This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Medical Practice  • Medical Practice, Other  • Humanities  • History of Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Forgotten Chapter in the History of American Surgery

Ira M. Rutkow, MD, MPH, DrPH

Arch Surg. 2002;137:624.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

BETWEEN THE END of the Civil War and World War I, the massive development of America's railroad system brought about a necessity for complex health care delivery systems, including contract practice and group hospitalization, to treat workers and passengers. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad may have used a physician's services as early as the 1830s. By the time of the Civil War, the Chicago & Galena Union, Illinois Central, Chicago & Milwaukee, Michigan Central, Michigan Southern, and Lehigh Valley railroads all employed physician-surgeons on a part-time basis. As rapid growth took the railroads farther into the undeveloped areas of the West, it became necessary to implement medical services overseen by full-time, "chief" physician-surgeons. The hiring of both chief and local physician-surgeons was motivated not only by the extremely hazardous conditions of railroad construction but also by companies' interest in protecting themselves from increasing numbers . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?