Research


Scope and Content Note

The administrative files contain background research, correspondence, and memoranda describing program development and policies, statistical summaries, equipment records, and individual hospital program files. The series documents department responses to declining case-finding statistics, difficult field administration, and changing medical practice.

Subseries 1, Program Files. Files for the upstate General Hospital Admission Chest X-ray Program contain results of research investigating the need for legislation authorizing free care for tuberculosis victims and the need for the general hospital admission program; correspondence, memoranda, and reports discussing program development, problems, and policy; procedures manuals; case-finding statistical summaries for 1947-1963; hospital applications to enter the program; and hospital requests for equipment and reimbursement. There also are statistical summaries for the Mass Survey X-ray Program for 1957-1958. New York City program files contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, manuals, application forms, budget requests, and statistical summaries for 1955-1965.

Subseries 2, Discontinued Hospital Programs Correspondence. General correspondence and memoranda for both the upstate program and the New York City program discuss such issues as hospital facilities and administrative problems; failure to meet x-ray quotas; and merits of different x-ray formats; radiation hazards to hospital staff and patients; case-finding statistical trends; and state program policies. Hospital application requests and requests for equipment and reimbursement contain correspondence discussing eligibility for the program and political considerations in selecting and recruiting participating hospitals.

Correspondence between state program staff and hospital administrators describes each hospital's program; state-loan equipment; patient population; program administration; and problems, such as failure to meet state x-ray quotas, program termination, and disposition of state-owned x-ray equipment.

Subseries 3, Equipment Purchase and Service Files. Correspondence, purchase orders, and charts listing purchase orders describe the x-ray equipment, buses, and repair and maintenance services purchased by the Bureau of Tuberculosis Case Finding for the General Hospital Admission Chest X-ray Program and the Mass Survey Xray Program.