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The concept of hygiene was still emerging during Ellis Island's heyday, with healthcare workers doing their best to deal with the possibilities of new illness and disease. Despite millions of people coming through, there were fewer than 4,000 lives lost during the duration of Ellis Island's operations. Considering the resources available at the time, it is fascinating to look at the healthcare techniques that were used in order to not just keep the facility flowing, but keep it as clean as possible.
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From 1892 to 1954, millions of immigrants arriving in America were examined and treated at Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital
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In fact, it's said that nearly half of Americans can trace the roots of an ancestor to the site
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Amazingly, despite millions of people coming through the hospital, the concept of hygiene was only just emerging at the time
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So, today we're going to take a look at what hospital hygiene was like on Ellis Island
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Anyone who has ever seen The Godfather Part II might have a mental image of what the journey
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through Ellis Island looked like for an immigrant. The film features a sequence where a young Vito
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Andolini passes through the island while immigrating to the United States in 1901
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Officials at the facility are unable to pronounce Vito's last name and haphazardly replace it with
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the name of his hometown, Corleone. They mark him with an X inside a circle, indicating they
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suspected him of having a mental defect and then quarantined him for suspected smallpox
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While it is a highly dramatic and memorable sequence, it's not completely accurate
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The idea that immigrants' names were changed on Ellis Island is actually just a myth
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In fact, the names of the immigrants were gathered on the ship manifests in Europe
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and the officials at Ellis Island merely confirmed what they read from those manifests
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However, while that part wasn't true, the medical inspections and psychological scrutiny
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Vito underwent, were on the money. Making sure immigrants like Vito were healthy
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sane, and most importantly, capable of working, was the facility's top priority
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When thinking of the year 1892, one may guess that medical facilities at the time consisted of
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only small and in-home practices. However, that was far from the case when it came to Ellis Island
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Immigrant Hospital. The establishment was truly massive, housing 16 contagious disease wards
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as well as six infectious disease wards. While the facility employed only a handful of doctors
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at any given point, they were supported by dozens of nurses. When considering the millions that passed through the hospital
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in order to be cleared to enter the United States, the number of rejections was actually quite small
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coming in at less than 2%. Most migrants were cleared within seconds or hours
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of being admitted. While more than 12 million walked through the doors of Ellis Island Hospital during its duration
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the number of admittances often reached 100 in a day. sometimes more
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And every hopeful immigrant aboard any steamship was required to undergo medical examinations
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to be cleared to enter the country. Considering how few doctors were on hand at any given time the hospital operations flowed with remarkable efficiency day in and day out If you wondering exactly how many doctors there actually were records show that when the facility opened in 1892
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they employed only six medical doctors. 10 years later, that number had only
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increased to eight physicians, despite the fact that in the same period, the traffic of immigrants
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had more than doubled, from 200,000 people a year to 500,000 people per year
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By 1905, that number had almost doubled again, with roughly 900,000 immigrants a year coming through the facility
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They finally doubled the size of the medical staff as well, employing 16 doctors
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In 1925, there were up to 25 doctors working in four assembly line-style inspection teams
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An examination at the Ellis Island Hospital started with making the patients walk up a large number of steps
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in order for specialists to monitor for breathing and other visible health issues
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After that was completed, the immigrants faced eyeball inspections. Trachoma, also known as pink eye, and sometimes referred to as chlamydia of the eye
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was a particularly scary diagnosis to receive. Doctors used their index fingers or a button hook to lift up eyelids and inspect people for the disease
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Since that illness is easily cured today with antibiotics, it can be difficult to accept that if a patient was infected back then
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the prognosis was extremely grim. In fact, a majority of sufferers ended up blind after enduring extensive surgeries and treatments involving hazardous chemicals
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In 1905, then-President Theodore Roosevelt, now famous for his association with the Rough Riders, the Bull Moose Party, and the Teddy Bear, visited Ellis Island
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While there, the president, who was far from being the squeamish type, found himself unsettled by some of the techniques being used to examine the migrants
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For example, Roosevelt noted that medical workers used unwashed hands and unsanitary
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medical tools when processing patients. In retrospect, such practices may seem inexplicable, but considering the resources available at
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the time, health care workers could not have been aware of the numerous risks that would
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become common knowledge in the subsequent years. On the upside, Roosevelt's observations eventually led to the sanitary implementations that modern
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medical facilities now have in place, including things like hand washing and the sterilization
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of medical tools. Patients at Ellis Island Hospital who had questionable mental or physical capacity were
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made to be quarantined and separated from their peers. This involved living grueling hours alone in a kind of solitary confinement for hopeful settlers And many of you may have firsthand experience knowing that living through quarantine is not fun The process for those hoping to pass through Ellis Island could take anywhere from days to years to complete
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And unlike in modern times, they had to endure quarantine without the benefit of a television to watch
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or an internet that kept them in touch with loved ones and the outside world
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The doctors at Ellis Island didn't know what we know today about hygiene, but they knew enough to make every effort
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to keep sleeping areas clean. In order to ensure the cleanest resting area possible, physicians sterilized mattresses with the use of an autoclave and fluoroscopy
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High heat cleaning and sterilization methods ensured patients could get the rest they needed in a sterile environment
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And this didn't just help the patients. The doctors themselves could inevitably rest better as well, knowing this would reduce the risk of cross-contamination
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contamination. The doctors examining immigrants coming into Ellis Island had massive numbers of
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patients to see and limited time and resources for their examinations. This meant setting medical
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priorities. As such, the doctors focused largely on searching for fungal infections and skin
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conditions. Hands, scalps, nails, and skin were all thoroughly inspected. Officials were looking
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for potential disease, as well as other conditions, such as ringworm. These tests, like the others
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were primarily intended to confirm if a potential migrant was healthy enough to work
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Dozens of immigrants waiting to learn their fate were forced into fenced areas and sat on overcrowded benches
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The areas were noisy, as the spaces were typically at maximum capacity
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The wait was likely incredibly stressful, since those who didn't pass the exam would be held for further testing
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As immigration ramped up, making sure Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital was as hygienic as possible became of the utmost importance
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Employees were required to take decontamination showers to ensure the facility was kept as sanitary as possible
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The showers were meant to reduce the risk of acquiring any illnesses or diseases that arrived on the island
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Ellis Island physicians also wore hairnets, which were originally made of materials seen in hats at the time
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This protected them from the heat of overhead lights in the examination rooms
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When visiting a clinic today, most people are accustomed to a certain level of hygienic care
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Like, for example, doctors that wear face masks and gloves when conducting examinations and administering treatments
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That wasn't always the case. But Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital was revolutionary in that it was among the first medical establishments in the United States to implement the use of exactly that equipment
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These strict standards ensured that everything possible was being done to avoid disease through cross Eventually the practice caught on And today nearly all medical facilities have followed suit In fact standards like the ones pioneered at Ellis Island
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are now enforced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. While it's true that doctors at Ellis Island
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were making pioneering innovations that would hold up to this day, it's also true that they were also engaging in practices
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that relied on some questionable standards. For example, for those looking to quickly settle into the United States
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it was important that their physical appearance was up to par. People were examined to make sure their faces had proper symmetry
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and knew they would be questioned if they suffered any physical impairments
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Because of the initial strict standards of processing, many attempted to hide what might delay or deny their entry
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This included such things as deformed extremities. If they didn't pass their exams
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migrants were separated from loved ones and kept for further evaluation. In the initial stages of transporting immigrants to America, steamship companies took advantage of the situation
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They charged people large sums of money for transport, but only gave them minimal food and accommodations during their voyage
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Even worse, these companies often allowed sickly passengers to board their ships
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knowing they could collect the transport fee whether or not the individual was allowed into the country
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And at first, practices like these had absolutely no repercussions. However, that changed when authorities in the United States initiated laws that largely
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curb those tendencies. From then on, the steamship companies were on the hook for providing accommodations for
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those held back at Ellis Island, as well as a mode of transport for those migrants who
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were denied entry. Once the steamship companies stood to lose more than they made, they cleaned up their
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act real fast. Imagine entering a new country and not knowing their language
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Despite the fact that the United States has not declared an official language, this
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was the case for a large majority of settlers when it came to speaking English. Anxiety is bound to
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run rampant in such a situation, and people may not subsequently act how they normally would
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This could snowball into a major problem since a person who appeared to be peculiar
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physically or mentally speaking, risked being stopped for further evaluation. Those who did
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not appear mentally sound were often deemed as having psychopathic tendencies. Migrants who are
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healthy but who didn't speak English were often criticized as unfit because due to the language
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barrier, they couldn't follow orders from medical staff. Even worse, many were forced to take a virtually incomprehensible
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IQ test, and a poor score would be considered evidence of a mental defect
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People who were diagnosed as being ill would be placed in the island's contagious disease hospital
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A court would then decide if the migrant could stay or be sent back to their place of origin
#Infectious Diseases
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