I have more to tell you about my aunt’s moving to assisted living and my part in clearing her apartment.
Among her interesting papers were bills and receipts from Sioux Valley Hospital.
In 1943 my step-grandmother Minnie was hospitalized on Nov. 24. My grandfather was billed Nov. 27, Dec.r 4, 11, 15. So a bill was sent every week.
Rooms were $6 a day, operating room fee was $12, anesthesia was $5, lab fee was $14.50, and miscellaneous fees were $4.95 for the first bill. But, Grandpa was a ‘member’ so received a 20 percent reduction of $10.89; Final bill for those three days was $43.56.
For the next seven days the bill after 20 percent reduction was $63.67. The next seven days’ bill was $40.26. For the last three days the bill was $17.53. The total for 22 days was $165.02. I have not asked my aunt if she remembers why her mother was in the hospital.
In 1940 my 30-year-old uncle had goiter surgery. He was listed under his father’s name because Grandpa had the ‘membership’ and the 20 percent reduction in price. I am amazed that he was allowed to do that for an adult son.
There were no intensive care units (ICUs) in the 1940s, or even into the 1960s, so the family was required to hire a private nurse if the patient needed constant care. Dec 3, 1943, Grandpa paid nurse Lola Hannaford $11 for two 8-hour shifts of private duty; she lived at 516 W 12th St and her phone was 3861. Dec 4 he paid nurse Lillian M Roemhildt $22.50 for three 8-hour shifts and a 10-hour shift; she lived at 221 So. Prairie Ave, and her phone was 2778J. The doctor was Reagan.
I was telling this story to an older friend who is a nurse. She said the regular nurses liked it when a patient had a private nurse. They then did not have to go into that room.
The back of the receipt gives the rates: 8-hour duty $5.50; 10-hour duty $7.50; 8-hour duty if contagious disease, alcoholic or mental case was $6.50.
A cousin was an LPN (licensed practical nurse) at Sioux Valley in the early 1960s. She would work a regular 8-hour shift at the hospital and then work an 8-hour private duty shift. If the person was not so ill as to need nursing care, but only needed someone in the room because the patient tried to get out of bed or something similar, the family could hire a ‘sitter’.
So this brings another question: how did one become a ‘member’? And wouldn’t it be nice if such a thing existed today?