One of Pennsylvania Hospital’s founders, Benjamin Franklin, is a renowned inventor in our nation’s history. Along with his pivotal involvement in founding the country’s first hospital, Franklin is notable for inventing the predecessors for products still used today. While we applaud these efforts, we’d be remiss to not mention what sparked these great ideas: challenges.
In the 18th century, Franklin noticed how people’s homes were filling with smoke and not retaining enough heat with their wood-burning fireplaces, so he developed a solution to heat homes more safely with the Franklin Stove. When his vision worsened, requiring two sets of glasses for both near-sighted and far-sighted vision, he created bifocals to see both.
Much like Franklin, when we are faced with opportunities, PAH staff work together to troubleshoot and further advance care at the hospital. We see these advancements through stories featured in this month’s issues of What’s New, such as the prototypes created by staff at our first-ever Design Thinking & Innovation workshop. We also see it every day when patients visit the hospital for care, and our providers are there to offer remedies for their conditions.
Franklin’s legacy continues through our staff who continue to push themselves to challenge ideas and invent new ones, innovating to all ultimately reach the same goal – provide high-quality care to our patients and surrounding communities.