Hospitals implemented smallpox quarantine through specialized isolation protocols that proved largely effective in controlling outbreaks. Dedicated facilities, often called pesthouses or fever hospitals, were established at the outskirts of communities to completely separate smallpox patients from the general public. Within these facilities, strict barrier nursing was enforced: staff wore basic protective garments, limited contact with the outside world, and sometimes lived on-site for the outbreak's duration. Patients were quarantined until all scabs had fallen off, a process that could take weeks. The effectiveness of this physical isolation was significant; by removing infectious individuals from dense urban settings, these measures directly broke chains of transmission. While imperfect—with risks to healthcare workers and occasional public resistance—this practice of enforced segregation was a cornerstone of smallpox control for centuries and demonstrated unequivocally that isolating contagious individuals is a powerful tool for limiting epidemic spread.