Category: Famous Hospitals
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St. Patrick’s Hospital: A legacy of Jonathan Swift
Linda SlusserWellington, Ohio, United States Today, St. Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin, known for the innovative care of its patients provides “Ireland’s largest, independent, not-for-profit mental health services.”1 When founded in 1745 by the bequest of Jonathan Swift, it was the first psychiatric hospital to be built in Ireland mandated for the care of “Idiots and…
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Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Krutika ParasarNew Jersey, United States In February 2007 a highly damaging scandal shook the renowned Walter Reed Army Medical Center to its very foundations. In a series of articles about the facility, the Washington Post reported deplorable infrastructure and unsanitary conditions in outpatient rooms and bureaucratic delays resulting in inefficiency and abandonment of soldiers.1 The…
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The Hôtel-Dieu de Beaune, a testament to the health benefits of religious charity and vineyards
Kate Elizabeth ShipmanSudarshan RamachandranBirmingham, United Kingdom Introduction Charitable hospitals are fairly ubiquitous worldwide and are often associated with religion. Indeed the earliest known institutes devoted to healing were Egyptian temples, followed by ancient Greek temples devoted to Asclepius. The modern idea of hospitals providing in-patient care stems from Christian charitable institutions founded following an ecumenical…
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Sydney Hospital
Julie GianakonPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States In May of 1797, growing discontent among sailors of the Royal Navy erupted into the infamous Mutiny of the Nore. William Redfern was nineteen years old and the surgeon’s mate on board the HMS Standard. Sympathetic to the sailors’ demands for better pay and living conditions, he had urged the…
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The Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon
Judith WagnerMunich, Germany Welcome to the jungle It is a sultry day in equatorial Africa. The oppressive heat stifles all but the most necessary conversation between the few individuals perched on a wooden plank of the canoe floating along the vast lazy stream. On the banks of the Ogooué, lush vegetation drifts past. The monkeys’…
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The hospital on Profanity Hill
Josephine EnsignSeattle, United States When Harborview Hospital in Seattle opened its doors to patients in 1931, advertising posters portrayed the striking fifteen-story Art Deco building as a shining beacon of light, the great cream-colored hope on the hill overlooking the small provincial town clinging to the shores of Puget Sound. “Above the brightness of the…
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The Klinikum Aachen
Joerg AlbrechtChicago, Illinois, United States The Klinikum of the Rhenish-Westfalian Technical University in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) evokes reactions in everyone who sees it. As seen from the nearby rolling pastures of the Dutch border, its towers abruptly obstruct the countryside like a beached aircraft carrier. Even closer, viewed against an adjacent medium-size concrete city block, the…
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The General Infirmary at Leeds
JMS PearceHull, United Kingdom “The best hospitals in the world are not those which merely use new knowledge, but those which create it.”—Attributed to Sir George Pickering, 1960 Modern hospitals originated in fourth-century Byzantium. They succeed not because they housed the grandest, lavishly equipped buildings, but because of the excellence and dedication of their staff.…
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San Francisco General Hospital: treating AIDS on Ward 5B
Jared GriffinPennsauken, New Jersey, United States Walking down Potrero Hill’s 23rd Street past the San Francisco General Hospital today, one would never suspect the history that lies beyond its brick walls. Today, AIDS has faded to the background of the national discourse, even in San Francisco, the one American city perhaps most famous for its…