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If there are any authorities on rural or community hospitals the Commonwealth Fund should qualify as one of them, for it has assisted in the building of 14 such hospitals in the United States. It is with this experience and with the problem faced by smaller communities that this book deals. Although there has been a rapid growth in the number of small hospitals, this growth will without doubt increase in the future.
The actual physical plant of the hospital presents only a small part of the problem that a community must consider. First, the needs of the community must be studied; second, an adequate and cooperative medical staff must be organized, and, third, a sound financial basis must be established. Only when these preliminary steps have been taken can the physical plant of the hospital and its administration be considered.
The authors deal intelligently with all these problems as