Hospital

A hospital today is an institution for professional health care provided in part by physicians and nurses.

History

In ancient cultures religion and medicine were linked. The earliest known institutions aiming to provide cure were Egyptian temples. Greek temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius might admit the sick, who would wait for guidance from the god in a dream. The Romans adopted his worship. Under his Roman name Æsculapius, he was proved with a temple (291 B.C.) on a island in the Tiber in Rome, where similar rites were performed.

Related Topics:
Egyptian - Greek temple - Asclepius - Romans - Tiber - Rome

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The first institutions created specifically to care for the sick appeared in India. Brahmantic hospitals were established in Sri Lanka by 431 B.C., and King Ashoka founded 18 hospitals in Hindustan c.230 B.C. The latter were provided with physicians and nurses, and supported from royal funds.

Related Topics:
India - Sri Lanka - Ashoka - Hindustan

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The first teaching hospital, however, where students were authorized to methodically practice on patients under the supervision of physicians as part of their education, was the Academy of Gundishapur in the Persian Empire. Moreover, "to a very large extent, the credit for the whole hospital system must be given to Persia".(A medical history of Persia, C. Elgood, Cambridge U Press, p. 173.)

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The Romans created valetudinaria for the care of sick slaves, gladiators and soldiers around 100 B.C. The adoption of Christianity as the state religion of the empire drove an expansion of the provision of care, but not just for the sick. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. urged the Church to provide for the poor, sick, widows and strangers. It ordered the construction of a hospital in every cathedral town. Among the earliest were those built by the physician Saint Sampson in Constantinople and by Basil, bishop of Caesarea. The latter was attached to a monastery and provided lodgings for poor and travelers, as well as treating the sick and infirm. There was a separate section for lepers.

Related Topics:
Christianity - First Council of Nicaea - 325 - Saint Sampson - Constantinople - Basil, bishop of Caesarea - Monastery

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Medieval hospitals in Europe followed a similar pattern. They were religious communities, with care provided by monks and nuns. (An old French term for hospital is hôtel-Dieu, "hostel of God.") Some were attached to monasteries. Others were independent and had their own endowments, usually of property, which provided income for their support. Some were multi-function. Others were founded specifically as leper hospitals, or as refuges for the poor or for pilgrims. Not all cared for the sick.

Related Topics:
Europe - Monk - Nun

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Meanwhile Muslim hospitals developed a high standard of care between the eighth and twelfth centuries A.D. Hospitals built in Baghdad in the ninth and tenth centuries employed up to 25 staff physicians and had separate wards for different conditions. State-supported hospitals also appeared in China during the first millennium A.D.

Related Topics:
Muslim - Baghdad - China

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In Europe the medieval concept of Christian care evolved during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into a secular one, but it was in the eighteenth century that the modern hospital began to appear, serving only medical needs and staffed with physicians and surgeons.

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Britain led the field. Guy's Hospital was founded in London in 1724 from a bequest by wealthy merchant Thomas Guy. Other hospitals sprang up in London and other British cities over the century, many paid for by private subscriptions. In the British American colonies the Pennsylvania General Hospital was chartered in Philadelphia in 1751, after £2,000 from private subscription was matched by funds from the Assembly. In Continental Europe the new hospitals were generally built and run from public funds. The Charité was founded in 1710. Whatever the financing, by the mid-nineteenth century most of Europe and the United States had established a variety of public and private hospital systems.

Related Topics:
Britain - Guy's Hospital - London - 1724 - Pennsylvania General Hospital - Philadelphia - 1751 - Charité - United States

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