Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

6-1944

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department (Legacy)

Division of Social Administration

Committee Chair

Cronin, John J.

Committee Co-Chair (if applicable)

Pruitt, Annie Louise

Subject

Waverly Hills Sanatorium (Louisville, Ky.); Tuberculosis--Patients--Kentucky--Louisville

Abstract

Why do patients leave tuberculosis sanatoria against the doctor's advice? This study of home conditions of patients who left Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Waverly Hills, Kentucky, against the doctor's advice is an attempt to answer that question. We believed that by studying data regarding age, sex, occupation and marital status of the patients who left against the doctor's advice, the Sanatorium and the community could come to some understanding of the reasons for the patient's actions. How many patients were leaving against the doctor's advice? What was the size of the problem? Did these patients have active or arrested cases of tuberculosis? How many were in need of help from social agencies at the time of discharge or at the time of admission? Were they a source of infection to the community? How long did they stay at the Sanatorium? Were the reasons the patients left within the control of the Sanatorium or beyond the control of the Sanatorium? Other questions were those in connection with the patient's ability to adjust within the community to which he had returned. What clinic supervision did they have after leaving the Sanatorium? What follow-up was there by the Sanatorium? Did they return to work? If so, was it injurious to their health? What was the patient's attitude toward his family? To what kind of homes did they return? These and many other questions as well entered into the initial thinking on the study. Dr. Brock, Medical Director of Waverly Hills, hoped that interviews with these patients to secure their reasons for leaving would disclose the underlying factors of the problem.

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