As Allen Countians look ahead and consider approval of a quarter-cent countywide sales tax to help pay for a new hospital, a 1949 bill from Iola’s first hospital, St. John’s, shows how much healthcare economics have changed.
Marie Miller of Chanute permitted a peek back in time when she sent the Register a bill she had saved from the hospital that year.
Total cost for an emergency appendectomy and an eight-day stay was $72.70. Dr. Randal Weed, Humboldt, charged $100 to perform surgery, which Miller said was rather involved because of complications.
She suffered the attack the night of July 22 as she was doing up her hair.
A sharp pain produced an equally sharp scream which got her husband, Everett, hopping.
The Millers opted for the Iola hospital over Chanute’s Johnson Clinic, but not before a stop at police headquarters where Everett told officers of his wife’s condition and that he was headed for St. John’s as fast as his car would run.
“Don’t try to stop me,” he told officers.
At the hospital Miller’s problem was quickly diagnosed and resolved.
A breakdown of the bill St. John’s issued was: $48 for room and care for eight days; $12.50 for use of the operating room; $4.75 for laboratory work; $3 for dressings; $4.25 for medicines; 20 cents for laundry.
For comparison’s sake, the daily rate for a room at Allen County Hospital today is $906.
When Miller was well enough to be dismissed, a Chanute ambulance was called to take her home. The charge? Not a penny.
“They did things that way back then,” said Miller, who will celebrate her 86th birthday in October. Everett Miller died in 1993.
Health care economics different 61 years ago
