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Archive for the ‘Historic trends’ Category

Great public health achievements–worldwide, 2001-2010

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Health Care, Historic trends, Public health, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Previously, we posted a link to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s report on ten great public health achievements in the U.S. The CDC has also identified public health achievements worldwide:

  • Reductions in Child Mortality
  • Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
  • Access to Safe Water and Sanitation
  • Malaria Prevention and Control
  • Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS
  • Tuberculosis Control
  • Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases
  • Tobacco Control
  • Increased Awareness and Response for Improving Global Road Safety
  • Improved Preparedness and Response to Global Health Threats

Source: Ten great public health achievements–Worldwide, 2001-2010. MMWR. 60(24):814-818, June 24, 2011. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6024a4.htm

Posted by the Center for Hospital and Healthcare Administration History, (312) 422-2050, chhah@aha.org.

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The history of public hospitals

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Historic trends, Hospital histories, Hospitals on August 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Public hospitals as we know them today grew out of municipal and community efforts to care for the chronically ill and disabled. Bellevue Hospital in New York City started in 1736 as a six-bed ward in the New York City Almshouse. To trace the evolution of these “safety net” hospitals, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health System published “A history of public hospitals in the United States” in The SafetyNet magazine. To view this and other historical materials, see http://www.naph.org/Homepage-Sections/Explore/History.aspx.

Source: Simmons, J. G. A history of public hospitals in the United States. The SafetyNet. 20(1):6-10, Spring 2006.

Posted by the Center for Hospital and Healthcare Administration History, chhah@aha.org, (312) 422-2050.

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The new ER, after 50 years

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Health Care, Health care utilization, Health Care Workforce, Historic trends, Hospitals, tagged , , , on June 16, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Authors of a perspectives piece in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine take a look at the evolution of the hospital emergency room (ER) over the last 50 years. They point back to a 1958 study conducted by leaders at Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, that found that ER use had increased at most hospitals nearly 400 percent between 1940 and 1955, even in communities with little or no population growth.

Almost half of the respondents attributed this increase in ER vistis to ”the inability of patients to reach physicians on weekends, nights or holidays for either emergency or urgent appointments and the orientation of the public to the hospital as a place where one can receive aid at all times.”

The intervening years have seen many changes in ER operations, staffing patterns, therapeutic modalities, technology, and complexity of care. The authors of the current article characterize the ER as a microcosmic view of the community’s health care system, noting that “the quickest way to assess the strength of a community’s public health, primary care, and hospital systems is to spend a few hours in the emergency department.”

Source: Kellerman, A. L., and Martinez, R. The ER, 50 years on. New England Journal of Medicine. 364(24):2278-2279, June 16, 2011. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1101544

Posted by the Center for Hospital and Healthcare Administration History, (312) 422-2050, rc@aha.org.

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