How old is your hospital?

amoLucia · Oct 7, 2012

Two previous hospital-employers were old facilities (100 years old or so). Back in the day, they had dormitories for the nursing students who were required to reside in the dorms with the old communal bathrooms and showers.

At both, the old dorms had long been made over to office/storage space but they had retained THE TUNNELS. I visited THE TUNNELS for the fun. To the un-initiated, the underground tunnels connected the dorms to the hospitals for the student nurses to use to quickly traverse the grounds esp in inclement weather. Remember, the students used to run the wards 'back in the day' on the late shifts, holidays, weekends, bad weather, etc. They were a routine source of labor for the hospital (it was just part of the understanding that a student was part of the hospital). The old dorms have been downed, but I'm unsure what they could do with the tunnels.

Also, many old state psychiatric facilities are architectural wonders. I believe Trenton (NJ) Psychiatric Hospital was built around 1865 and the other state psych/DDD facilities are old also (Marlboro was the newest, 1952 ish; since closed. It had tunnels, too, so on-campus residential staff could get around to the cottages.)

I know Philadelphia also has old, old (1700's old) institutions. The old buildings are just phenomenal for their ages.

ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2012

im part of a 6 campus hospital network. our main campus was created in 1872! our nursing school (my alma mater), is the oldest diploma nursing program still in operation in the country. the campus i work at was opened in 1945 and was bought out by the main campus in 1997 and renovated. i think the main campus has its own little museum in it somewhere, its pretty neat actually.

NevadaFighter, BSN, RN · Oct 8, 2012

Awesome! Would you guys be willing to share the location of you're facilities? You can pm me if you'd like!

Do-over, ASN, RN · Oct 8, 2012

I had clinicals at a hospital system where the original buildings date to the Civil War. In the tunnels you can find portions of the original construction.

classicdame, MSN, EdD · Oct 8, 2012

mine is too new for you to be interested but I do find your topic interesting.

Twinmom06, ASN, APN · Oct 8, 2012

3 of the hospitals in my area are over 100 years old, and have added on so there is an "old side" and a "new side" (and even the new side is over 40 years old)...nothing historically significant about them as they've been renovated...the old nursing schools attached to these hospitals have long become office space...

Happy2beICU-RN · Oct 8, 2012

We have one in my area that was built in 1837, 175 years!! It is still a leader in our community and a power player when it comes to healthcare in my area.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Oct 8, 2012

Six months! (It's a new building.) The thing is already haunted. One of the ICU rooms is cursed, and the one with a camera in it, is posessed. The camera blinks on and off rapidly when a patient is about to die. No, I'm not kidding. The one code and subsequent death I have had working for this employer was in that room. I noticed the camera about 15 minutes prior. That was enough time to asses that we were gonna have a problem and get started on it, unfortunately nothing we did was useful. Now the television can produce enough fluctuation in light level that you might think the camera's blinking but when it does blink, it's different and not something you can mistake for anything else. I can't decide if I like it or not; warning is ok I guess.

The old building was plain out spooky as all hell and definitely haunted. It was from 1940's and my orientation included a tour of the various basements. The hospital where I trained for ICU was also from about 1940's, maybe thirties? It wasn't too bad at night, they did turn the lights down but it had a pleasant, lived-in feel. I did see a dead guy at the end of that long medsurg hallway one time but once in five years is pretty good. (Someone once asked me how did I know he was dead. I said well I helped his daughters do his postmortem bath, he was dead allright.) I think he wasn't trying to scare us, but he had been such a frequent flyer in the year before his passing that maybe he just wanted to stop by, who knows.

Indy, LPN, LVN · Oct 8, 2012

Back on topic, architecture. My current employer's old building had a bomb shelter in the basement. My original ICU hospital was built around a square courtyard so that they had a safe smoking area. Safe in that you could be out of the weather, outside, and not in danger of wandering off campus; so patients routinely went outside to smoke. The tele picked up there fairly well too.

abbaking · Oct 9, 2012

Current hospital I work in was built in 1967, but its roots go back to 1905. There used to be an old sanitarium that housed the patients in large open wards. This building is still used for administrative services and staff education. Its very creepy.

Former employer had many different buildings and architecture all on one site. When I worked there in 2004, the patient-care buildings (some of which are now gone) were built in 1929, 1950, 1965 (the round tower) and 1985 (Triangle tower). That place was a trip - the unit i worked in was in the 1985 building. The ER was in the 1929 section --- although modern and efficent, the exterior was kinda scary with old red bricks.

RainMom · Oct 9, 2012

My hospital was opened in 1877, started by 3 nuns from Germany, Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. It had the capacity to care for 18 pts at the time. They continued to build on & grow but, unfortunately in 1949, there was a large fire which pretty much destroyed the building & took 77 lives. It was rebuilt but none of the old structure remains (that I'm aware of, although the idea of some tunnels is interesting).

On a side note, one of my nursing instructors was one of the babies saved from the nursery the night of the fire!