Penobscot Bay PressCommunity Information Services

Remember When

Blue HillOriginally published in
The Weekly Packet, August 18, 2011
and The Weekly Packet, August 17, 1961
REMEMBER WHEN Excerpts from The Weekly Packet, August 17, 1961Blue Hill Hospital plans fund for improvementsThe Weekly Packet, Celebrating our 50th year

Plans for a memorial for Dr. Raymond Bliss were discussed at the annual meeting of the Blue Hill Hospital Corporation in the Blue Hill Town Hall Monday evening.

The memorial will consist of an improvement fund, established to modernize and improve the facilities of the present hospital and help it to meet fire protection standards of the state.

Actual plans for the improvements are not definite now, and will not be until the architects’ report is returned, said A. Gurnee Gallien, corporation president.

Improvements mentioned included more beds and different arrangement of beds, more X-ray and lab area, more office space and a new operating room. The interior of the hospital will be modernized with “rooms not necessarily made smaller, but more efficient,” said Gallien.

ESTIMATEDCOST of the improvements may be between $75,000 and $100,000, he said, but “as yet impossible to tell how much the improvements actually will cost.”

A committee has been formed to collect funds from those interested in contributing to the hospital or toward a memorial for Dr. Bliss.

“This is definitely not a pressure group,” said Gallien. “It presents an opportunity for people to give if they would like to give to such a memorial. Some area groups are planning to use it as a project for fund raising.”

The improvements will be done over a three-year period.

A SUMMARY of the last year’s activity found net income of the hospital increased 43 per cent—from $77,000 in 1959-60 to $111,000 in 1960-61. Expenses increased 19-1/2 per cent from $106,000 in 1959-60 to $127,000 in 1960-61.

In answer to Dr. Channing Swan’s question as to the source of increased income of the hospital—more patients or higher rates—Dr. Russell Williamson, superintendent, stated that with in-patients, the number of patients increased. In the case of out-patients, the increase in income came with more patients, more services, and increased rates.

“Laboratory fees actually decreased, he stated, but services tripled. X-ray fees were raised 17 per cent, but services also increased, raising the income of the X-ray and radiology department.”

“It totals up to be the busiest year the hospital has ever known,” said Gallien…