Blackwell Reference Online

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Hospitals are institutions where people in need of medical care receive medical and surgical treatment from trained professionals. The discovery of antiseptics and medical technological advances transformed the American hospital from the death and poor houses of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the cornerstone of today's medical care ( Starr 1982 ). The twenty-first century American hospital provides the sick, injured, and healthy with a myriad of diagnostic, medical, and surgical treatment options. The federal government helped solidify the modern hospital as a local institution when the 1945 Hill Burton Act provided federal money for every community to build or expand their existing hospital ( Stevens 1989 ). Hospitals ranging in size from 10–1,000 beds now dot the American landscape. In urban areas hospitals resemble small cities, complete with gourmet restaurants and banking services. The twentieth-century hospital provided families with relief from the disruption of home care by providing medical care for the sick and injured in a manner that was less disruptive for society as a whole. In recent years hospitals have changed from places of treatment and recuperation to places constrained to treatment. The major payers of hospital care – government and private insurance companies – limit hospital stays by only reimbursing hospitals for the medical or surgical treatment. ... log in or subscribe to read full text