Hospitals during the start of the war were set up in whatever buildings that were available, the only requirement was that they were a safe distance from the battlefields. The most usual places hospitals were set up in were buildings, churches, ships, barns and even wagons in the middle of battlefields. Patents were in close quarters at all times which helped spread diseases, the most common were dysentery, malaria, or typhoid. As casualties started to add up doctors realized that they needed more room for patients so, they began to build. Germs weren’t common knowledge in this era, all doctors understood was that fresh air was advocated with good health. Hammond the surgeon general, endorsed the “pavilion” hospital. Which had a central hub with spokes, each one separated the different diseases and conditions.
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The different wards in the pavilion hospitals allowed less cross infection and helped organize administration. When seeing the successes of the different wards they began to build special hospitals for contagious diseases like small pox and the measles. Letterman, Medical Director of the Army changed they was these hospitals were staffed. Every hospital would only have on main surgeon who was in charge of the rest. The main purpose of this was that everyone would know who was in charge of what. Hospitals that were staffed like this were more organized and had less casualties because of confusions. Medicine was forever changed because of the American Civil War. Hammond’s and Letterman’s ideas about ambulances, sanitation, and hospital architecture saved thousands of lives. The ideas these men brought to the table was revolutionary, others started to build on them with successful attributes. But that wasn’t biggest advancement they made. People of the medical fields were inspired and started improving everything they could get their hands
The different wards in the pavilion hospitals allowed less cross infection and helped organize administration. When seeing the successes of the different wards they began to build special hospitals for contagious diseases like small pox and the measles. Letterman, Medical Director of the Army changed they was these hospitals were staffed. Every hospital would only have on main surgeon who was in charge of the rest. The main purpose of this was that everyone would know who was in charge of what. Hospitals that were staffed like this were more organized and had less casualties because of confusions. Medicine was forever changed because of the American Civil War. Hammond’s and Letterman’s ideas about ambulances, sanitation, and hospital architecture saved thousands of lives. The ideas these men brought to the table was revolutionary, others started to build on them with successful attributes. But that wasn’t biggest advancement they made. People of the medical fields were inspired and started improving everything they could get their hands