The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1920-12-17
New Hospital Has
No Wards

4NO wv MD
There are number Of novel feal
lures to be found in the new Fifth,
Avenue Hospital which is in the course
of operation at 105th street, New York, !
the most notable Of the many limo !
vations is the fact that the institution
is absolutely "wardless." There will
be an entire absence of those long.
awful looking, bed-lined apartments
known as wards, reeking Of disinfect
ants and filled with the sight OF suffer-
ing. In places of these depressingv
abodes of pain, which discourage
rather than encourage recovery, therey
will be separate rooms for each patti /
ent, where his or her needs will be-
looked after individually. Prospective
mothers, instead Of having to go I'd
public maternity wards, will be cared
for in private rooms and each woman,
no matter what her means may be will
receive the most thorough and efficient
attention at the hands of the hospital
physicians and will then be turned
over to experienced graduate nurses.
The head and front of the move
ment is DR.. w. d. Woodbury., who
says: The ward system should have
been abandoned long ago. 1t is not
good reasoning to expect person to
be at comparative ease when surround
ed on all sides by suffering. There is
always a danger Of disease being car
ried from one patient to another in
the wards. We shall reduce this dan
ger to practically a negative minimum.
Each patient will be in private room,
with a bathroom attached. for his or
her use and for no other person. The
patient, therefore, will see no other
ill persons except when on the road
to recovery, he or she meets them in
the solariums'
In the basement of the Fifth Avenue
Hospital Is to be a central service
room, flanked by general supply
room, diet kitchen, main kitchen and
linen supply department. Orders from
the verious floors will be transmitted
by telautograph to the central service
room, where they will be filled and de-
livered by electric dumbwaiters.
Nurses will not be interrupted to pre-
pare special nourishment for patients.
This work will be done by trained
dietitians in the central service room.
Standard sets Of instruments for sur
gical dressings, together with all other
sickroom confinement, will be on hand
in the supervisors Office on each floor
in the hospital. When instruments
have been used they will be sent to
the surgical supply room for cleaning
and sterilizing.
Another unique feature Of the Fifth
Avenue Hospital is that it will be built
in the form of a gigantic letter x, thus
making it possible for every room Of
it's 300 to be open to light and air.
OF the 800 rooms. one half will be free,
or partly so, the slogan OF the new
hospital being from nothing up It
is hoped that the portion Of the his
pital which will be set aside for pay
patients will make the institution prac<1
TALLY self-supporting, but if such
should not prove to be the case, all
deficiencies will be made by drawing
on the endowment fund. One entire
floor will be devoted to maternity
cases, and there will be rooms where
physicians may sleep at night while
waiting to be called in emergency
cases, instead Of having to be sum-
moned from their offices as is the prac-
tice at present.
The building will be nine stories in
height, and it is expected that it will
be ready for occupancy by the first of
July next year. Its cost will be about
$780, 900. =