Hospitals are a necessary part of the infrastructure of the comic book world but not one that’s generally paid a whole lot of attention to. They’re like bathrooms on spaceships: You know they’re there, and you know people have to use them (don’t tell me Spider-Man hasn’t given himself a concussion with an over-enthusiastic swing at least once), but they just don’t show up all that often unless it’s to blow one up The Dark Knight-style.
Comic book hospitals are probably different from hospitals as we know them, though, because the comic world is one where things like arc reactors and super serum exist. It’s a hallmark of sci-fi in general: You take things as they are now, like power plants or steroids, and make them better while keeping them recognizable.
Ask anyone who’s ever been to one and they’ll probably tell you that the ideal hospital is one where people don’t have to wait. (Not one where people don’t die—there’s been more than one dystopia to address that particular issue.) Plot twist: Thanks to GE, said ideal hospital is no longer nearly as far-fetched a concept as a gamma ray machine that can turn someone into a giant green monster. GE Healthcare’s AgileTrac patient tracking solution coordinates real-time data—like which piece of equipment a certain patient needs and where that piece of equipment is available in the hospital—to cut down on the time patients spend waiting and doctors and nurses spend hunting down, say, a spare IV pump. A hospital in Florida implemented the technology and saw the time their patients spent waiting in the emergency room decrease by 68%.
So get back onto the streets and start saving people, Spidey. Just remember to pick up some eggs for your Aunt May on the way home.
