This Day in Norwood History-December 25, 1942-Hospital Addition Opens On Weekend

Christmas—and Norwood and surrounding communities will this year get about as fine a Christmas present as could be. It comes beautifully packaged, too. To be sure the wrappings are not white paper and red ribbon with a touch of gay holly. They are more.

The wrappings are the most modern, up-to-date hospital unit one could find, stainless steel diet kitchens, impressive, equipped x-ray rooms, beautifully furnished rooms for patients. These are the wrappings for Norwood’s Christmas gift, 1942.

The gift? It’s lived saved and health restored and insurance of care for the many folk who live within the are served by Norwood Hospital and who rely on it for the maintenance of community health.

This Saturday and Sunday, this extra special Christmas gift, the new Norwood Hospital addition, will be opened. The hospital has extended an invitation to the people of the various neighboring communities to come and see what their cooperation and support have wrought. hours for the operating will be two until five each afternoon, and seven until nine each evening.

 There is little doubt that the hospital’s public will be duly impressed by the new wing. It is Well constructed and beautifully and officially appointed.

On its first floor there are spacious, attractive private and semi-private rooms. What is impressed by their size, by their softly tinted walls, accenting drapes, Mahogany or Maple Furniture, their stunning Bird floors 

Private rooms have the light mahogany Furniture, bed, Bureau & Mirror, bedside cabinet, easy chair and stool, and straight chair. The bed table is a masterpiece with a rack attached, one side of which is a book rack, and converted displays a large mirror for a man’s Shave or a lady’s beautifying.

 Each room has a built-in Locker, a washstand, and a private bath adjoining. Each room, too. Has a floor lamp and telephone. lights have a Mercury switch and are soundless when snapped on. The night light is low in the wall and works from the switch at the door.

The Floor bases are of Terrazzo and are sloped for easy cleaning and so beds cannot damage walls. Floors are of Bird title. Walls are delicately tinted in blues, greens, or beiges, and attractive drapes hang at the windows which are all fitted with Venetian blinds.

 Semi-private rooms, with two beds, are furnished With the same pieces as in the private rooms, but in Maple. Each bed may be fully curtained-off.

 Kitchen, utility rooms.

The hall, where the floor is the same Bird tile which is also used on the base of the walls, has an arched soundproof ceiling. Night lights in the lower wall will make burning overhead lights at night unnecessary. Off of the Hall Are linen closets, a blanket warmer where steam keeps blankets heated, but utility room for mops and cleaning equipment with a gadget where a mop may be shaken. A recess in the wall allows for the storage of wheelchairs without having them clutter the corridor.

There is a patient’s bath with a sink and shelves to be used for shower care. The utility room is equipped with stainless steel fixtures for sterilizing, etc. The fireproof clothes-chute has a door which works automatically. Large canvas bags supported by frames are convenient for tying up laundry before being sent down the chute. Terrazzo floors are used in all these utility rooms.

 The kitchen also has all stainless steel fixtures. There is a food wagon to carry food from the kitchen and keep it hot till served, there are tray carriers, an enormous icebox, a warming oven, and the soap sink and dishwashing machine. The drinking fountain, to supply the drinking water, has its temperature controlled electrically. New China is attractive in tan with maroon trim.

Noted, too, must be the signal system for doctors which is controlled from the switchboard and flashes a doctor’s number when he is being called. And noted, as well, j must be the elevator which automatically opens its doors for entrance or exit.

This first floor of the new wing for surgical and medical cases will accommodate twelve additional beds. The second floor of the wing allows for another twelve.. It is almost identical with the first floor, but it Is the obstetrical floor. Off its kitchen is a formula room, for the preparation of the babies formulas.

Emergency Wards

Third floor of the new wing originally was not. intended for finishing now. in the future, it will be an extension of the hospital’s present third-floor operating rooms. But rather than let the third-floor space go to waste, a valuable plan has been worked out and for the little cost of $4,500.

Partitions have been made and large rooms equipped with beds given by local Red Cross units. Bedding has been donated and these beds and rooms will be available in case of emergency and heavy casualties. The room could easily accommodate many more than the 25 beds they will house now. When not used for emergency use, the large wards will be used for convalescent wards, freeing bed space in the hospital for other cases.

In the basement of the new wing ?s the x-ray suite. Here are rooms for fleuréscoping, and radiography, and machines for therapy work. X-ray rooms are lead lined throughout to prevent the escape of the rays. There is an office with provision for reading x-rays; there is a special wall arrangement where a doctor may see prints without going into the dark room, and the dark room itself is approached through a zig-zag maze so that light is kept out.

In the basement, is a room which later will be the air conditioning plant for the future operating rooms and which presently will house the library which the Morrill Memorial Library is establishing at the hospital for patient use. There is an isolation room and a recovery room, and these presently will be used to house the blood bank to be established at the Hospital.

Blood Bank

The blood bank In the hospital will consist of 168 units, a unit being sufficient for one treatment Civilian defense units of the locality are helping set up the bank and soon volunteers may donate their blood at the Hospital for the blood bank to be used in case of emergency.

The old x-ray room will become a dining room for the hospital help. This will allow expansion in the kitchen as now help eats there, with the nurse’s dining room just off the corridor leading to the kitchen. Beyond the kitchen in the hospital basement is the large and busy laundry.

So In the new hospital wing and the expansion it envisages, Norwood and neighboring towns are ¡ getting a real Christmas gift-a-gift in keeping with the season. Forty-seven more patients may be taken care of, and when crowded conditions arise, there is more chance to take care of more people. Further, the hospital with its blood bank and its third-floor plan for emergency housing of injured, is fitting itself to the extraordinary times in a special way.

Contractors for the new addition were architect, Stevens, Curtin, Mason & Riley, Boston; general contractor, R. R. Jacobbaci, Inc., Quincy plumbing, Thomas F. Riley, Norwood, electrical, Foster Electric Co. Boston: elevator, F. S. Payne.

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