Health Care Timeline

Historical Timeline of Health Care
The preindustrial era of U.S. healthcare began in the mid-18th century and continued into the late 19th century. Before this era there was very little knowledge of healthcare, sanitation, or medical services. Hospitals were becoming more of a medically based site as well as for education and training. There was no insurance available or government funded plans, so medical care was for the wealthy and only limited care available to the poor population. In 1847 the American Medical Association (AMA) was founded but did not gain it power over the medical industry until the late 1800’s. The AMA provided policy’s on education within the medical field regulating the programs colleges offered and who received certification. In 1893 The Johns Hopkins University Medical School opened in Baltimore which was the first modern American medical school in the U.S focusing on being a
The most critical discovery was the use of anesthesia to ease the pain during a surgical procedure. In 1846 Nitrous oxide was used by Horace Wells (Shi & Singh, 2013) for a tooth extraction. There was a lot of increased knowledge and discoveries on disease control and the impacts of a person’s lifestyle on healthcare. In 1870 marked the beginning of the era of bacteriology (Schoenbach, 1999) and by 1847, Ignaz Semmelweise implemented the policy of hand washing to decrease the rate of contaminants between patients. Also during this time period was a growth in private health insurance as well as government funded programs. By 1915, workers’ compensation laws came into effect for job related injuries or diseases (Stevens, 1971). Medicare and Medicaid were also formed by 1965 to help the disabled and senior citizens receive proper medical care. Then in 1997 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was created to manage and regulate those programs (Shi & Singh 2013).