Tuolumne General Hospital opened in 1849 as a full service, acute care hospital, providing a complete range of medical, surgical, and diagnostic treatment.Tuolumne catered to the residents of Tuolumne County and neighboring rural counties of the Mother Lode.

Originally one of the oldest healthcare systems in the nation forged by an informal partnership between local governments and merchants, the Hospital was first built to provide care to the “sick and destitute”. … Read more →

The Philadelphia Almshouse (later renamed the Blockley Almshouse), founded in 1729 was the first public hospital in America.The Hospital cared for the sick and mentally ill while feeding the impoverished. In 1767, the facility moved to a larger building and was called the Philadelphia Bettering House.

Eventually renamed Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH) in 1919, the original Blockley Almshouse buildings were replaced with a modern hospital. The original patient wards were 40 beds long, divided into four separate sections on two floors. There was a pharmacy on the first floor, an asylum in the basement, and operating rooms on the third floor. … Read more →

This past year, 19.9% of adults in the United States (45 million) have suffered from mental illness, according to a survey  by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).

Add to that, 4.8% of the adult population in the U.S. (11 million people) have battled serious mental illness in the past 12 months.  According to SAMHSA, serious mental illness is defined as “one that was diagnosed and considerably undermines at least one of life’s major activities.”

This same survey (2009 National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health or NSDUEH) determined that one million Americans over 18 attempted suicide, 2.2 million made plans to end their lives, and 8.4 million gave the matter serious consideration. … Read more →

Douglas Community Medical Center in Roseburg, Oregon, was built in the early 1950s. Community leaders in both areas wanted a secular alternative to long-established Catholic hospitals within their borders.

Led by Roseburg Forest Products owner Kenneth Ford, the hospital provided a secular alternative to Catholic hospitals in Oregon. Even as the ownership structure of the hospital changed after 1985, the facility still maintained its community status: patients went there to be treated by friends and neighbors. The corporate changes, however, ultimately proved to be too much for Douglas Community. … Read more →

By the end of the 19th century in the United States, tuberculosis was a highly contagious, misunderstood, and practically incurable disease.  Its mortality rate was about 80%.

In May 1909, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 378 to construct the Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium.  The Act provided for in part: (1) the establishment of the facility to provide treatment for tuberculosis patients; (2) $50,000 for the purchase of the site, equipment and construction for the Sanatorium; (3) $30,000 for operational expenses for the facility; and (4) establishing criteria for admission of patients, including proof that any patient has tuberculosis and is a resident of Arkansas. … Read more →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →