PUBHLTH 129 Lecture 16: Public Health 129 Chapter 8 Notes
12 Oct 2016
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Describe what a hospital is, its evolution, and its role in health care delivery. Explain the legal requirements for operating a hospital. Stage 1: before 1850, almshouses (or poorhouses) served a variety of destitute people. Such institutions would not be called hospitals today, as they served a social welfare function. A small number of hospitals existed only in major cities such as philadelphia, Stage 2: some community-owned nongovernment hospitals started to replace almshouses. These hospitals were mainly financed by wealthy donors, but they served primarily the poor. Stage 3: discoveries in medical science (e. g. , anesthesia, surgical techniques, antisepsis and sterilization procedures, x-ray and other diagnostic technology) transformed hospitals into institutions of medical practice and training. Stage 4: emergence of small proprietary (for-profit) hospitals opened by physicians mainly to attract well-to-do patients. Hospitals became complex organizations and hospital administration became a formal discipline. Stage 6: mergers and other formal affiliations have created health systems in large urban areas.
