Hospitals' role hasn't changed

File Dr. Sora Reddy, front right, and his cardiac lab staff at Trinity Medical Center prepare to do a cath lab procedure on a patient. According to staff members, this proceedure of probing the heart's blood vessels is done on average of 30 to 35 times each week at Rock Island's west campus.

Quad-Cities hospitals that were founded in the last century with the mission to offer quality compassionate health care to all members of the community is still the hallmark of today's combined health care systems.

``We are still the stewards of community resources and are dedicated to offer health care in a timely fashion and in a quality way,'' said Robert Travis, vice president of strategic planning at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport.

``Franciscan, Moline Lutheran and Moline Public hospitals were all founded as non-profit health care providers dedicated to serving the poor and wealthy alike,'' explained the Rev. Troy Hedrick, vice president of community outreach for Trinity Regional Health System.

With founding missions still intact, the hospitals of today bear little resemblance to their forebearers of the last century.

``One hundred years ago, people went to hospitals to die,'' said Bob Travis. ``In those days, you had as much a chance of being damaged by your hospital stay as being improved. Hospitals were often a nightmare for the patient.''

In 1910, the Flexner Report looked at the conditions of hospitals by evaluating the quality of medical schools throughout the United States. It was discovered much of the problem lay in medical schools themselves where there was often no standardization of curriculum.

``Many medical schools had no textbooks, for instance. There were many practitioners who were calling themselves doctor who actually were not qualified.''

The Flexner Report acted as a heralding call to improve education and health care throughout the country. ``Many medical advancements took place between 1910 and 1930. Penicillin was discovered which took care of infection, a major cause of death. Simple procedures like washing your hands were established and the acceptance of germ theory also quelled the tide of infection,'' Mr. Travis explained.

The X-ray became a routine procedure and ether, which actually was in use in the late 1800s, became standardized surgical practice. Over the years, diagnostics has vastly improved with technical advances.

The first hospitals in the United States were either county poorhouses or religiously sponsored Catholic orders such as the Daughters of Charity or the Sisters of Mercy.

``The sisters would go into a small town where health care was minimal to totally lacking and set up hospitals. The town fathers loved it and welcomed them warmly.''

Such a scenario took place in Scott County in 1869. The Sisters of Mercy were willing to open a hospital for the poor and the insane poor in what is now the city of Davenport.

``If the Sisters can be induced to start a hospital here, it will be a valuable public institution and a very profitable arrangement for the county,'' said C.S. Watkins at a 1869 meeting of the Scott County Board of Supervisors.

For some time prior to the above-mentioned meeting, Mr. Watkins had been frustrated by the general lack of concern for the deplorable conditions at the county poorhouse located four miles out of the city.

According to an article in the local newspaper, The Gazette, ``all cases of accident to or illness of strangers and homeless citizens were transported there.'' Thus men with broken legs or gunshot wounds, child victims of typhus, women ready for childbirth and the violently insane were huddled together in overcrowded rooms and hallways.

In September of 1869, Mr. Watkins discussed his poorhouse problems with a Catholic friend, John McNemony, who suggested that help might come from Catholic sources. He introduced Mr. Watkins to Mother Mary Charles Borromeo Johnson, a nun trained for the nursing profession at Mercy Hospital in Chicago who had also served in the Civil War. Mr. Watkins asked if she would be interested in building a hospital in Davenport for the sick poor and the insane.

Mother Borromeo and her companion, Sister Mary Evangelist Martin, visited Davenport's poor farm. The wretched condition of the poor people touched her so forcibly that in the course of a few weeks she put into gear plans to establish a new hospital. In record time she was granted ecclesiastical permission to open a hospital, was promised the necessary personnel and had found a suitable building.

By October, 1869, she had drawn up a list of terse conditions under which she would open a hospital and presented it to Mr. Watkins. Her letter concluded: ``Our main object will be relief of suffering in all its forms -- not as a form of speculation or for a profit but that it may prove a general public benefit.''

``This remained the established goal of Mercy Hospital, as it came to be called, for years and is still the mission of Genesis Medical Center,'' Mr. Travis said. The other half of Genesis, the former St. Luke's Hospital, was also a not-for-profit organization founded by the Episcopalians.

The greatest medical changes over the past 100 years have been surgical procedures, according to Rev. Hedrick who also serves as archivist for Trinity. ``Technology along with knowledge about the human body has advanced surgical procedures at an amazing rate. What was life-and-death surgery just 20 years ago is now routine procedure,'' he said.

Infection rate 100 years ago was tremendous. ``Most people at the turn of the last century did not die of their injuries or disease but of infection.''

Pneumonia, too, was ``the old man's friend,'' Rev. Hedrick said. ``As older people became less active, their bodies couldn't combat the advances of pneumonia and many older people died of it.'' Today, with anti-respiratory therapy and treatments that force medicatons directly into the lungs, it is no longer the threat it once was.''

Infectious diseases that were once considered major community health plagues are obstensibly a thing of the past. ``Tuberculosis as we knew it is conquered. A real sign of changing of the times is the old sanitorium in Rock Island is scheduled to be torn down. New strains of TB have shown up in recent years but those are being treated with medications.''

Use of computers for record keeping is a giant step towards the 21st century. In a Moline Lutheran Hospital log book dating from October of 1909, the only information about a patient's stay or condition was his or her name, residence, age, nativity (country of birth), civil state, diagnosis, date admitted, date discharged and results (the only options were recovered, improved or died).

``The average length of stay in those days is a real indicator of how much things have changed,'' Rev. Hedrick said. ``A patient with a gall bladder operation in 1909 called for a two- to three-week stay. Today, that patient would be out of the hospital after 48 to 72 hours. At one time, cataract surgery called for a 10-day hospital stay where the patient's head was immobilized with sandbags. At home recovery was also lengthy and tedious. Today, it's an in-by-6 a.m., out-by-10 a.m. procedure with new lens implanted.''

The new shift in hospital thinking from 100 years ago to today is to deal with disease and illness but also to promote health. ``Hospitals now act primarily as emergency centers and providers of acute care for seriously ill persons,'' Rev. Hedrick said. ``A fairly new profile for hospitals and health care systems alike is to encourage wellness and wholeness. This holistic approach to patients is in reality an emphasis to see the whole person rather than just a disease or set of symptoms.''

Trinity offers a vast number of community outreach screenings for such conditions and diseases as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, depression, among others. They also offer a regular series of classes such as childbirth, and smoking cessation.''

Trinity's HealthTouch Line was made available to answer people's questions on any number of health issues. ``Our Resource Center on the 7th Street, Moline, campus has information on health issues available in layman's language and also offers suggestions for treatment modalities and options.''

Visiting Nurses & Homemakers Association gives continuing home care to the longterm patient. Express Care, located at 7th Street and 19th Avenue, Moline, is there for the more minor afflictions such as sore throats and colds.

Trinity's West Campus facility, Rock Island, is for long term care for patients with more serious conditions and major surgical work. The newer 7th Street, Moline, campus is for outpatient procedures that allow persons to come in and leave with same day surgeries. Outpatient diagnostics, lab work and x-rays are all also done at this site.