Annual report : 1902 / Bellevue and Allied Hospitals.

  • Bellevue and Allied Hospitals.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report : 1902 / Bellevue and Allied Hospitals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    32/188 (page 26)
    chief evils then complained of were the inadequate facilities for the reception and examination of patients; the overcrowded sleeping-rooms of the house staff; the dark and unwholesome quarters of the employees, which, combined with the low wages paid, rendered it difficult to obtain a satisfactory class of attend¬ ants; the indecent conditions in the prison wards; the unsatis¬ factory methods of cooking and serving the food of the patients; the antiquated and unsanitary character of the plumbing, and 1 the inadequate protection against fire. Steps have been taken in the direction of remedying nearly all of these evils, but some of them, as pointed out in our Report for the five months ending June 30, 1902, can be removed only by the erection of new buildings in place of those now in use. The main structure, containing 718 of the 939 beds in the whole hospital, was erected in 1817 as an almshouse, and continued to be used for this purpose until 1846, since which time it has served as the principal hospital of New York. All the patients must be received and examined in one room in the basement, i poorly lighted and badly ventilated. From 80 to 100 sick people, most of them very poor, apply for admission every day, and all of them—men, women and children—must pass through the same room, there being no other available. Every variety of disease and injury, besides intoxication and insanity, is thus displayed in rapid succession, and transfers must frequently be made to the wards before proper diagnosis can be made. Considerations of quiet and privacy have to be disregarded under such circumstances, and distressing incidents cannot be altogether avoided. All that the Trustees have been able to do in the way of improving conditions here has been to have bath tubs attached to the reception-room, so that patients are no longer carried to the wards unwashed or in clothes perhaps infested with vermin.