Form Over Substance in Medication0

According to recent study from the University of Bombay, New Mumbai, India published in the International Journal of Biotechnology, how medication looks, feels and tastes may be almost as important as how well it works, especially for over-the-counter (OTC) products.

In a survey of 600 people, 75% reported that the color and shape of the medication helped them remember the medication. In fact, 14% thought that pink tablets had a sweeter taste than red tablets, and yellow pills were salty. 11% responded that white or blue medication was bitter, and 10% believed orange medication was sour. … Read more →

Lost Hospital — Mount Sinai Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania0

With an architectural style somewhere between art deco and modern art, Mount Sinai Hospital in Philadelphia was constructed from 1921 through 1939.

The facility reached 146 feet high with its 11 floors. It encompassed an entire  city block at 4th and Reed Streets in South Philadelphia. Mount Sinai and its 500 employees provided emergency and non emergency medical care to its community until it was closed in 1998.

In the 1980s, the owners of Mount Sinai faced insurmountable financial challenges.

On November 29, 1989, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article stating that owners of Mount Sinai Hospital planned to convert the facility into a specialty hospital for psychiatric and rehabilitative medicine. … Read more →

Lost Hospital — Martin Luther King Jr./King Drew Medical Center, Watts, California0

The proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, a phrase borrowed from Greek mythology, in some ways describes the origins of Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital in Watts, California. Spurred by the 1965 Watts Riots, then-California governor Pat Brown appointed a Commission to identify the causes of the civil unrest.

One of the major findings in the 1965 McCone Report was that this low income area in South Central Los Angeles County lacked health care access (the closest public trauma center was Los Angeles County — USC Medical Center).

With the assistance of California’s Department of Health Services (DHS), the County of Los Angeles, the medical schools at University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, and the newly formed Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School (Drew Medical School), construction began for the new hospital in April 1978. Originally named Los Angeles County Southeast General Hospital but then changed to Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital, the hospital opened on March 27, 1972 as a full-service medical center. … Read more →

Life in the Big City1

Green acres is the place to be.
Farm livin’ is the life for me.
Land spreadin’ out so far and wide.
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.

New York is where I’d rather stay.
I get allergic smelling hay.
I just adore a penthouse view.
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.

…The chores.
…The stores.
…Fresh air.
…Times Square

You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.

Green Acres TV Series Theme (1965-1971)

More people live in cities today than in rural areas. While the ability to attend a Major League Baseball game and national opera company debut in the same city — even on the same day — has its advantages, there is plenty of research that shows city life can be challenging.

In studying the city affects on the human brain, scientists have discovered city life can impair basic mental processes (like memory and attention). One study in 2008 by University of Michigan researchers found that even spending just a few minutes on a busy city street affects the ability to focus and alters self-control, leaving city residents mentally exhausted.[audio:http://hospitalstay.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/01-Welcome-To-The-Jungle.mp3|titles=Welcome To The Jungle] … Read more →

Drinking Alcohol Is Bad…But Sometimes Good1

Moderate drinking may actually be healthier than not drinking at all, according to a series of studies presented at the American Heart Association annual meeting in Chicago. In fact, alcohol improved male coronary bypass patients as well as women’s health.

On the other hand, too much alcohol can cause harm. Men with left ventricular dysfunction who consumed six or more drinks a day were twice as likely to die from a heart problem. … Read more →

Lost Hospital — Charity Hospital, New Orleans0

Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana was founded on May 10, 1736. French sailor and shipbuilder Jean Louis bequeathed the funds for this new hospital that would serve the City’s poor.

Originally named the Hospital of Saint John or L’Hôpital des Pauvres de la Charité (Hospital for the Poor), the hospital was built in the French Quarter. By 1743, Charity Hospital had outgrown its original location, and a second hospital was built on Basin Street. In 1785 a third hospital was built (and renamed at the time San Carlos Hospital). … Read more →

Lost Hospital — Danvers State Hospital, Massachusetts0

A psychiatric hospital built in 1874 and opened in 1878, Danvers State Hospital was located on an isolated, multi-acre site in a remote part of Massachusetts. Danvers is alleged to be the birthplace of the pre-frontal lobotomy.

Danvers was built around the Kirkbride Plan, a series of state mental hospitals constructed with the idea that psychiatric patients should be housed in more humane accommodations. The typical Kirkbride floor plan was meant to promote privacy and comfort for patients, and the buildings were designed to have a curative effect. These institutions were typically large, Victorian style buildings on large, remote properties. Most of the buildings at Danvers State Hospital were joined by an underground labyrinth of tunnels (generally due to the winter conditions in the area). … Read more →

Lost Hospital — Calexico Hospital, Calexico, California0

Calexico Hospital was one of California’s smallest hospitals in one of the state’s most economically depressed communities. After 47 years of service, the 34-bed facility closed in October 1998, leaving the Imperial Valley border town of 24,000 without a hospital.

The governing body of the hospital surrendered the hospital license to the Department of Health Services (“DHS”, now the California Department of Public Health), a preemptive decision as the Hospital’s license was about to be revoked. The DHS cited repeated violations of state health codes involving record keeping, cleanliness, and training of personnel.  Before the Hospital closed, Medicare and Medi-Cal decertified the Hospital. … Read more →

Lost Hospital — St. Vincent’s Hospital, New York City0

One day in 1849, four nuns rented a building at West 13th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City. These nuns had recently been dispatched from the Sisters of Charity in Maryland, an order inspired by the Daughters of Charity (a religious congregation founded in the seventeenth century by French priest St. Vincent de Paul).

The nuns brought in 30 beds to treat the city’s sick. Named after St. Vincent de Paul, St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan was founded that year as a hospital to treat not only the sick, but also the poor and disadvantaged. … Read more →

Trauma Center 1010

A trauma center is a type of hospital with the necessary resources and equipment to treat severely injured patients. The American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma classifies trauma centers as Level I to Level IV (Level I is the highest level of care).

Trauma centers in the United States are an integral part of the emergency health care delivery system, ensuring that millions of people injured each year receive the necessary and appropriate treatment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), injuries are the leading cause of death for children and adults ages 1–44. The leading causes of trauma are motor vehicle accidents, falls, and assaults. According to the University of California at San Diego Health Center, a trauma occurs every four seconds, and the total direct and indirect cost of trauma in the United States exceeds $133 billion annually. … Read more →