Author(s): David Charles Sloane (Author), Beverlie Conant Sloane (Author)
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication Date: January 17, 2003
Edition: 1st
Language: English
Print length: 216 pages
ISBN-10: 080187064X
ISBN-13: 9780801870644
Book Description
The shopping mall seems an unlikely place to go for health care services. Yet, the mall has become home to such services as well as a model for redesigning other health care facilities. In Medicine Moves to the Mall, David Charles Sloane and Beverlie Conant Sloane document the historical changes to our health care landscape by exploring the interactions between medicine and place. This unique combination of architectural history and the history of medicine provides a thought-provoking analysis of the geography of the practice of medicine.
The book presents three essays, each accompanied by a gallery of historical and recent photos. The authors discuss the rise of modern hospitals and how they were shaped into scientifically sterile and humanly stark “medical workshops.” Starting in the 1970s, hospital facilities were altered in appearance to become more friendly and welcoming. The integration of a shopping mall’s spaciousness and open design with technology and scientific innovation served in “humanizing the hospital.” Most recently, the accessibility and convenience of shopping center and roadside clinics have invited Americans to go “shopping for health” in the increasingly commercialized medical system.
Medicine Moves to the Mall will appeal to scholars and professionals in fields ranging from health care to cultural geography and from urban studies to architectural history, as well as to readers interested in the shifting status of medicine in American society.
Editorial Reviews
Review
After reading Medicine Moves to the Mall, you will see your local hospital or strip mall doctor’s office in an entirely new light. ―Nancy Tomes, Journal of American History
A fascinating history of the hospital. ―
Choice
An interesting book that explains some of the many changes that the organization of medical care in this country has undergone. The illustrations are very well chosen, and they greatly enhance the text. It will find a warm welcome from several communities of scholars, ranging from geography to health care. ―Gert H. Brieger, M.D., Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
The authors do an effective job of linking changes in the sites at which medical services are offered to changes in medical practice, in medical economics, and in patterns of American commerce and urbanism. The writing is eloquent and persuasive in its arguments that the stereotype of the doctor’s office and the hospital as the focal points of medical practice has never been accurate. ―Dell Upton, College of Environmental Design
Review
The authors do an effective job of linking changes in the sites at which medical services are offered to changes in medical practice, in medical economics, and in patterns of American commerce and urbanism. The writing is eloquent and persuasive in its arguments that the stereotype of the doctor’s office and the hospital as the focal points of medical practice has never been accurate.
— Dell Upton
About the Author
David C. Sloane teaches at Dartmouth Medical School. Four generations of his family have designed, landscaped, and managed cemeteries in Ohio and New York.Creating the North American Landscape.Gregory Conniff, Bonnie Loyd, and David Schuyler, Consulting Editors.
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