also, we will further strengthen the herbal medicine program to cut down reliance on imported drugs and introduce acupuncture in various hospitals to reduce the costs of medical care. Likewise, we are committed to further improve and develop the health infrastructure network, particularly hospitals, to meet the needs of the growing population. ”

“ In fact, those new medicinal preparations or old ones with new names that flood the market far surpass the actual demand according to the judgment of all authorities. The impartial advisers in this field, practitioners and members of medical faculties, demand, as a matter of public welfare that this overproduction should be regulated in the interests of the sick, the consumers; but, unfortunately, a medical man, like any one else, is impressed by the suggestion from advertising done on a large scale. ”

“ The economic drain on our resources in the form of direct medical costs and lost wages and production will exceed $60 billion.
Since 1948, the United States Public Health Service and a private voluntary organization, the American Heart Association, have joined in a concerted effort to combat cardiovascular diseases. ”

“ The out-patient departments of the great general hospitals stand more in need of reform than perhaps any of the charitable institutions of our time. To the contributors and subscribers they appear, doubtless, to be the one great means of affording poor persons the highest medical and surgical advice, and the best medicines and appliances free of charge. ”

“ Use proven models of health care benefits, service delivery and payments that control costs and overutilization, with emphasis on preventive care and chronic disease management using evidence-based outcomes and a health benefit model that promotes a primary care medical home ”

“ Twenty men employed constantly in putting up this medicine would not have been sufficient to have complied with all the demands which were made of me for it. Hundreds who were in health called or sent for it as well as the sick, in order to have it in readiness in case they should be surprised by the disease in the night, or at a distance from a physician. ”

“ All progress in civilization is attended with injury to some individuals. Trained nurses have deprived some unskilled labour of employment; hospitals have injured the business of some physicians; pure-water supplies, good sewers, food inspection, vaccination,—in short, all effective measures in public hygiene,—interfere with the trade side of medical practice ”

“ One reason why we excel in the treatment of chronic diseases is the fact that we are supplied with all the modern improvements in the way of instruments, appliances and remedial agents used in the healing art, the expense of which deters the local physician in general practice from procuring, for the treatment of the limited number of cases that come within the circuit of his practice. ”

“ Four days before the Battle of Bunker Hill the Congress "Ordered that Doct. Whiting, Doct. Taylor and Mr. Parks, be a committee to consider some method of supplying the several surgeons of the army with medicines," and further "Ordered that the same committee bring in a list of what medicines are in the medical store." ”

“ The initial expense involved in establishing dispensaries will necessarily be large, but once established, will not only furnish medical service of the highest type to patients of this Bureau, but will, it is believed, result in an actual economy when compared with the present method of providing similar medical service practically on a contract basis. ”

“ These, when judiciously applied, will prove invaluable to emigrants, travellers, voyagers, and other parties beyond the reach of legitimate medical assistance; and, under opposite circumstances, will, in general, enable those who have the care of the sick the better to second and carry out the instructions and efforts of the physician for the benefit of their charge. ”

“ This is one of the most interesting reports that have been made to this Department. As a scientific production it will be of great value to the medical profession throughout the country, illustrating, as it does, the efficiency of well-directed surgical aid in curing many of the diseases which but a few years ago were not considered amenable to treatment.
The directors report that the expenditures of the institution have been characterized by the strictest economy, and that its whole conduct has given great satisfaction. ”

“ If they wanted to practise surgery, an extra year in the study of anatomy was required. I published the text of this law, which was issued by the Emperor Frederick II about 1241, in the Journal of the American Medical Association three years ago. It also regulated the practice of pharmacy. Drugs were manufactured under the inspection of the government and there was a heavy penalty for substitution, or for the sale of old inert drugs, or improperly prepared pharmaceutical materials. ”

“ We will carry forward pharmaceutical and health care reform and development. We will ensure that public medical and health care services serve the public good and fully arouse the initiative of health workers. We will work hard to establish a nationwide basic medical and health care system for both urban and rural areas to begin providing universal coverage. We will focus on the following five areas starting from this year. ”

“ Hence it is that we claim it to be impossible for any one to put up any set prescription, or proprietary medicine, that will meet the wants of a large percentage of this class of cases. The only rational course to be pursued is to examine carefully each case as it is presented; find out the exact condition and stage of the disease with which the patient is afflicted, and then prescribe for it such special medicines as are nicely and exactly adapted to the patient's condition. ”

“ The demand for scientific treatment of complaints and disorders has, during the past fifty years, brought out competition for supply which is simply astounding. The advance of surgery and appliances during the Victorian era is marvellous. ”

“ That for the prevention of the disease occasioned by defective ventilation, and other causes of impurity in places of work and other places where large numbers are assembled, and for the general promotion of the means necessary to prevent disease, that it would be good economy to appoint a district medical officer independent of private practice, and with the securities of special qualifications and responsibilities to initiate sanitary measures and reclaim the execution of the law. ”

“ All medical stores are kept in the presidency dispensaries, with branch depots at convenient places in the interior. All instruments and the greater part of medicines are imported from England. However, the Assistant-surgeon will do well to provide himself with a complete pocket dressing case and a small portable medicine chest,which he will find very useful when unattached, and when he has no access to the public stores; and if he has good mechanical hands, a portable tool chest will be of great service. ”

“ It continues the old popular conception of private medical practice, and allows the public to remain obsessed with the notion that satisfactory medical care consists in a “visit and a bottle.” No provision is made for pathological aids to diagnosis, beyond what is already provided by public health authorities. No nurses are available for serious cases; the insured person is not entitled to surgical operations, when needed, except of the simplest character. ”

“ Pills, potions, pick-me-ups, blood purifiers, liver mixtures, lung tonics, corn cures, and preparations for tender feet appear to be the only articles of commerce that half the population of the United States trade in and manufacture. ”

“ The current concern about the cost of medical care and resorting to government-run insurance programs and regulations will do little or nothing to reverse the trend to more and more sickness that costs more and more to treat. ”

“ We will gradually eliminate the practice of hospitals subsidizing their medical services with drug sales and reform the mechanism of subsidizing public hospitals. We will encourage all localities to seek ways to establish a medical service pricing mechanism based on consultations among stakeholders and establish a system whereby relevant institutions, representatives of the general public, and experts oversee and evaluate the quality of medical services. ”

“ It is manifest that, if the valuable results of hospital and dispensary practice, throughout the kingdom at large, could be brought before the public in an authentic shape, the measure would be attended with the greatest possible advantages. ”

“ They are prepared with great care from the green, crude material, and although high in price, when compared with other tinctures, yet the greater [pg 303] certainty of action which we secure in our prescriptions by their employment more than repays for the expense and trouble in procuring them, for of what account is expense to the true physician when life may depend upon the virtue of the agent he employs? ”