Cheap Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston last week opened a pavilion, the Baker Memorial, whose low rates may become the norm for such hospitalization. A bed in a nine-bed ward cost $4.00 a day, in a four-bed room $4.50, in a two-bed room $5.50, in a single room $6.50. These rates supply high-grade sleeping quarters, meals, general nursing, staff supervision, but not private nursing or private medical or surgical care. They are the antithesis of those in Massachusetts General's own luxurious Phillips House* or Manhattan's new Doctor's Hospital (TIME, Feb. 17). Baker Memorial's low charges were made possible only by the public donating $2,000,000 for the full cost of its building and equipment. A hospital built privately must charge enough to pay interest on its building and land costs, and pay off its mortgages.

*Not to be confused with Harvard University's Phillips Brooks House, an informal, semi-religious congregating place for students.

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