Hospital engineering science has follow a foresightful way since the beginning of the 20th hundred . These former staples of every ward and operating elbow room have all but disappeared .
1. Street Clothes in Operating Rooms
By 1900 , doctors understood that cleanliness in operating room was an important part of curb transmission and transmission of germs . alas for patients , they had n’t quite mastered the art of creating infertile surgical environs . Surgeons performed procedures in their street shoes and clothes top little more than a butcher ’s apron — not to protect the patient role , but to keep their thread from getting too bloody .
2. Bare Hands and Faces
Although arctic gloves had been forge in the nineteenth century , their use had n’t really taken off in 1900 . surgeon would give their hand a exhaustive pre - procedure scrubbing , then get to work with bare hands . Similarly , the surgical face masquerade that are a common mickle today were still decade out from far-flung usance .
3. Open Operating Theaters
The surgical team was n’t alone in tracking contaminants into the operating elbow room . Unlike the scrupulously desexualise modern operating elbow room , in the 19th and early twentieth centuries many operation took place in large , open - air operating theaters make full with no roadblock between the affected role and spectator in street apparel . Since former electric lights did n’t always give off enough light for surgery , these operating theaters often include large windows to let in extra sunshine .
4. Hand-Cranked Suction
If a operating surgeon require a open , blood - free look at the area on which an mathematical process is being performed , he or she can utilize suction to take away blood from the expanse . In modern operations , this labor is perform by electrically powered void organization , but in 1900 it need elbow stain : Typically , one member of the operating team furiously cranked a mechanical suction pump to give the sawbones a clear view .
5. Inhaled Anesthesia
Being put under for surgery is pretty straight for most advanced patient role : A dose of drug is administered via IV , and the patient cast off . In 1900 , things were n’t so easy . Inhaled ethyl ether was the anesthetic of choice in the early 20th century , and while it did the trick , it presently fell out of favor as more versatile , less inflammable endovenous options emerged .
6. Nurses Wearing Caps
Until the 1980s , a small-scale blanched cap perched atop the head was a part of nursing ’s stock uniform . The cap was n’t just ornamental . It kept long hair out of the nurse ’s agency and volunteer patients a ocular cue stick that the person give them care was a qualified nurse . However , as nanny transition to wearing scrubs rather than formal white uniform , their touch caps strike down by the wayside .
7. Involuntarily Committed Tuberculosis Patients
As TB tore through New York City during the tardy 19th century , in 1893 public health functionary began an aggressive campaign to suppress the scatter of the disease . In accession to educating patient role on how to prevent further infections , officials could forcibly bump off infectious patients from their home plate and confine them to hospitals . Although the measure sounds uttermost , it run .
8. Boiling Water Sterilizers
In an early 20th century operating elbow room , you could have sight operative implement sit in a pot of boiling urine to sterilize them . While this proficiency was somewhat effective at killing off germs , simple boiling in water can leave some spore to survive . Today , infirmary use a combination of steam and pressure in an sterilizer to more thoroughly disinfect implements .
9. Stables
The motorised ambulance made its debut in 1899 when a Chicago infirmary take over an electric version , and the breakthrough found its way to New York City the following year , but the immense majority of hand brake patients in 1900 made their way to the hospital in horse - draw ambulance . Major hospitals had their own specialised stables in which horses ’ harness dangled from the ceilings . When an emergency brake call amount in , driver dropped the quick - rigging harnesses onto their team in just seconds and took off for the scene .
Even as automobiles gained in popularity , Equus caballus - drawn ambulances persisted . Some of New York ’s biggest infirmary were still using them as of late as 1923 . Public health official were charmed with the development since it spare them both the scuffle of operating stable and the unsanitary conditions that issue forth with quarter livestock in close proximity to patient .
