Colorado
Population, 653,506. Number of physicians, 1690. Ratio, 1:328.
Number of medical schools, 2.
DENVER: Population, 158,329.
(1) Denver and Gross College of Medicine. Organized by consolidation 1909. Nominally the medical department of the University of Denver, with which institution it has, however, only a six months' contract; to all intents and purposes, a proprietary school, managed by its own faculty.
Entrance requirement: Less than high school graduation, loosely enforced.
Attendance: 109, over one-half from Colorado.
Teaching staff: 44 professors and 35 of other grade, none of them giving their whole time to teaching.
Resources available for maintenance: The school has no resources but fees, amounting to $12,624 per annum (estimated).
Laboratory facilities: Its equipment consists of a chemical laboratory of the ordinary medical school type, a dissecting-room, containing a few subjects as dry as leather, a physioogical laboratory with slight equipment, and the usual pathology and bacteriology laboratories. There is a total absence of scientific activity. The rooms are poorly kept. A few cases of books are found in the college office behind the Counter.
Clinical facilities: The college owns a new and exceedingly attractive dispensary building. Separate rooms nicely equipped are occupied by the various specialties. The attendance averages 90 a day; the records are inadequate. There is an out-patient obstetrical service.
For hospital facilities the school depends largely on the County Hospital, the management of which is political. Clinics are held daily from 8.30 to 10, "purely through courtesy." Students from all schools merely "look on;" they are "not much at the bedside." Obstetrical work is limited, post-mortems rare. Hospital staff appointments are secured through "pull;" the college must take into the faculty the men who are already on the hospital staff. Supplementary opportunities are furnished by several local institutions. In several of these, however, the clinics are not regularly scheduled: "announcements appear upon the bulletin board of the college."
Date of visit: April, 1909.
BOULDER: Population, 9,652.
(2) University of Colorado School of Medicine. Organized 1888. An integral part of the university.
