Injuries can easily happen: some kid is running, and suddenly falls, and the result is a broken arm or leg.
Diseases can be sometimes more serious and they can not be treated at home: some people get flu, but it won't go away with regular treatment, so complications appear, like pneumonia.
A pregnant woman is in a labor, she is about to deliver a baby.
Or sometimes, some tests in order to diagnose some conditions are needed: a man feels persistent stomach ache, but the reason can not be found by the physician, so he sends him to make some laboratory test or endoscopy.
And also, sometimes some people need surgery. They maybe have some tumor, or stones in their bile, so they need to remove these in order to be healthy.
So where do all these people go in these situations? They go to hospitals!
In this lesson, we are going to learn
- What is a hospital?
- Functions of hospitals.
- Types of hospitals.
- Hospital staff.
- Hospital departments.
What is a hospital?
Hospital is an institution that is built, staffed, and equipped for the diagnosis of disease, for the medical and surgical treatment of the sick and the injured, and for their housing during this process. A hospital is generally a vital part of a social and medical organization.
People that need hospital treatment are called patients. The admittance to the hospital as a patient is called hospitalization.
As we already mentioned, patients are admitted to the hospital for many reasons, like performing some scheduled tests, or surgeries, sometimes for emergency medical treatment, etc.
The modern hospital also often serves as a center for investigation and for teaching.
In general, hospitals can be private or public, and that is depending on how the hospital is governed. Private hospitals are hospitals managed and funded by an individual or a group of people. On the other hand, public hospitals are hospitals fully managed and funded by the state.
Functions of hospitals
The main function of a hospital is to provide the population with complete health care. Hospitals also function as the center for the training of health workers.
General functions of hospitals include:
- Medical services, or the treatment and management of patients through the staff of physicians.
- Administrative services, which include planning and developing guidelines for the hospital, housekeeping, materials and property, staffing, and transportation.
- Patient care & education, or informing patients about their condition and treatment options.
- Diagnosis, and treatment of illness.
- Rehabilitation of patients recovering from illnesses injuries, surgeries, and chronic medical conditions.
- Convalescent Care, which is a service that is available for people who have been in hospital and no longer require acute hospital care but who need a little more time to recover.
Types of hospitals
Hospitals can be recognized as:
- Trauma centers are hospitals equipped and staffed to provide care for patients suffering from major traumatic injuries such as falls, motor vehicle collisions, or gunshot wounds.
- Rehabilitation hospitals are types of specialty hospitals that focus on treating people recovering from debilitating injuries, illnesses, surgeries, and chronic medical conditions.
- Children's hospitals are hospitals that offer their services exclusively to children and adolescents.
- Seniors' (geriatric) hospitals, provide services for elderly patients.
- Hospitals for dealing with specific medical needs such as psychiatric problems.
- Certain disease categories such as cardiac (a hospital that specializes in the treatment of cardiovascular disease), oncology (hospitals that offer cancer treatment), or orthopedic (hospitals that offer treatment for patients with conditions that affect the muscles, nerves, bones, joints, and connective tissues).
Who work in hospitals
Let us learn who works in hospitals and what is their job.
Hospital care team members include:
- Attending physician, or medical doctor who is responsible for the overall care of a patient in a hospital.
- Residents, interns, and medical students. Residents are doctors in training, interns are first-year residents, and medical students are people following a course of study leading to qualification as a doctor of medicine. These are house staff.
- Specialists are medical doctors who are experts in a specific area of medicine. Examples include cardiologists (heart doctors), allergists (doctors for allergies), anesthesiologists (doctors that give anesthesia to patients), pediatricians (medical doctors who specialize in the care of children), internists (medical doctors who specialize in the care of adults), radiologists (doctors who do imaging tests, like X-rays, or ultrasounds), and many more.
- Registered nurses are licensed medical professional who provides hands-on care in different medical and community settings. They have many duties, including caring for patients, communicating with doctors, and administering medicine.
- Licensed practical nurses are licensed medical professional who plans and manages patient care according to each individual's needs.
- Nurse practitioners and physician's assistants. Primarily, Nurse practitioners adhere to a nursing, patient-focused model, whereas physician's assistants follow a disease-centered (medical) model of practice.
- Patient advocate, helps patients communicate with their healthcare providers so they get the information they need to make decisions about their health care. Patient advocates may also help patients set up appointments for doctor visits and medical tests and get financial, legal, and social support.
- Patient care technicians support nurses, doctors, and other medical staff in caring for patients with physical and mental health concerns.
Hospital departments
Hospitals vary in the services they offer, and they can have different departments. Some examples of departments are medicine, surgery, gynecology, obstetrics, pediatrics, rehabilitation, dental, orthopedics, neurology, cardiology, psychiatry, eye, skin, nuclear medicine, infectious disease, etc.
Summary
Hospitals play an important role in society. They provide many medical services and take care of people's health. Health care is becoming more and more important as there are a lot of diseases or health-related situations. Health is a very important aspect of life. Surgeries, emergencies, diagnostics, and treatment of diseases, are just a small portion of what hospitals work every day for us to be healthy. Small or big, private or public, general or specialized, we can not imagine our life without these precious institutions.
