Chiropractic hospitals in America: A case study of the Bakkum Hospital (1936-1950)

The purpose of this article is to relate the story of the Bakkum Chiropractic Clinic and Hospital and offer evidence regarding the lost days of chiropractic hospitalization and inpatient care.

The number of chiropractic facilities offering inpatient care peaked in the period between World Wars I and II. Little information is available about the vast majority of these facilities. One of them was the Bakkum Chiropractic Clinic and Hospital in Waukon, Iowa. The proprietor was Roy C. Bakkum, DC; he and his wife, Jessie H. Bakkum, DC, opened their 30-bed facility in 1936. Patients received hole-in-one chiropractic adjustments, rest, and nursing care at this facility. Dr Roy Bakkum not only envisioned chiropractors as true primary caregivers but also implemented that vision to the best of his ability. He saw chiropractic as the principal type of health care that the vast majority of people should receive, even as inpatients; instead of being the usual and customary type of hospital care, pharmaceutical and surgical intervention would be called on only as needed. Mainly because of economic pressures, the Bakkums' facility closed in 1950.

The Bakkum Chiropractic Clinic and Hospital may have been fairly typical of small chiropractic facilities offering inpatient care. Like many private hospitals of various kinds, the Bakkums' facility closed in the post-World War II period, primarily because of economic and political losses. This article traces the history of one chiropractic facility to add historical context to chiropractors' long struggle to own and operate chiropractic hospitals.