The History Of Almshouses And Pest-Houses

200 Words1 Pages
During the preindustrial era, one of the noteworthy transformations seen in the health care field was the introduction of almshouses and pest-houses. Almshouses were established to take care of the poor and destitute people that had fallen ill. The notion would later be transformed into the first hospitals and nursing homes. Established in 1660 in Boston, the first almshouse acted in manners similar to welfare. Furthermore, they established a place to care for the lower class citizens including the poor, elderly, mentally insane, ill, disabled, and orphaned. Consequently, pest-houses were a place developed to quarantine people with contagious diseases. (Shi & Singh, 2015.p.85) Moreover, both these institutions played equally imperative roles