Sanitarium

“ During the past ten years thousands of patients have come under our treatment, both in the sanitarium and in the downtown offices, whose family physicians had declared that in order to save their lives they must submit to the knife without delay. ”

“ Desiring to make a specialty of nervous diseases, she accepted that position and rendered faithful and efficient service until April, 1892, when she returned to Wheeling and established a private sanitarium for women's and nervous diseases, which institution is now in a prosperous condition. ”

“ Perhaps no other institution has a more complete organization for diagnosis than the Battle Creek Sanitarium.
The physical inventory possible there is a very thorough and accurate stock taking of the vital functions. Many business and professional men visit the sanitarium each year in order to take full advantage of the diagnostic facilities. ”

“ Other sanitary advantages of inestimable value to the community are mentioned as likely to accrue from the establishment of such sanitariums and their proper management. Patients will, for instance, receive there a proper sanitary education, and be drilled in sanitary practice, taking which to their homes, they will become educational factors in public hygiene. ”

“ As the knowledge of hygiene and of the doctrine of cleanliness and purity in regard not only to dwellings and towns, but also in relation to food of all descriptions, including water, became known and appreciated, hospitals were found to be of even greater importance, if that is possible, to the healthy in crowded communities, than to the sick. It took many centuries before sound hygiene really began to occupy the position of importance which it is now known to possess, not only in regard to the treatment and cure of disease, but to its prevention and eradication. ”

“ Two trained nurses attend to each corridor, and connected with the hospital is a school for nurses, under the direction of the medical superintendent and the matron. From this school, nurses are provided for the town; they are not merely efficient for any duty in the vocation in which they are always engaged, either within the hospital or out of it, but from the care with which they attend to their own personal cleanliness, and the plan they pursue of changing every garment on leaving an infectious case, they fail to be the bearers of any communicable disease. ”

“ Let us take, for example, a State hospital of one thousand patients. The staff would consist of a medical superintendent, five assistant physicians, and a woman physician. In a hospital of that capacity there would never be more than one hundred patients who would be considered curable, and the number would probably not exceed sixty. More than nine hundred patients would be hopelessly incurable, for the most part the wrecks of past disease, who practically need nothing but kindly custodial care with incidental medical treatment. ”

“ In reflecting on the state of medical science, and on the aid which it has derived from the opportunities of observation afforded by congregating the sick in hospitals, it has often struck us with surprise, that so little should be known of the many interesting cases that must have occurred in provincial hospitals. If, from the establishment of these institutions, faithful records of the valuable cases that have occurred in them had been handed down to us, our present limited knowledge of morbid anatomy, the only correct elucidator of disease, would have been greatly extended. ”

“ The Sanitary distributes the supplies sent, embraces Sanitary Inspection by medical men of general hospitals, Sanitary Inspection by medical men of camps and field hospitals, Special Relief with all its agencies and in all its various departments, and the Hospital Directory with its register and its 500,000 names. Every dollar expended meets some real want, or helps to save a life. Do the people wish this agency in behalf of the soldiers in tent, hospital, and on the battle field—at the East—West—South, to cease? ”

“ These principles, as civilization grew, education improved, and the tastes and requirements of the common people were developed, made men and women of many races realize that the treatment of disease in buildings set apart exclusively for the care of the sick was, in fact, a necessity in urban districts. The establishment of a hospital freed the streets of the abuses attendant upon beggars and other poor creatures, who made their ailments the chief ground of appeal for alms. ”

“ The care and skill with which the sick are treated in hospitals, infirmaries, and even private houses, are far greater than they were; the improvement and extension of nursing are more than can be described; the care which the rich bestow on the poor, whom they visit in their own homes, is every day saving health and life; and, even more effectual than any of these, is the work done by the medical officers of health, and all the sanitary authorities now active and influential in every part of the kingdom. ”

“ The general health of the institution has been good, and no disease of a hospital or local origin has existed. Although the wards of the hospital are crowded beyond their intended limits, care has been taken to secure ample ventilation, and to this, together with good management in the treatment of patients, the satisfactory sanitary condition of the hospital may be attributed. ”

“ Every one, who knows anything of the subject at the present moment, is well aware, that no matter where it may be situated, whether opened at the first need, or the creation of yesterday, still “our Hospital” will be, to the speaker, the most perfect in arrangement, discipline, and ventilation; the medical staff connected with it the most efficient, skilful and faithful; the corps of subordinates the most competent, systematic and thorough. Such is human nature, and we all find the weakness a pardonable one. ”

“ New schools of medicine and new hospitals were rising, and the officers connected with this hospital were desirous—I am quoting their own words:—"That the liberal support which the Institution receives from a generous public should be repaid to society by a continual provision of skilful practitioners, made such by a knowledge to be acquired in the Hospital, being convinced that there is an intimate connection between the promotion of its immediate purposes and the extension of that science on which the relief and prevention of disease depend." ”

“ The medical officers attached to the hospital in our model city are allowed to hold but one appointment at the same time, and that for a limited period. Thus every medical man in the city obtains the equal advantage of hospital practice, and the value of the best medical and surgical skill is fairly equalised through the whole community.
In addition to the hospital building is a separate block, furnished with wards, constructed in the same way as the general wards, for the reception of children suffering from any of the infectious diseases. ”

“ Have first your infirmary or hospital.
The T.B. man needs special treatment, nursing care and dietetic care. One of the chief things to give to a T.B. infirmary is good dietetic care;—place the food before your patient in an appetizing manner; too much will disgust him.
Then have your ambulant section and sub-divide it into the section in which there is clinical activity of the disease, and into the section in which the clinical condition of the disease is quiescent. ”

“ It is all very well to patch up the diseased man with drugs or what not. But at best that is a makeshift method. The Consumptive Sanatoriums have aroused enthusiasm, and they also are all very well. But the Charity Organisation Society has shown that only about 50 per cent. of those who pass through such institutions become fit for work. It is not more treatment of disease that we want, it is less need for treatment. And a State Medical Service is the only method by which Medicine can be brought into close touch with Hygiene. ”

“ Hospitals and infirmaries would be alike nationalised, and, in place of the present antagonism between hospitals and the bulk of the medical profession, every doctor would be in touch with a hospital, thus having behind him a fully equipped and staffed institution for all purposes of diagnosis, consultation, treatment, and research, also serving for a centre of notification, registration, preventive and hygienic measures. ”

“ Services You will also be entitled to all forms of treatment in general or special hospitals, whether as an in-patient or as an out-patient. These include, for instance, maternity care, sanatorium treatment, care of mental health, and all surgical operations. The help of consultants and specialists of all kinds will be made available to you as national resources allow, whether at hospital, at special health centres, or at home.
Your doctor will arrange this help when you need it. ”

“ It is therefore very difficult to induce people to take an active interest in one of these hospitals, but we look forward to the time when, owing to the activity of the medical officers of health who have immediate charge of buildings of this kind, this difficulty may be overcome, when the avoidable dangers and risks and the appalling discomfort which a poor sufferer from a severe infectious disease in a rural district may suddenly have to encounter under existing circumstances, would be rendered impossible. ”

“ Special Hospitals.—Up to about 1840 the general hospital was, speaking generally, the only hospital in existence. Twenty years later, as the population increased and medical science became more and more active, some of the more ardent members of the medical profession, especially amongst the younger men, pressed continuously for opportunities to develop the methods of treatment in regard to special diseases for which neither accommodation nor appliances were at that time forthcoming in general hospitals. ”

“ The flexibility of hospitals is a matter of importance. The Public Health Service has divided its hospitals into three general groups, that is, hospitals for general medicine and surgery, for pulmonary tuberculosis and for neuro-psychiatry. ”

“ If they be too weak to wash and comb themselves, it is to be done by their Nurses.
2. Every Patient is to be shaved and have clean Linen twice a Week, or oftener if requisite.
3. They are punctually to obey the Directions given them, and to take the Medicines ordered by the Physician; and none to be allowed to go out of the Hospital without a Ticket of Leave signed by the Physician, Surgeon, or Apothecary, of the Hospital.
4. They must commit no Disorder or Riot, but in all Respects behave themselves well. ”

“ I really wish some one would establish an hospital for the cure, or, at least, the investigation of p. 16this disease; many, if taken in time, would be saved. Suffering, the most intense, but, perhaps, the best endured, from the very nature of the complaint, would be materially lessened, and a fresh and noble field opened for an almost new branch of our profession. ”

“ If separation from the influences under which the disease occurs is necessary, and that cannot be secured at home, I usually select, as the case demands and opportunity is afforded, a private house with good nurses, a small private hospital, or an insane asylum where the general influences are the healthiest, where the medical treatment is in accordance with the best modern principles, and where the construction of the hospital is most nearly adapted to the requirements of the present day. ”

“ It is intended that the hospital should be a model to the whole kingdom of what such an institution ought to be; the latest and best of modern appliances, both sanitary and surgical, will be introduced. There will be in and out departments, completely isolated one from the other, though with a door of communication. From sixty to seventy beds will be provided, special wards for a certain class of cases, adequate waiting-rooms for out-patients, and the necessary rooms for the officers and medical attendants, all being on an ample scale. ”

“ The hospitals are furnished and stored with all things that are convenient for the ease and recovery of the sick; and those that are put in them are looked after with such tender and watchful care, and are so constantly attended by their skilful physicians, that as none is sent to them against their will, so there is scarce one in a whole town that, if he should fall ill, would not choose rather to go thither than lie sick at home. ”

“ To avoid the injurious moral effects of hospitals on the characters of the inmates, and to prevent such bad sanitary conditions in hospitals as are sure to result in retarding cures, and often in the generation of fatal hospital-diseases, it is necessary to have hospitals constructed and managed in accordance with the teachings of sanitary science. ”

“ The character of cases treated and the nature of operations performed embrace all the variety of diseases to which women are peculiarly liable, and for the treatment of which this institution was established.
The general health of the hospital has been remarkably good, not a single death occurring among the patients admitted during the year. ”

“ To-day the modern hospital is an object of general admiration, with its high standard of cleanliness and [286] efficiency; and few of us would have any hesitation if a doctor advised us to go into hospital for an operation. Seventy or a hundred years ago the case was very different; and when we read the statistics of the early nineteenth century, gathered by the surgeons who had known its horrors, it is hard to believe that we are not back among the worst abuses of the Middle Ages. ”

“ The health department of a modern city is charged with a double duty: it has to care for cases of disease, and it has to suggest and enforce laws to keep the city sanitary. The former task—the treatment of sickness—is much more widely recognized as the proper function of the medical profession ”