The design variations evolved over the war as flaws were discovered and rectified in future construction projects. Satterlee was said to be a pet project of General Hammond and was quickly built. CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL BEDS SERIESTo us, greater cleanliness and ventilation leading to greater health seems an obvious connection, but then it was one in a series of significant steps to better care.ĭue to the rapid increase in the number of sick and wounded as the war transpired, many of the pavilion hospitals were “fast-tracked”. In an age many consider to be medically archaic, medical professionals were making connections between good ventilation, cleanliness, and health (see Surgeon General William Hammond’s A Treatise on Hygiene for an example of this). She publicized her findings so that the evidence could be applied to practice and soon new hospital construction included these findings. While ventilation was the primary focus, Nightingale also observed many other factors. She, as well as other physicians, came to the conclusion that the pavilion design often had the best outcomes. Nightingale conducted extensive research and even applied statistics to her findings. Florence Nightingale studied the design and survivability of hospitals used during the Crimean War and later widened her study to include other European hospitals. While many physicians investigated this outcome and what impact hospital design played in it, one person in particular played an important role. The numbers were obvious, but the reasons were not, so they began to study what made some hospitals have better outcomes than others. Hospital staff, especially in Europe, noticed that the death rates in some hospitals were much lower than in others. Construction design considerations even specified the orientation of the wards based on the compass for maximum sunlight and the distance between wards based on the height of the buildings for maximum ventilation. Additional design features included other types of supplemental ventilation, specified heat sources, bed placement, square foot requirements for windows, cubic foot requirements per patient, nonporous building materials, building length to width ratios, door placements, location of support rooms, the number of stories, and the location of the sewers. CIVIL WAR HOSPITAL BEDS WINDOWSThe design featured long narrow wards or units that incorporated multiple windows located in opposing pairs for cross-ventilation. Part of the interior of Carver Hospital, a pavilion style in Washington These hospitals were already in use throughout Europe, especially France and England, and had been favorably discussed in the literature at the time. Healthcare officials on opposing sides decided to utilize the pavilion-style hospital design. The Surgeons General of both the United States and the Confederate States began a search for the most efficient and effective hospital design. As the war went on, it became clear that more permanent hospital spaces were essential. The military medical department often needed temporary hospital space after a battle, so they occupied hotels, barns, farmhouses, tobacco warehouses, and even the rotunda of the US Capitol. Once fighting occurred, injured men joined the previous casualties of camp illnesses and discovered that healthcare resources were limited: few doctors, limited ambulances, untrained detailed nurses from the enlisted ranks, no medical supplies, and not even a place for the wounded or infected to lay their heads. Newly enlisted men would be ill with various contagious diseases before even seeing combat. The American Civil War created a huge demand for hospitals that neither the North nor the South could meet early in the war. The Innovative Design of Civil War Pavilion Hospitals Posted on: February 20th, 2018 Museum members support scholarship like this.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |