Historical Developments of Hospitals

RUNNING HEAD: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF HOSPITALS 1

Unit 1 Individual Project

HCM630-1202B

Dawn Avery

April 29, 2012

Historical Developments of Hospitals 2

Abstract

This paper will discuss the historical developments of hospitals in the United States and the historical developments of hospitals in a country outside the United States. It will compare and contrast the hospitals from each country and discuss which has evolved to provide patient care more effectively. It will also show why one provides better care than the other.

Historical Developments of Hospitals 3

Introduction

From the beginning of civilization, the need for medicine and surgery has been needed because diseases preceded humans on the earth. Early medicine was associated with religious services or ceremonies. Priests were physicians or medicine men who ministered to the spirit, mind and body. Around 4000 years ago medicine became an organized entity in Mesopotamia. Hippocrates is known as the first to take a rational non-religious approach to medicine and in 480 BC started performing surgical operations and keeping detailed records of his patients, descriptions of diseases such as tuberculosis and ulcers. The temples of the Greek God of Medicine became medical schools for practitioners and resting places for patients who were under observations or treatment. These temples served as infirmaries for those that were convalescing.

The first hospitals known as valetudinarians were created for the military in which wounded soldiers were moved to after being treated in the field. These stone and wooden structures were carefully planned and were stocked with instruments, supplies and medicines (ebookbrowse.com, 2011).

United States Hospitals

In the early nineteenth century, most Americans gave birth, endured illnesses and surgeries at home because they lived in rural societies and hospitals were very rarely utilized. Hospitals in the United States emerged from almshouses that provided care and custody for the poor who were ill. Bellevue Hospital started 1736 as a six bed almshouse in New York City.

The American hospitals as we know them emerged over the course of about sixty years from the time of the civil war. Physician staffed hospitals, with specialized departments and services, professional nursing staff were products of the Second Industrial Revolution due to urbanization, massive immigration and rapid strides in medicine. Asepsis (sterilizing) opened new horizons for surgeons in 1880 (NAPH, 2012).

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In the 1920's a hospital was a place that Americans hoped an illness might be treated and cured. During this time, not-for-profit hospitals started reducing their traditional roles of charity because they wanted to create an institution that would attract upper middle class clients. Public hospitals were committed to treat the poor. Before the 1920's all hospitals operated with very little money, physicians would donate their time, and nurses