of home and office medical care for the indigent and the medically
indigent. We are providing nursing home care for public assistance
clients. We are particularly proud that these services have been inte-
grated into a continuous system. But with all of this, our task is not
finished, and we must continue our efforts to meet the special medical
needs of the aged.

I am strongly convinced that emphasis needs to be placed upon
home care services. It is neither humane nor economical to treat an
older sick person in a hospital when he can be treated as well at home.
By treating him in the familiar home environment, or speedily returning
him there after hospital treatment, the patient is happier and the cost
of hospitalization is reduced.

I am concerned about the increasing numbers of chronically ill and
elderly disabled persons in general hospitals, chronic-disease hospitals,
mental hospitals and nursing homes. An adequate auxiliary home-care
service for such patients would greatly relieve our over-burdened insti-
tutions. Concern with this problem prompted me to provide funds in
my last budget for further research on the subject of nursing homes and
their place in the care of aged people—research to determine especially
whether many suffering from some degree of senility might not be cared
for better outside of mental institutions.

Our problem in planning, it seems to me, is to create a program in
which we place the right patient in the right bed at the right time and
for the right length of time. It is also imperative that every community
resource be employed in this effort. Otherwise, it will become finan-
cially impossible to build enough hospitals to accommodate our older
people in years to come.

At this moment, my office has under consideration a plan offered by a
brilliant young physician, Dr. Mason Lord, of the Baltimore City Hos-
pitals, and sent to me with the recommendation of the State Department
of Health and the Commission on the Aging. Its purpose is to insure
the best possible care for our older citizens, and at the same time to
assure the release of patients from intensive hospital care just as soon as
conditions will permit it.

I have noted the fact that many of the older people of the country
have incomes insufficient to supply their basic needs. Many plans are
being advanced to remedy this condition. On the federal level, it has
been proposed that the Social Security Act be amended to increase
retirement benefits, that federal assistance be offered to provide decent

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