At the onset of their article: “Managing a research hospital at the time of a global
economics crisis: cruising between Scylla and Charybdis” Macchi and Pavan [
[1]
] cite the interesting paper published in this journal by Riva and Cesana [
[2]
] on evolution of the hospitals from ancient Greece to present. This article lacks
an historical analysis of the architectural/structural elements that have marked hospital
construction over the time. Indeed, hospital configuration has changed over the centuries
together with the medical knowledge. Buildings in the Middle Age/Renaissance were
impressive constructions of great magnificence designed by the best artists typically
with large rooms for many patients in the same ward. Following the outbreak of infectious
diseases, lethal in those times, physicians developed the idea that “more air” should
circulate around the patients to improve outcome. Therefore, in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth century, hospitals were built with separated pavilions, possibly
distant, with little communication. The medical aim was to expose patients, isolated
or in small numbers, to a greater “air volume”.Keywords
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References
- Managing a research hospital at the time of a global economics crisis: cruising between Scylla and Charybdis.Eur J Intern Med. 2015; 26: 377
- The charity and the care: the origin and the evolution of hospitals.Eur J Intern Med. 2013; 24: 1
Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 30, 2015
Accepted:
September 16,
2015
Received:
September 15,
2015
Identification
Copyright
© 2015 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
