Predictions For The Future of Norwood Hospital-This Day In Norwood History-1963

Rising 14 stories from the ground and housing 300 beds, Norwood Hospital will be the medical center for Norfolk County in the year 1988. So predicts Charles A. Richardson, administrator.

Except for the new building, which would then be 26 years old and remodeled for research laboratories, the Hospital building as they appear now will be demolished. At that time they would be 60 years old and no longer economically practical to maintain.

The imposing structure envisioned for the future will face Broadway and will have a direct monorail transportation system linked not only with Boston, but with communities west of Boston via the New Haven Railroad right of way.

Radio-controlled mobile health units, or miniature hospitals, complete with laboratory and x-ray service and staffed by teams of doctors, nurses and technicians, will be Mint to patients’ homes. Many diseases from the common cold to cancer will have been conquered.

A Heliport on the roof of the building will provide a convenient landing place for helicopters arriving from distant points.

Mr. Richardson foresees a general upgrading in educational requirements of all hospital personnel. The staff of the Hospital will include a large number of meditronic engineers to service and maintain the vast amount of electronic equipment such as the data processing machines that will be used by doctors to aid in patient diagnosis.

“However,” adds Mr. Richardson, “there will be no substitute for the personal approach to medicine and surgery by the doctor, nurse, and technician. No machine can compete with T.L.C. — tender loving care.”