hospitalism

[ hos-pi-tl-iz-uhm ]

noun

1. hospital conditions having an adverse effect on patients.
2. the adverse mental and physical effects caused by such conditions.
3. the physiological and psychological consequences of living in a hospital, nursing home, etc.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hospitalism¹

First recorded in 1865–70; hospital + -ism

Example Sentences

A fear of hospitalism, along with the horrifying specter in St. Louis, helped scare the medical profession off the use of life-saving incubators for years, Raffel writes.

From Washington Times

Severe types and complications of varicella are in general limited to the little patients who are recognized as suffering from hospitalism.

From Project Gutenberg

The term hospitalism has been applied to this disease by Erichsen and Sir James Y. Simpson, and the former remarks that "the term py�mia is used in a very wide and elastic manner, and by many is made to include various forms of blood-poisoning."

From Project Gutenberg

The demise of snuggle antagonism grew out of the work of a few renegade doctors who noticed that isolated foundlings often wasted away—a condition called "hospitalism"—but could sometimes be brought back from the brink by a nurse's loving affection.

From Slate

Although there was much criticism, his conclusions were scarcely called in question at all; trifling holes were picked in his statistics, but his contentions were universally acknowledged to be correct; a few reformers only, persuaded as he was of the evils of hospitalism and working at the subject, lent him their advocacy.

From Project Gutenberg