This compares American medical care in the colonial period with medical care in the first half of the nineteenth century.

These early immigrants survived the harsh times and difficult American climate as well as the wilderness on primitive basic instincts. The early settlements were often ravaged by starvation and disease. During the colonial era, doctors' education was informal. Most were literate, but some who were raised outside of New England were not. A man who wanted to practice medicine did not need any type of certification. Most did have a period of apprenticeship with an …

…waste to. Many cities started dispensaries so the poor could receive treatment and medications for low cost. With the urban population explosion, the "poorhouses" (probably today's HMO 'Urgent Care') became even larger and harder to manage. With new medical advances, people needed to be in big cities to receive certain types of treatment. Americans began to build hospitals across the country in the 19th century. The new hospitals were generally cleaner than the old poorhouses.