Twenty-Eight Years and Eleven Million Visits

Abstract

T HE John Hancock Visiting Nurse Service was started by the company in 1925 with the thought in mind that a health service for the benefit of the 5 million policyholders then insured under industrial policies might prove a constructive factor in reducing the existing high maternity mortality rates, and might also contribute to the reduction of the general death rates. Many of the industrial policyholders at that time were in the low income group and did not have access to, or information about, those facilities which tend to reduce the incidence and duration of illness, prevent illness, and promote health. The aim, therefore, of the visiting nurse service as outlined by the company at its inception was to assist in accomplishing these three ends. The Board of Directors of the insurance company also hoped that through a companion health educational service which aimed to inculcate good health habits and to provide general health information, both the morbidity and ultimately the death rates among the industrially insured groups might be reduced. So there were really two facets to the program-the direct services given to policyholders through the visiting nurse service and the related health education activities. The policyholders of the industrial classification were selected to receive these two benefits because at that time the company's mortality and morbidity experience was higher in this particular group than among ordinary policyholders.