Medicine: Hospital-Hotel

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Last week's news of a $4,000,000 combined hospital and hotel building being projected in Manhattan gave wit-stirring material to newspaper columnists. The vision of a high jinx victim being trundled from his bedroom to the convenient emergency ward was irresistible.

The fact is that Manhattan, like all large U. S. communities, lacks adequate hospital facilities, especially for private patients. In Manhattan only 19% of the beds are in private rooms while 30% of the patients want such private beds. Of these the new institution, Doctors' Hospital, will have plenty, together with hotel accommodations for convalescents and for relatives who might wish to live near the patients. Its entrepreneurs include Dr. Alexander Lambert, chairman; Guion H. Fountain (formerly of the National City Bank), president.