“Requests for aid from stricken communities should be made to the nearest representative of the Department, who will refer them to the physician in charge of the Epidemic Emergency District. This includes calls for doctors, nurses, aids, materials and any other form of relief. The Department will make a supreme effort to satisfy all such needs as rapidly as possible. However, where these are at hand, they should be obtained locally. * * *
“All attendants should wear masks. * * *
“Treatment of Influenza and Pneumonia. * * *”
In furthering the foregoing plans and regulations Dr. Charles H. Miner of Wilkes-Barré, who was at that time, and had been for ten years, County Medical Inspector of the State Department of Health for Luzerne County, was appointed on October 8, by the Acting Commissioner of Health (Dr. B. Franklin Royer), “to take full charge of the organization and co-ordination of all work in District No. 5,” composed of Luzerne and Columbia Counties, with headquarters at Wilkes-Barré.
The same day the Acting Commissioner telephoned from Harrisburg to the County Medical Inspector at Wilkes-Barré, informing the latter of his appointment as aforementioned, and asking him to request Maj. Gen. C. B. Dougherty of Wilkes-Barré to aid him in arranging and setting forward plans for the proper handling of the situation in the 5th District.
General Dougherty responded promptly to the call for his services, and he and the County Medical Inspector soon concluded, in view of the fact that the regular and permanent hospitals located in the 5th District were just about “crowded to their limits” with influenza and pneumonic patients, and that the new cases reported each day in the various communities were becoming more numerous, that it would be necessary to establish and equip several emergency hospitals.
It was decided to establish an Emergency Hospital in Wilkes-Barré (where, on October 8, sixty new cases of influenza had been reported to the County Medical Inspector), and the armory of the 9th Regiment, National Guard of Pennsylvania, located on South Main Street, was selected for the purpose.
For some time then the 2d Infantry, Pennsylvania Reserve Militia (Col. S. E. W. Eyer commanding), had occupied the armory as its headquarters. On October 8 Colonel Eyer turned over the armory to the representatives of the Department of Health, and immediately, under the direction and supervision of General Dougherty, the work of thoroughly scrubbing and cleaning the building from top to bottom was begun and was rapidly completed. Then the Shepherd Construction Company of Wilkes-Barré began the erection of four wards on the drill floor of the armory.
Each of these wards was 21×27 feet in area by 10 feet in height, the walls, or partitions, being constructed of hemlock studding covered with beaver board. Each ward had a capacity of fifteen cots,[[1]] whereby ample air space was allowed for each patient. Considerable plumbing work had to be installed in order to facilitate the efforts of nurses and attendants in giving proper care and attention to the hospital patients. This plumbing work, when completed, represented an outlay of $605.49. Also, the lighting facilities of the armory not being sufficient, it was necessary to install additional wiring and lights throughout the entire building, which was done at an expense of $190.
[1]. This arrangement provided accommodations for sixty patients, which, later on, were found to be insufficient to meet the demands for admission to the hospital; whereupon four more wards of the same dimensions and materials were erected. These wards, when completed, gave the hospital eight wards with a total capacity of 120 beds. Of these eight wards six were used for patients in general as admitted, one was used as an isolation ward (where patients in the last stage of pneumonia were placed), and one was used as a ward for convalescents.