Pandemics from Our Past

Barlow Respiratory Hospital has served the community since 1902. Over those many years, time and again when the city has needed us, our physicians and clinical team members have been here.

Just as we have in the past, today we stand ready to serve our community. The care has changed, the community has changed but we remain steadfast in our mission to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals with chronic critical illnesses and complex respiratory conditions in post-acute settings.

We stand ready with expertise and years of experience in serving patients dependent on a ventilator to breathe. Barlow Respiratory Hospital remains focused on patient care and the well-being of our staff and community.

We have our plans in place and our Barlow clinical teams are prepared. We are here to meet this challenge with courage and commitment. As you will see in the article below, we've been through this before.

Thank you,

Amit Mohan, PhD, FACHE, FACMPE
President & Chief Executive Officer
Barlow Respiratory Hospital

Barry Lank & Jesus Sanchez Mar 19, 2020

We've been through this before. The deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 -- sometimes referred to as the Spanish Flu -- swept through Los Angeles, prompting the closure businesses and churches and sparking debates over the merits of face masks. (Sound familiar?) Some influenza patients ended up at Barlow Sanatorium (now Barlow Respiratory Hospital), which had been set up by Dr. Jarvis Barlow almost 20 years earlier to treat tuberculosis patients in a compound next to Elysian Park.

"The Barlow Story," the book that chronicled the history of the hospital, offers a peek into the century-old pandemic:

"Already stretched to the edges of its capacity, the Sanatorium was suddenly hit hard by the influenza epidemic. At one time there were 26 cases down in bed, 14 of them with pneumonia. 'This caused great concern and gave much extra work to our staff,' said Dr. Barlow. 'Not having accommodation for so many (extra) bed patients, many emergencies had to be met, and doctors and nurses were taxed to the limit'

In the end, only one patient at the hospital succumbed to the epidemic,” the book said.

Click here to read the full article in The Eastsider.

Barlow Respiratory Hospital is the only not-for-profit long-term acute care hospital in California and the destination of choice for weaning patients from prolonged mechanical ventilation. Critically ill patients are referred to Barlow Respiratory Hospital from nearly 100 hospital intensive care units (ICUs) in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and Southern California. Barlow Respiratory Hospital has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval® for Disease-Specific Certification for Respiratory Failure, the only one on the West Coast and among a select few hospitals nationwide to attain this elite certification. Barlow also holds the designation as the only West Coast Passy-Muir Center of Excellence, recognized for treating patients with tracheostomies, on and off the ventilator. The hospital, on Stadium Way in Los Angeles, was founded in 1902 as a tuberculosis sanatorium.