Prophylactic Center

(in Russian, profilaktorii), in the USSR, a medical facility that offers workers and employees preventive treatment that is similar to treatment provided by a sanatorium but does not disrupt the patients’ work schedule.

Until 1924 a prophylactic center was called a night sanatorium. The Russian physician S. I. Glikman conceived the idea of a night sanatorium in 1902. The first such sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis opened in Moscow in 1921. In 1924 the Soviet physician E. L. Shumskaia organized a complex facility in Moscow that included an outpatient clinic, a dietetic dining room, a night sanatorium, and rooms for physical therapy. The facility was called a prophylactic center.

Today, two types of prophylactic centers are distinguished: general therapeutic prophylactic centers, where cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and other diseases are treated, and specialized prophylactic centers, which are primarily for the treatment of tuberculosis. General therapeutic prophylactic centers are organized by industrial trade unions. Passes are free or at reduced rates (at 30 percent of their cost) and are issued by the committees of plant and local trade unions. The treatment period is 24 days. Tuberculosis prophylactic centers are set up in specialized dispensaries and administered by the health agencies. The treatment period is 30 days.

Some cities have night venereological prophylactic centers for the prevention of venereal diseases. Medical labor dispensaries have also been organized chiefly for the rehabilitation of individuals who abuse alcohol, avoid voluntary therapy, and disrupt work discipline and public order.

In the 1960’s facilities similar to the general therapeutic prophylactic centers were organized in several socialist countries, including Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. Capitalist countries do not have comparable facilities.