single-disease hospital

single-disease hospital

A health facility serving patients suffering from a specific disease that has no effective cure.
Over the centuries, single-disease hospitals (SDHs) have been built for leprosy, tuberculosis (for which the number of (US) sanatoria and hospitals peaked in 1925, at 536 facilities) and mental illness (peak period 1880–1950); as effective therapy became available, SDHs became redundant and closed. Historically, patients in SDHs receive sub-optimal care, where the only change in patient status was death.