Laura Grady, age 10, of Burlington, Vt., for her question:
WHEN WAS THE FIRST AMERICAN HOSPITAL BUILT?
A hospital is an institution that provides medical services for a community. The first incorporated hospital in the United States was the Pennsylvania Hospital, established in Philadelphia. It received its charter in 1751 and is still in existence today.
Earlier, a hosptial was established in 1658 in New Amsterdam, now New York City. This institution wasn't incorporated, however. The first Canadian hospital opened in Quebec in 1639.
Hospitals actually go back to about 200 BC. It was then that Buddhists set up establishments in India for sick or weary travelers.
Hospitals were also established early in the Christian Era and provided aid for the poor, blind and the crippled. Religious orders operated most of these early institutions.
For hundreds of years, hospitals served chiefly as institutions for people who were too poor or too sick to be treated at home. Doctors at that time did not work in hospitals. They treated most patients in the patient's homes or in offices. '
Oldest hospital still in existence is the Hotel Dieu in Paris, France. It was founded during the A.D. 600s.
The Spanish governor of Hispaniola built the first hospital in the Western Hemisphere in 1503. Its ruins still stand in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. And the Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes founded a hospital in Mexico City that has existed since 1524.
In the early 1700s, European cities and towns started to see hospitals being built. They mainly served the poor or the victims of contagious diseases. They operated as charity institutions.
Early hospitals were dirty, crowded and dark. The principles of sanitation were unknown. Diseases spread rapidly throughout hospitals and because of the lack of knowledge about the importance of cleanliness.
Every year, about 15 percent of the people in the United States spend some time as hospital patients. Millions of others visit hospitals as outpatients. These people receive medical treatment but do not stay in the hospital.
The word hospital comes from the Latin word hospitalis, which means house or institution for guests.
In the United States today there are about 7,000 hospitals with over 1.6 million beds. Canada has about 1,400 hospitals and about 210,000 beds.
Many of today's hospitals have fewer than 200 beds. Only about 600 hospitals in the United States have over 500 beds and about 2,000 of them have between 200 and 500 beds.
Early hospitals were dirty. But during the late 1800s, doctors started to observe the principle of antisepsis, or cleanliness to reduce infections. This principle made surgery much safer and started the continuing trend of caring for patients in hospitals instead of at home.
Another feature of the late 1800s was the growth of hospital schools for nursing. Nursing schools in the United States were patterned after one founded in London by the famous English nurse Florence Nightingale.