What a Hospital Looked Like 100 Years Ago

Hospitals in many states were segregated by race until the late 1960s, and hospitals used by nonwhites had inadequate facilities. Some hospitals were also segregated by gender.

Most of the hospitals were in cities — cities in the United States created so-called isolation hospitals in the 18th century — and these institutions began to receive public aid in the early 20th century.

Until the 20th century, hospitals were places associated with the poor and where people went to die. The wealthy were treated at their homes by doctors who made house calls 100 years ago. Physicians were not paid by hospitals. They volunteered to treat the poor to help build their reputation.

Religious groups, mostly in the Northeast, opened their own hospitals to accommodate dietary restrictions not met at other hospitals. Catholic hospitals didn’t serve meat on Fridays, and meals at Jewish institutions were kosher.

Hospitals today devote much attention to managing pain, as patients are treated with opioids and other medications. That was not the case 100 years ago, when pain care was overlooked.

If women gave birth in a hospital 100 years ago, they could stay there as many as 10 days. Today, women are discharged one day after giving birth, if there are no complications.

There were no nurse practitioners 100 years ago. Nurse practitioners have relieved doctors from responsibilities of prescribing medications, diagnosing diseases, and starting treatment.

Hard to believe now, but smoking was common throughout hospitals 100 years ago. People smoked in cafeterias and waiting rooms. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was the first hospital in the United States to ban smoking on its campus in the early 2000s.

Technology has raised the number of outpatient surgical procedures. Today, some patients with kidney disease can have their dialysis treatments at home.

One hundred years ago, doctors had the last word on treatment and patients had no say. Doctors withheld information from patients under the belief that informing them of their condition would cause psychological damage. Physicians also didn’t think patients could understand and or would be able to make decisions about their treatment.

There was little protection during X-ray procedures in the early part of the 20th century.

Even though doctors understood the importance of cleanliness during an operation, many performed procedures in their street clothes and an apron.

Most babies were born at home 100 years ago and delivered with the aid of a midwife or doctor. The first “maternity hospital” opened in 1914.

When the elderly got sick they were cared for at home by their families instead of in hospitals.

Doctors would scrub their hands before a procedure, but they did not wear rubber gloves. Surgical masks were not worn. Surgical instruments were cleaned in boiling water, which killed most germs, but might have left some spores. Today, hospitals sterilize instruments through a process called autoclaving (saturated steam under high pressure) that eradicates microorganisms and spores.

There was a surge of public hospital funding and construction in the early part of the 20th century. Census data from that time indicates greater awareness for the need for public support for hospitals.

While there were still no nurse practitioners 100 years ago, nurses were becoming more critical to the operation of hospitals 100 years ago, and hospitals became centers for nursing education.

Surgeries could be viewed by the public in the 19th and early 20th centuries in open-air operating theaters, with nothing separating the public and the surgeons.

The perception of hospitals as unsanitary places for the destitute was changing in the early 20th century. However, hospitals still had multi-bed wards. Hospital officials made various attempts to improve the ward configuration and included so-called quiet rooms. Hospitals were beginning to address the need for private rooms in public hospitals to separate those with infectious diseases.

If a surgeon wanted to get a blood-free view of the body part where he was going to operate (nearly all surgeons were male at the time), a member of the operating group used a hand-cranked pump to suck the blood out. Today, an electrically powered vacuum performs the task.

We associate bloodletting as a treatment for disease hundreds of years ago. However, the procedure was still used in the early 20th century.

Until the 1980s, nurses wore small white caps as part of their uniform. This ended when nurses began wearing scrubs.

Anesthesia was being used more frequently and efficiently 100 years ago. In 1914, Dr. Dennis E. Jackson developed a carbon dioxide-absorbing anesthesia system that used less anesthetic than previous methods.

Hospitals in the South lacked the wealthy donors of the North, and many were for-profit institutions and were physician-owned.

Hospitals were increasing in number in the United States 100 years ago, but there was no regulation of the industry. Hospitals were free to oversee their own expenses, what to charge patients, and how to collect the bill.

The Band-Aid was invented by Earle Dickson, a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson. He made the bandage because his wife was accident-prone. At the time people created bandages with gauze and tape. Johnson & Johnson put Band-Aid on the market in 1921.

We know cocaine as a drug that is used recreationally. In the first part of the 20th century, it was used in hospitals to treat hemorrhoids, indigestion, tooth aches, appetite suppression, and fatigue.

In the early 20th century, doctors injected malaria germs into the bloodstream of patients to treat syphilis.

One hundred years ago, you could not get a vaccine for diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis, tetanus, yellow fever, influenza, polio, or typhus. Insulin was first used for diabetes in 1922. Penicillin would not be discovered until 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming.