Waltham Hospital medical records

Collection

Call Number: Ms Coll 82

Content Description

The collection includes seven bound volumes of hand-written medical records from Waltham Hospital (Waltham Massachusetts) created between 1889-1897 and one book about Alfred Worcester, M.D. (1855-1951), who practiced medicine at Waltham Hospital. Each volume contains the records of approximately 100 patients written by attending physicians. Records may include progress notes, operative reports, medication records, pathology reports, patient dispositions, and drawings. The collection documents medical treatment for a wide variety of conditions including perforated appendix, gunshot wounds, people kicked by horses, occupational injuries, cancer, birth complications, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and suicide attempts.

Records in the collection document the work of multiple physicians in the early years of Waltham Hospital's operations. Material of particular interest includes drawings and intraoperative findings recorded by Alfred Worcester (1855-1951), including documentation of early surgeries to treat appendicitis.

Dates

1889 - 1897
1925

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Alan M. Engler, M.D. (Yale College, Class of 1976), 2021.

Extent

8 Volumes

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/med.ms.0082

Additional Description

Abstract

The collection includes seven bound volumes of hand-written medical records from Waltham Hospital (Waltham Massachusetts) created between 1889-1897 and one book about Alfred Worcester, M.D. (1855-1951), who practiced medicine at Waltham Hospital. Each volume contains the records of approximately 100 patients written by attending physicians. Records may include progress notes, operative reports, medication records, pathology reports, patient dispositions, and drawings. The collection documents medical treatment for a wide variety of conditions including perforated appendix, gunshot wounds, people kicked by horses, occupational injuries, cancer, birth complications, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and suicide attempts. Material of particular note includes documentation of early appendectomies performed by Dr. Worcester.

Biographical / Historical

Waltham hospital was opened in 1887 as one of the first community hospitals in the United States. It remained in operation until 2002.

Biographical / Historical

Alfred Worcester (1855-1951) was a graduate of Harvard College (1878) and Harvard Medical School (1883) who entered medical practice in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1884. Worcester's accomplishments of note include founding the Waltham Hospital and Training School for Nurses in 1885; founding the Rutland Sanatorium for care of tuberculosis in 1895; serving as president of the Obstetrical Society of Boston in 1899; founding the Waltham Baby Hospital in 1902; serving as Major in the American Red Cross, Switzerland, from 1918-1919; serving as president of the Massachusetts Medical Society from 1919-1921; and serving as Harvard College professor of hygiene from 1925-1935. Worcester is known for pioneering work in patient care, the treatment of appendicitis with early surgical intervention, and for advocating the use of Caesarean section in cases of complicated labor.