Highlights of the Spring Grove State Hospital 
Governor's Report for 1951

Budget

• Personnel:                $1,529,524

• Operating:                   $764,389

• Bond Issue Funds: $5,020,000*
                                       $7,313,913
                                                  * Ed Note: Covered construction costs, Red Bricks, White, & Hamilton Bldgs

Census

• Total Admissions                    640

• Male Admissions                    352

• Female Admissions                288

• Total Discharges                    554

• Deaths (included above)      111

• In Hospital, as of 12/31/51    2343  (1125 male; 1218 female)

• On Parole or in "Family Care"    543

• Total Census, 12/31/51            2886

Medical Care and Treatments

• Infirmary Patients (BB Infirmary Wards and Garrett Bldg) =    780

• General Surgery Operations  =  213

• Neurosurgery  (Lobotomies and Transorbital Resections) =  4*

• Radium Therapy (for Cancer) =  2

• Electric Shock Therapies, Male (88 patients) = 1643 treatments

• Electric Shock Therapies, Female (120 pts) = 1950 treatments

• Total ECT Treatments = 2593

• Insulin Shock Therapies (35 male and 29 female pts) = 2878

• Total Shock Therapy Treatments in 1951 = 5471

• Cold Wet Sheet Pack Hydrotherapy = up to 2080 (estimate)

• Intensive Psychotherapy (Average: two hours/week) = 291 Patients (approx. 10% of patient population)  81 male patients, 110 female patients

• Psychodrama (10 male patients, 38 female) = 104 sessions (8 patients/session.  Sessions lasted 1.5 - 2.0 hrs)

• Antabuse Therapy = 7 patients

• Psychological Examinations/Testing = 854

• Outpatient (psychiatric) department visits (Held in Baltimore City) = 94 visits

• Autopsies = 28

• Blood Transfusions = 91 
  * In 1951, two Lobotomies were performed on SGH patients at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and two Transorbital Resections were done at Spring Grove.  In 1952 Spring Grove opened its own Neurosurgery Service and began performing cranial surgery on site.

Training Programs

• Social Services (Affiliated with the Pennsylvania School of Social Work): 4 Students

• Psychology Department (Affiliated with Goucher College; George Washington College; and Catholic University; Unspecified number of graduate Students)

• Nursing Department: Founded "Psychiatric Aide School" in 1951.  "This is a 12-month course with 430 hours of didactic work, 1700 hours of Clinical Experience." (Enrollment unspecified.)

• Personnel Department: "1-Hour indoctrination program" held weekly for all new employees.

• Medical Students:  "Second and third year medical students from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and third and fourth year medical students from the University of Maryland Medical School attend the hospital for training in psychiatry under the supervision of hospital staff members here, and their own instructors.

• Psychiatry Training: "There is a formal training program for psychiatric physicians within the Hospital which is handled by the Superintendent, Clinical Director, and consultant lecturers in the field of psychiatry.  The physicians also receive outside training at clinics and by analysis." 

• Patient Library Established (By Volunteers)

Research

• "Measurement of Intellectual Decline in the Senile Psychoses"

• "Concerning Amygdaloidectomies on Patients of the Spring Grove Hospital"

• "The Effect of Glutamic Acid on the Adult Mental Defective Delinquent"

•  "Psychodrama"

• "A Dynamic Approach to In-Service Training in a Psychiatric Setting"

• "Group Psychotherapy Program at the Spring Grove State Hospital"

Rehabilitiation

• Occupational Therapy: Ceramics, metal work, wood work, wood-carving, weavery, painting, metal painting and art, chair-caning, loom-weaving, leather work, art embroidery, needle craft, basketry.

• Industrial Shop: printing, mattress-making, shoe-making, basketry, broom-making, tin work, window-shades and "other industrial crafts."

• Music Therapy: Orchestra work, music group therapy, rhythm class, dancing class, glee club, "electric shock music therapy" [ed. I have no idea...], Insulin Shock Group Therapy, individual Music Therapy

• Recreation: Baseball, basketball, volleyball, quoits, tennis, swimming, dances, parties, teas, story-hours, coffee hours, shuffleboard, beanbags, checkers, chess, card games, radio programs, band concerts, television, "rhythm work," and planned physical exercises.

• New staff added: one musical therapist and two occupational therapy aids.

• Approximately 2000 patients seen weekly

• Hospital orchestra conducted by a Musical Therapist.

• Shops: South Wing (Main Bldg) Shop; Cottage Group (Stone Cottages) Shop; Foster B and D Wards shop; Hillcrest Shop; Industrial Shop (now demolished -- was located behind the laundry building); Sewing Room (Ed. Note: The sewing room was evidently located in the basement of the Rice Auditorium in 1951)

Staffing/Employee Life

• Professional Nurses = 15

• Supervisors of Attendants = 17

• Hospital Charge Attendants = 54

• Hospital Attendants = 236

• Graduate Practical Nurses = 12

• Physicians = 25

• Psychology = 6

• Social Services = 15

• Technicians and Therapists = 30

• Administrative and Clerical = 34

• Food Services = 65

• Laundry and Housekeeping = 25

• Maintenance and Engineering = 57

• Farm and Dairy Workers (not including patients) = 14

• Number of African-American Staff members = 1

• "The Employee Canteen (basement of the Employee Cafeteria) provides employees with a lounge which has television, radio, pool (billiards), bowling (four lanes); shuffleboard, checkers, chess, cards and a snack bar.  A phone booth for employees is provided in the Cafeteria Building."  Note: Employees were provided with a "Meal Book" with tickets that could be used to purchase food from the cafeteria or the snack bar.

• Living quarters for employees included space in the center section and top floor of the Main Building -- as well as rooms in: The Foster-Wade Building; Stone Cottages; Garrett Building; Bland Bryant Building; Red Brick Apartments; Employee Cottages; Hillcrest Building; and a number of houses that were owned by the hospital, but were located off-campus.

• Number of employee meals served: 124,163

Major Capital Improvements in 1951

• Red Brick Apartment Building [ed. note: still extant] completed in September, 195. 14 one-bedroom and 6 two-bedroom apartments. (Cost = $234,283)

• Disturbed Women's Building (ed. note: now known as the "White Building") under construction, with estimated completion date of June 1952. (Cost = $1,073,217, including equipment/furnishings)

• Convalescent Cottages (ed. note: now known as the "Red Brick Cottages") under construction, with estimated completion date of July 1952.  (Cost for all four cottages = $1,013,343, including equipment/furnishings.) ed. Note: These buildings were not completed and occupied until 1953 or 1954.

• Admissions Building (ed. Note: Now known as the "Hamilton Building") under construction, with a projected date of completion of November 1952 [ed. Evidently, the Hamilton Building was not actually completed and occupied until 1953].  (Cost = $1,723,121)

• New Boiler -- estimated completion date of March 1952. (Cost = $281,998) ed. note: this new boiler may have been for the Red Brick Cottages.