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Archive for the ‘Historical Events’ Category

SwedishAmerican Health System unveils new Heritage Center

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Historical Events, Hospital histories, Hospitals on June 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

SwedishAmerican Health System has unveiled its new Heritage Center, a museum that features displays and artifacts pertinent to the hospital’s history and culture. The opening of the museum coincided with the hospital’s 100th anniversary and commemorates a long history of medical service to the northern Illinois community.

Inside the center, visitors can view a timeline of the hospital’s history and special exhibits and artifacts that spotlight areas such as women’s services, obstetrics, orthopedics, cardiology, surgery, pharmacy, polio, and the school of nursing. Among the artifacts included are:

  • a bill from 1929 for a 12-day obstetrical hospital stay
  • an iron lung
  • antique wheelchairs
  • uniforms and other memorabilia from the SwedishAmerican School of Nursing
  • balance scales used when the hospital employed its own compounding pharmacists

The Heritage Center is open to the public.

SwedishAmerican has also published a 200-page history book, It Began with a Dollar, that tells the story of SwedishAmerican’s first 100 years through photos and stories.

For more information on SwedishAmerican Health System history, http://www.swedishamerican.org/history/.

Sources:

Westphal, C. SwedishAmerican celebrates 100 years with new Heritage Center. Rockford Register Star. June 3, 2011. http://www.rrstar.com/carousel/x907621789/SwedishAmerican-celebrates-100-years-with-new-Heritage-Center

SwedishAmerican Health System. A Century of Caring. http://www.swedishamerican.org/history/

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

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Not a cause for celebration: 30th anniversary of AIDS

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Health Care, Historical Events, Medical information, tagged , , , , on June 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

It was 30 years ago today that the first report of a new syndrome subsequently known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Since then, 1.7 million people in the U.S. are estimated to have been infected with HIV/AIDS, including over 615,000 who have already died and more than 1.1 million who are living with the disease today, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) data. It is estimated that every 9 1/2 minutes, someone in the U.S. is infected with HIV.

The DHHS is using this anniversary to increase awareness of the ongoing threat of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and to encourage behaviors that enhance prevention.

For more information, see the following sources:

Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles. MMWR. 30(21):1-3, June 5, 1981. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/june_5.htm

Frieden, T. R. Commemorating 30 years of HIV/AIDS. Media Statement. June 2, 2011. http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2011/s0602_hivaids30years.html?source=govdelivery

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 30 Years of AIDS. http://aids.gov/thirty-years-of-aids/

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

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Confederate field hospital recreated

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Civil War, Historic sites, Hospital histories, Hospitals, Physicians on May 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

In July of 1861, the Pringle family of Manassas, VA, saw their rented plantation home filled with the sights and sounds of wounded soldiers as it was transformed into a Confederate field hospital. The field hospital has been recreated and is open for tours as part of the statewide Civil War Sesquicentennial commemoration. For more information, see the following sources:

Prince William County: Sesquicentennial of the Virginia Civil War.  http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=010014001370005556

Ben Lomond House: From Home to Hospital . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7N_LvAHAfM&tracker=False

Plantation home transformed into Civil War field hospital. Manassas Patch. http://manassas.patch.com/articles/plantation-home-transformed-into-civil-war-field-hospital#c

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

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Great Public Health Achievements

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Health Care, Historical Events on May 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified “Ten Great Public Health Achievements” in the United States in the last century:

They have recently updated this information with noteworthy public health achievements that occurred in the United States during 2001–2010:

  • Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
  • Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases
  • Tobacco Control
  • Maternal and Infant Health
  • Motor Vehicle Safety
  • Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
  • Occupational Safety
  • Cancer Prevention
  • Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention
  • Public Health Preparedness and Response

Sources:

Ten great public health achievements — United States, 1900-1999. MMWR. 48(12):241-243, Apr. 2, 1999. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00056796.htm

Ten great public health achievements — United States, 2001 — 2010. MMWR. 60(19):619-623, May 20, 2011. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6019a5.htm?s_cid=mm6019a5_w

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

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Spectrum Health hospitals’ histories

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Historical Events, Hospital histories, Hospitals, Nurses, Physicians on May 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Online exhibits trace the histories of Spectrum Health’s Blodgett and Butterworth Hospitals from their origins in 1846 and 1873, respectively, to modern times.

See http://www.spectrumhealth.org/blodgett_timeline/index.htm and http://www.spectrumhealth.org/butterworth_timeline/

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Florence Nightingale, CEO

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Administrators, Historical Events, Hospitals, Nurses on May 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

A recent article in H&HN Daily focuses not on Florence Nightingale, the famous nurse, but on Florence Nightingale, the first hospital administrator. “While we remember Nightingale as the first nurse and as the lady with the lamp, her real legacy was created by her prodigious administrative skills and her vision for what hospitals and the nursing profession could, and should, be,” notes author Joe Tye.

During the Crimean War, Nightingale served at the Scutari hospital, an abandoned army barracks that housed sick, wounded, and dying soldiers. Described by Nightingale upon her arrival as “the Kingdom of Hell,” the hospital operated efficiently and smoothly by the end of the war. In her management of the hospital, she addressed elements and issues that were revolutionary at the time, including:

  • Medical records
  • Medical triage
  • Infection control
  • Hospital epidemiology
  • Nutrition services
  • Hospital financial management
  • Hospital architecture
  • Patient-centered care
  • Positive culture

For more information, see:

Tye, J. The mother of all hospital administrators. H&HN Daily. May 5, 2011. http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag/HHNDaily/HHNDailyDisplay.dhtml?id=5900002469

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

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From separate to equal

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Diversity, Health Care Workforce, Historical Events, Hospitals, Nurses, Physicians, tagged , , , on May 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

A new documentary produced by Truman Medical Centers, Kansas City, MO, traces the struggle toward greater racial equality in access to health services and the development of the health care workforce in Kansas City. Through personal accounts and historical records, the film looks at the dedicated black and white physicians, nurses, and public leaders who were instrumental in blazing the trail from “separate to equal” that culminated in the creation of Truman Medical Centers.

To view the film From Separate to Equal: the Creation of Truman Medical Center, see http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fromseparatetoequal.org%2F&h=533f3

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The Diary of a Civil War Nurse

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Civil War, Health Care, Historical Events, Hospitals, Nurses on April 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

A special display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History titled “So Much Need of Service—The Diary of a Civil War Nurse” tells the story of Civil War nurse Amanda Akin. Through letters to her family and a journal about her personal moments in the hospital, Akin provides a glimpse into the daily life of the several million men and women who left their families and communities behind to contribute to the Civil War effort.

On view April 22 until July 31, the display includes Akin’s personal diary and the published account of her experience. A companion web site is available at http://americanhistory.si.edu/civilwardc with a mobile map application for visitors to find Civil War sites in Washington, D.C.

To read Akin’s book, The Lady Nurse of Ward E, see http://www.archive.org/details/ladynursewarde00steagoog

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Hospital histories recently added to the Center collection

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Historical Events, Hospitals, tagged on April 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

  • The People’s Hospital: A History of Cookeville Regional Medical Center 1950-2010 (Cookeville, TN)
  • A Time to Build Up: Middle Tennessee Medical Center (Murfreesboro, TN)
  • A History of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles 1885-2010
  • The Hospital of Choice: Community Memorial Hospital (Ventura, CA)
  • Something in the Ether: A Bicentennial History of Massachusetts General Hospital 1811-2011 (Boston, MA)

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Civil Practice to Civil War. The Medical College of the State of South Carolina, 1861- 1865

Posted in Added by Jeanette Harlow, Civil War, Health Care, Health Care Workforce, Historical Events on April 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Three months after South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1861, the Medical College of the State of South Carolina (MCSSC), as it was known from 1832 until 1952, suspended classes and remained on hiatus for five years. Many of the College’s faculty, students, and alumni joined the Confederate military, getting an entirely new education in the field hospitals and on the battlefields.

A new web exhibit, “Civil Practice to Civil War. The Medical College of the State of South Carolina, 1861- 1865”, highlights the stories of but a few of the hundreds of MCSSC’s alumni, faculty and students who took their medical bags to war.

Source: ” Civil Practice to Civil War: The Medical College of the State of South Carolina, 1861-1865″ an online exhibition of the Waring Historical Library, Medical University of South Carolina Library. Charleston, SC: Waring Historical Library, 2009.

http://waring.library.musc.edu/exhibits/civilwar

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