Hospital plans : five essays relating to the construction, organization & management of hospitals / contributed by their authors for the use of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins Hospital

Date:: 1875

Credit: Hospital plans : five essays relating to the construction, organization & management of hospitals / contributed by their authors for the use of the Johns Hopkins hospital of Baltimore. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$in one block of buildings of several stories in heiglit, whether solid or embracing one or more enclosed courts, lias been en- tirely abandoned and condemned, at least so far as the construc- tion of new buildings is concerned. 2d. In the construction of every modern hospital, during the past 20 years, the separation or more perfect isolation of the various wards has been aimed at. 3d. The number of beds j)ev ward has been materiallj^ dimin- ished, ranging from twenty-four to forty. 4th. More area and cubic space per bed has been allowed. 5th. Better heating and ventilation have been attempted. 6th. That the axiom has been adopted by the best medical authorities, that natural ventilation is both more efficient and less costly than artificial; and open fires or radiators sup- plied with fresh and pure air are both desirable in connection v\dth ventilation as well as heating. 7th. That hot-water heating is the most desirable and effective mode, as auxiliarj'- in connection with open fires. 8th. That tlie most impervious material should be used for inside construction of hospitals. 9 th. That the baths and water-closets should be separated from the wards by well-ventilated lobbies, with independent heating and ventilation, and no soil or water pi]Des should pass under any part of the hosj^ital buildings. (See Herbert Hos- pital Commission.) 10th. That the pavUion system, in various forms, for hospitals has met with more favor and approval than any other. While the foregoing main points met with strong sujDport from the best medical authorities, the question of temporary (barracks or even tents) or of permanent pavilions, their com- j)lete separation and absolute disconnection from each other, seems yet to be an open one, as well as whether these pavilions should be one or two stories in height. The military-medical experience of the late wars, both at home and abroad, shows a larger percentage of recover}- in temporary wooden buildings (tents and other frail and comparatively open structures) than in more permanent and solid ones. When we consider that the majority of the sick soldiers must not only have been surgical cases, but as soldiers used to the open au-, and sleeping in tents or even without them during a campaign of$