Waiting Rooms and Privacy Curtains: The Hospital of the Future as Seen in the 1950s

After World War II, hospitals around the world were changing rapidly. Modern machines and technology, combined with new drugs and a sense of patient comfort meant that hospital stays meant something quite different than they did before.

Curtains for privacy, gowns for modesty, and conveniences like a nursery window and even a sliding baby drawer really changed the way that patients felt when they went into the hospital. Not only that, but waiting rooms were a more modern invention, too, for all those anxiously awaiting news. In the old days patient privacy was almost unheard of, babies were often placed in wicker bassinets when they were born (not modern plexiglass cribs) and surgeries were not nearly as well lit as they could have been.

Have a look at the hospital of the future all those years ago in the clips below!