Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1873.djvu/106

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The rate paid for the board of private patients has ranged from $4 to $12 per week, according to the means of individuals and the accommodations required. The average rate paid has not varied materially from that of several recent years, and, so far from contributing anything to the support of the dependent classes, it has been barely sufficient to comply with that clause of the organic act which requires that independent or pay patients shall not be received at " less than the actual cost of their support." The low average rate received for the board and treatment of the private patients admitted to this hospital, is doubtless due in part to the fact that there are but few people of large wealth in the national district from which most patients of this class come, but. there is as little doubt that it is also due in part to a general indisposition among all citizens in all parts of the republic, to pay a Government institution a profit upon any service it renders them. It is the same common sentiment that prevents the hospital from realizing all the income to which it is entitled by that provision of law which requires those patients admitted by order of the Hon. Secretary of the Interior to pay such a portion of the expenses of their board and treatment as they are able.

In addition to the disbursements for the support of the hospital, an appropriation of $37,800 was expended in the erection of an extension of the wards for the excited classes of patients, and $6,000 for heating