Difference between revisions of "Portal:Featured Article Of The Week"

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|Title= St Elizabeths Hospital
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|Title= Zambarano Hospital
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|Image= St_Elizabeth_SH_Kirkbride.jpg
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|Image= RIwallumlake.png
 
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|Body= In November of 1852, a tract of land overlooking the Anacostia River was purchased for $25,000 from Thomas Blagden. Construction began almost immediately on the center building, a red brick fortress designed in Gothic revival style by Thomas U. Walter, who also designed the dome of the Capital Building. The hospital was built following the Kirkbride Plan. Most of the construction of the center building was done by slaves. It opened in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane. The Hospital's early mission, as defined by its founder, the leading mental health reformer Dorothea Dix, was to provide the "most humane care and enlightened curative treatment of the insane of the Army, Navy, and District of Columbia." During the Civil War, wounded soldiers treated here were reluctant to admit that they were in an insane asylum. They said they were at St. Elizabeth's, the colonial name of the land where the Hospital is located. Congress officially changed the Hospital's name to St. Elizabeth's in 1916. By the 1940s, the Hospital complex covered an area of over 300 acres. At its peak, 4,000 people worked, and 7,000 patients lived there. It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope. The first appropriation towards building the Government Hospital for the Insane was $100,000, which Congress made in 1852 to purchase land. The organic act creating the institution outlining the duties of its officers and providing for the admission of various classes of insane patients was not approved until March 3, 1855. The hospital, however, had been opened for the reception of patients on January 15,1855.
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|Body= Experience in other parts of the nation showed the advantages of open-air treatment for the early stages of the disease. Separating these patients from the rest of the population would minimize the spread of tuberculosis. The state then considered the feasibility of building and maintaining a state sanatorium. A sanatorium was built in the northwest corner of the state, on 250 acres of land, at Wallum Lake. The superintendent was Dr. Harry Lee Barnes. Under his direction the sanatorium gave patients access to fresh air along with a regular schedule, good food and medical attention.
  
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The creation of the hospital was due very largely to the activity of Dorothea L. Dix. She drew up with her own pen the outlines of the organic act establishing the institution and virtually named its first superintendent, Dr. C. H. Nicholas. During the latter part of her life, Miss Dix spent much of her time at the hospital, where quarters were always reserved for her, and the little desk upon which she drew up the original act creating the hospital stands in the board room in the main building.  [[St Elizabeths Hospital|Click here for more...]]
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Initially the sanatorium was overwhelmed with prospective patients. In 1909, Barnes refused admission for 181 patients because their disease was too far advanced. Over 200 patients needed hospital care. Still, Barnes was criticized for admitting too many patients and for not always allowing the examining physician to have the final decision concerning the admittance of potential patients. Barnes is also noted for refusing to allow men and women patients to mingle. The care offered by the sanatorium was likely one of the factors that led to a decrease in Rhode Island’s death rate from tuberculosis. It fell from 198.5 in 1907 to 131.3 in 1920.
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A hospital to treat advanced cases of tuberculosis was established on the WallumLake property in 1917. In the 1930’s they added a nurses home, two other buildings for staff and also the Wallum Lake House, which included a kitchen, bakery, auditorium, chapel and pharmacy. Until 1936 the sanatorium also had a vegetable garden, hennery and piggery. These were constructed by patients and employees. By 1940 the original buildings were destroyed, mainly because they were considered a fire hazard.  [[Zambarano Hospital|Click here for more...]]
 
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Revision as of 05:00, 8 October 2023

Featured Article Of The Week

Zambarano Hospital


RIwallumlake.png

Experience in other parts of the nation showed the advantages of open-air treatment for the early stages of the disease. Separating these patients from the rest of the population would minimize the spread of tuberculosis. The state then considered the feasibility of building and maintaining a state sanatorium. A sanatorium was built in the northwest corner of the state, on 250 acres of land, at Wallum Lake. The superintendent was Dr. Harry Lee Barnes. Under his direction the sanatorium gave patients access to fresh air along with a regular schedule, good food and medical attention.

Initially the sanatorium was overwhelmed with prospective patients. In 1909, Barnes refused admission for 181 patients because their disease was too far advanced. Over 200 patients needed hospital care. Still, Barnes was criticized for admitting too many patients and for not always allowing the examining physician to have the final decision concerning the admittance of potential patients. Barnes is also noted for refusing to allow men and women patients to mingle. The care offered by the sanatorium was likely one of the factors that led to a decrease in Rhode Island’s death rate from tuberculosis. It fell from 198.5 in 1907 to 131.3 in 1920.

A hospital to treat advanced cases of tuberculosis was established on the WallumLake property in 1917. In the 1930’s they added a nurses home, two other buildings for staff and also the Wallum Lake House, which included a kitchen, bakery, auditorium, chapel and pharmacy. Until 1936 the sanatorium also had a vegetable garden, hennery and piggery. These were constructed by patients and employees. By 1940 the original buildings were destroyed, mainly because they were considered a fire hazard. Click here for more...

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