FARMINGTON |
�����������
A new law to safeguard patients� rights became effective Jan. 1. � Not long ago, according to Dennis Mobrice,
hospital public information spokesman, the huge institution dropped its division by
departments and began referring to branches of service as units.� Personnel are encouraged to consider themselves as
parts of a system of treatment units, working closely together.� For example, specialists on alcohol and drug abuse
coordinate plans with professionals mainly concerned with continuing care.
�����������
Mobrice said the pattern fosters better administration and accountability plus more
flexibility in dealing with patients.� General
methods of therapy are said to have been replaced by plans tailored to the individual
resident or outpatient.
�����������
Other transitions occurring near the time of the hospital�s 75th
anniversary last year included the appointment of a new superintendent, Dr. Fred McDaniel,
and the retirement of a man who had become an institution in himself, Dr. Emmett Hoctor.� He ended approximately 53 years of continuous
service to the hospital, 38 of those as superintendent.
|
���������
A bill to rename the facility the Emmett F. Hoctor Medical Complex was pending in
the Missouri Legislature early this year.
�����������
Hoctor might be one of the few people who knows of unique features involved in the
hospital�s early days.
�����������
Housing patients in attractive cottages surrounded by spacious lawns bordering wide
streets was part of the hospital from its birth in 1903.�
That was a novelty for those times.� Mental
patients had almost always been housed in forbidding dormitories.� The architects of the
�����������
The picturesque atmosphere has been preserved, making the sprawling grounds today
seem like a college campus.
�����������
Another step that made the hospital something of a pioneer was the addition of a
beauty parlor fairly early in its history.� Leaders
thought patients deserved the opportunity to keep their hair, fingernails and the like in
sightly condition.
|
�����������
Patients in the earlier days were less anonymous to the general public than they
are today.� One resident of the hospital became
known in the community as �the Major.�� He
was a Boer War veteran of the British Army, who had been decorated by Queen
�����������
�����������
Gov. A.M. Dockery was in office then.� Dr.
L.T. Hall was the hospital�s first superintendent.
�����������
More land was added as needed.� Today
the complex covers 745 well-tended acres, part of which has been converted to other uses,
including a detention center for juveniles.� The
mental-care service area extends over 28 counties with a population of 490,000.
�����������
The hospital is
�����������
Next year�s budget is foreseen at the level of $13 million.� The need for services for the emotionally troubled
seems to grow endlessly.� The hospital expanded
rapidly upon opening.� Ten years later 631
persons were housed there.� In 1935, the annual
consumption of beef amounted to 142,000 pounds, and the year�s meals included 18,490
dozen eggs.
�����������
Today, the institution treats about 5,000 persons a year as residents, outpatients
or persons in the care of their families.� Funding
is provided from federal, state and local sources and changes to patients who can afford
to pay.� Fees are based on a sliding scale
correlated to a patient�s income.� However,
no deserving person is denied treatment because of lack of income.
�����������
A recent addition is a surgical-medical building of 64 beds, containing an
intensive care section and a second ward.� The
usual occupancy is between 40 and 45 persons, who are bothered by physical ailments on top
of emotional disorders.
�����������
Of the patient population, only about 525 are residents of the facility. � Others are accommodated in nursing homes or their
own homes.� Experts think disturbed individuals
often fare better away from a hospital environment.� Traveling
clinics leave the grounds three times a month.
�����������
Many outpatients are part of the alcohol and drug abuse treatment center. � An estimated 40 percent of all yearly admissions
are into that section, which last year averaged about 35 patients at a time. � Despite intensive professional efforts, an
estimated 70 percent of those admitted for alcoholism return to their problem.� Some of those, however, are thought to cut down on
their drinking.
Farmington has many missions in treatment |
�����������
A patient enters the
�����������
One of the 17 is Carlos Harwood, 28, hospital mental health coordinator. � He is considered the guardian of patients�
rights and considers himself as much a representative of the courts and the general public
as the institution.� His job was created
because of the new law.
�����������
The Probate Court hearing for a 14-day commitment must be held within a 96-hour
(not including weekends or holidays) period.� Subsequent
court hearings are mandated during 14-day, 90-day and one-year commitment periods.� After that, patients are guaranteed an annual
review of their hospitalization.
�����������
The crisis intervention team is generally made up of a psychiatrist, a psychiatric
nurse, a psychiatric social worker and a consulting psychologist. � The group reviews a new patient�s history and
recommends a future course of action.� Until
early last year, staff and time limitations confined this service to patients from only 10
counties.� Now persons from all 28 counties
served by the hospital are evaluated by the team.
�����������
Anyone in the service area with an urgent problem can now telephone a qualified
counselor at the hospital at certain hours on a toll-free line.
�����������
In addition to fulfilling its own function, the
Thanks goes out to Jeanne "Hunt" Nassaney for typing above article for us.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING DR. HOCTOR |
�������������� A book was written about Dr. Hoctor entitled "Let Me Not Be Mad Sweet Heaven", which was published in 1977 by John Stewart, a former minister who called Dr. Hoctor "one of the greatest humanitarians I had the privilege to meet in my lifetime."�
��������������� Dr. Hoctor was a member of the St. Joseph Catholic Church and served in World War I.� He died on May 3, 1986, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.
{Source:� Farmington Missouri, the First 200 Years, Copyright 2000.}