The Countervailing Powers of Hospitals’ Choice During the During the 1918 Influenza Epidemic in Chicago

Abstract

Voluntary hospitals were becoming medical science workshops for physicians and paying patients in the 1910s, leaving contagious patients admissions for government hospitals. However, they had to weigh community needs versus medical science care during the 1918 influenza epidemic. Using extensive archival evidence from multiple historic sources, it is shown that voluntary hospitals in the Chicago area responded quickly to the influenza epidemic that appeared in September 1918 and quickly surged to a high number of contagious patients. The active response by voluntary hospitals reinforced the original community service orientation that led to the quick proliferation of hospitals at the turn of the 20th century and crystallized what it meant to be a voluntary hospital.