MEDICAL LINEN SERVICES FOR ALEXANDRIA, VA

Alexandria, VA Healthcare Practices trust Dempsey.

After seeing its first European settlers arrive in 1695, Alexandria served first as a port for the tobacco trade, and ultimately for the slave trade. At one point, the land that comprised historical Alexandria was ceded to become part of Washington, D.C. However, any expected advantages of being part of the District never actually materialized, and eventually, the residents lost representation in Congress. When discussion about reducing the size of the District by releasing lands south of the Potomac River began, Alexandrians eagerly embraced recession, after which the City of Alexandria was re-chartered in 1852 as part of the state of Virginia – again.

Around this time, when Alexandria was active in the slave trade, talk in the nation’s capital about the abolition of slavery became an added incentive to exit the District. This dynamic shifted dramatically during the Civil War, when the Union-occupied city became a haven for escaped slaves. As it happened before the Emancipation Proclamation, these escapees were still the legal property of their owners and were thus labeled “contraband” by the Union. The Union Army employed such contraband in carrying out the significant supply, transport, and hospital services that were centered in Alexandria during the war. The population of the town actually increased by 10,000 as a result of the Civil War.

After the passage of the 15th Amendment, which freed slaves throughout the newly recovered Union, Alexandria’s population of 15,000 was comprised of 8,700 blacks. This newly enfranchised constituency contributed to the eventual election of the first black Alexandrians to the City Council and Virginia State Legislature.

Civil War buffs often count themselves fans of Mercy Street, a television series that airs on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS). The plotlines revolve around the lives of doctors and nurses in Union-occupied Alexandria during the Civil War. Their real-life counterparts would most likely have frequented the local apothecary, now known as the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum. When it went out of business in 1933, the proprietor just locked the door and left everything exactly as it was. The museum’s more than 15,000 objects are frozen in time, giving tourists a real feel for what medicine looked like back in the day, at a store that served customers like Martha Washington and Robert E. Lee.

The Fort Ward Museum and Historic Site’s expansive Civil War Collection includes numerous medical instruments, pieces of equipment, medical treatment guidelines, an original albumen photograph of the Mansion House Hospital, an envelope engraved with the likeness of the Lyceum Hospital, and period images of the Wolfe Street Hospital. Today, Alexandria is home to several medical specialties and clinics, including Inova Alexandria Hospital, founded in 1872, which now specializes in maternity care. The Mayo Clinic Care Network is represented in the area by its member facility, the Virginia Hospital Center. A modern, 530,000 square foot facility with 394 beds, the Hospital Center operates three primary care practices in the region, in Old Town, Shirlington, and Mark Center. Dempsey Uniform & Linen Supply provides uniform rental services, medical linen rentals, Hygienically Clean laundry services, and facility supplies to hospitals, physicians’ offices, clinics, and wellness organizations – like the Fountains at Washington House – in Alexandria and the surrounding area.