U.S. city and county hospitals generally have been hard enough put to it to provide enough beds for the chronically ill; they have spent little effort fitting those patients for useful, self-sufficient life. Last week, reporting on a year's trial program of rehabilitation, New York City's Commissioner of Hospitals, Dr. Marcus D. Kogel, showed how much difference a change of emphasis could make.
Beginning a year ago, doctors attending the 1,500 patients at Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Welfare Island in New York's East River nominated 100 candidates to start rehabilitation training. Patients chosen ranged...