Hospital

Hospital, institution for the care of the sick or injured. Simple hospitals were first set up in Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman communities, and in India hospitals had been established before A.D. 400. The early Christians did much to help the sick, and established the first charity hospitals, but medical knowledge was far from adequate, and death rates in hospitals were very high. Little had changed by the year 1123, when St. Bartholomew's Hospital was established in London. The majority of people admitted were either homeless or had little hope of recovery. Most physicians, apothecaries, and surgeons rendered their services at home or in an office rather than at a hospital. The first general hospital built in the United States was the Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, established in 1751. Others were built soon afterward, and medical technology improved rapidly during this period, but it was only when men like Joseph Lister obtained an understanding of the nature of infection and the importance of aseptic surgery that hospitals became safe places for treatment. Until then, a patient admitted to a hospital was more likely to die than one who remained at home. Today there are more than 9,500 hospitals in the United States, with over 2,100,000 beds, admitting over 35,000,000 patients each year. The average duration of a stay is just over 1 week.