Twelve hundred beds and a ledger that had to balance
The Hôtel-Dieu stood beside Notre-Dame and took whoever arrived. Beds were shared, linen was scarce and the wards were long, which is why the work was organised as a round rather than as attendance on one patient at a time. Four pieces on the institution as an institution.
Twelve hundred beds and a ledger that had to balance
The Paris hospital was enormous, and running it was an administrative problem before it was a medical one.
The admission ledger
Who was admitted, when, and what happened to them was written down, which is why the institution can be studied at all.
Beds shared, then separated
Putting one patient in one bed was an institutional reform with a date, not an obvious arrangement.
The apothecary
A hospital pharmacy was a workshop with a stock list, and the cabinets survive better than the practice.