by Paula Rapp

Created on: July 26, 2008

The Hospitality of Hospitals:

The words hospital and hospitality predate the 14th century as used in vocabulary. The fact that hospitality is defined as being readily receptive or offering a generous welcome and pleasant environment, enthusiastically lends itself to what a hospital was envisioned to be.
Historical examination of hospitals in the 1700 and 1800s on the other hand, often describes them as localities of dreaded impurity filled with shards of exiled humans.

Charity hospitals as they were known existed in the community and were maintained by volunteers and trustees who predominately focused on promoting morals rather than health. Such hospitals, which were usually akin to almshouses, were solely for the "worthy" poor and destitute and were often unhygienic spaces where the insane and rats ran free.

Hospital Icon
Although the physical hospital is comprised solely of brick and mortar, it has become an incredible metaphorical icon highlighting the advancement of modern medicine and the health care profession. Previous to the Civil War, a practicing physician may have not set foot in a hospital throughout his entire career in medicine, yet subsequently one could hardly call themselves a doctor without doing so.

Hospitals were once exclusively charitable enterprises. Although the "charity case" needed to be initially approved both on a moral and worthiness spectrum, most people in need were able to obtain shelter and care in the community hospitals. Yet because the medical sciences and doctors were unequipped to offer definitive curative therapies, the "treatments" focused on moral reform and religious endeavors and hospitals were not viewed by the public as generous and comfortable surroundings.

Wage wards as they became known as, and the ability to buy care soon became a primary focus for the charitable institutions. Funding or lack thereof became an issue for the hospitals and occurred when medicine finally was at a point to offer more effective treatments and expanded resources to its residents. As such, the middle and upper class slowly began to realize the utility of the hospitals and physicians vied for entry as an opportunity to enhance their education and increase the size of their private practice.

Modern Hospitality
The sweeping modifications in hospitals are due predominately to the age of scientific discovery coupled with the relationship between therapeutics and the patient. Certainly there would be much debate among society as to whether hospitals

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>