Trip Into CMMC Past is Provided by Slides

              Alumni Day Banquet
Trip Into CMMC Past
Is Provided by Slides
By Elaine King
Of The Times Staff
It was 1927-28 and patients
at the old Shreveport Charity
Hospital had to contend not
only with the summer's heat
but with flies and bed bugs,
too.
The administrator distribut-ed
300 fly swatters to patients
to try to combat the flies —
although the hospital report
noted that the livery stable
across the street didn't help
matters.
And mattresses were being
steamed to try to exterminate
the bed bugs.
Today's patients at Con-federate
Memorial Medical
Center (CMMC) don't have
those problems, and the air
conditioning is at least pro-mised
as part of the renova-tion
package to be started
soon.
Dr. Ike Muslow, former
medical director for CMMC
and acting dean of the
Louisiana State University
School of Medicine in
Shreveport, gave Confederate
alumni a visual trip via slides
into the hospital's past at last
night's alumni day banquet at
Shreveport Country Club.
It all began nearly 100
years ago in 1876 when the
Louisiana Legislature took
the first step toward the
charity hospital here —
forerunner of CMMC — Dr.
Muslow said.
In 1876, $10,000 a year was
appropriated to maintain a
hospital at Ford and Pierre
Avenue.
In 1882 the legislature ap-propriated
funds to buy a 4-
acre site on Texas Avenue,
the present site of Shreveport
City Hall, he said.
The first building was
erected on the site in 1889 and
that year the chief surgeon at
the hospital was paid $75 a
month.
Dr. T. E. Schumpert
became chief surgeon for the
hospital in 1692 and his salary
was $80 a month, but when he
was named superintendent
and housing for him was pro-vided,
the salary again dropped
to$75a month.
By 1894 the hospital had
ladders and buckets in case
of fire. Dr. Muslow said.
And in 1899 a trained nurse
was hired for $30 a month;
she asked for $50 and was
replaced for $40, he said.
In 1904 a new $80,000 build-ing
was erected, and for the
first time a telephone was in-stalled
in the hospital and a
nurses training program
began.
Six doctors composed the
house staff in 1915-16.
There were 19,993
laboratory procedures in
1924-25, reports of the hospital
showed. Last year the
number of procedures was 2
to 3 million, he said.
Inflation was a problem for
the hospital back in 1919, too,
Dr. Muslow said, reading
from a report that noted a
home for nurses was needed,
"but owing to inflated prices"
the hosptial needed to wait
until things were "more
normal."
"We're still waiting," Dr.
Muslow quipped.
The cost per day per pa-tient
for care was $2.50 in
1924, the same year that the
hospital pointed out its
"urgent need" for more re-pairs
and new and more modern
equipment, he said.
When fire destroyed a wing
of the hospital between 1926
and 1927, a renovation pro-gram
stressing fireproofing —
like the new renovation pro-gram
does — was begun.
That program took about
two years, the same time
estimated for the current pro-gram,
he said.
The present physical plant
on Kings Highway was con-structed
at a $10 million cost
and with an 800-bed capacity
in the early 1950s, while re-novation
is expected to cost
$11 million.
Also rising is the cost per
patient per day.
In 1927 the cost was $2 11,
but it had dropped by 1931 to
$1.85, and was $1.48 in 1940.
By contrast, the 1971-72 cost
per patient per day was $57.41
and the cost from July,
1974-April, 1975 was $80.94.
It sounds like history re-peating
itself, Dr. Muslow
said.
And 20 years from now, he
predicted, another speaker is
likely to stand at a podium
and show today's interns and
residents pictures of
themselves — and there pro-bably
will be another renova-tion
program underway, and
more fireproof ing needed.