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A hospital today is a centre for professional health care provided
by physicians and nurses.
During the Middle Ages it could serve other functions, such as almshouse for the poor, or hostel for pilgrims. The name comes from Latin hospes (host), which is also
the root for the words hotel and hospitality.
There are several kinds of hospital. The best-known is the general hospital, which is set up to deal with
many kinds of disease and injury, and
typically has an emergency ward to deal with immediate threats to
health and the capacity to dispatch emergency
medical services. A general hospital is typically the major health care facility in its region, with large numbers of beds
for intensive care and long-term care, facilities for surgery and childbirth, bioassay
laboratories, and so forth. Larger cities may have many different hospitals of varying sizes and facilities.
Some patients just come just for diagnosis and/or therapy and then leave (outpatients), others stay the nights (inpatients).
Kinds of specialized hospitals include trauma centers, children's hospitals,
seniors' hospitals, and hospitals for dealing with specific medical needs such as psychiatric problems (see psychiatric
hospital), pulmonary diseases, and so forth.
A hospital may be a single building or a campus. Some hospitals are affiliated with
universities for medical research and the training
of medical personnel. Within the United States, many hospitals are
for-profit, while elsewhere most are non-profit.
A medical facility smaller than a hospital is called a clinic, and is often run by a government agency for
health services.
Grammar of the word differs slightly, with American English preferring that someone is "in the hospital", while Commonwealth English (including Canadian English) prefers that someone is "in hospital".
History
In ancient cultures religion and medicine were linked. The earliest known institutions aiming to provide cure were Egyptian temples. Greek temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius might admit the sick, who would wait for guidance from the god in a dream. The Romans adopted his worship. Under his Roman name Æsculapius, he was proved with a temple (291 B.C.) on a island
in the Tiber in Rome, where similar rites were
performed.
The first institutions created specifically to care for the sick appeared in India.
Brahmantic hospitals were established in Sri Lanka by 431 B.C., and King Ashoka founded 18 hospitals in Hindustan c.230
B.C. The latter were provided with physicians and nurses, and supported from royal funds.
The Romans created valetudinaria for the care of sick slaves, gladiators and
soldiers around 100 B.C. The adoption of Christianity as the state religion
of the empire drove an expansion of the provision of care, but not just for the sick. The First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. urged the Church to
provide for the poor, sick, widows and strangers. It ordered the construction of a hospital in every cathedral town. Among the
earliest were those built by the physician Saint Sampson in Constantinople and by Basil, bishop of Caesarea. The latter was attached to a monastery and provided lodgings for poor and travelers, as well as treating the sick and
infirm. There was a separate section for lepers.
Medieval hospitals in Europe followed a similar pattern. They were religious
communities, with care provided by monks and nuns. (An
old French term for hospital is hôtel-Dieu, "hostel of God.") Some were attached to monasteries. Others were independent
and had their own endowments, usually of property, which provided income for their support. Some were multi-function. Others were
founded specifically as leper hospitals, or as refuges for the poor or for pilgrims. Not all cared for the sick.
Meanwhile Moslem hospitals developed a high standard of care between the eighth and
twelfth centuries A.D. Hospitals built in Baghdad in the ninth and tenth centuries
employed up to 25 staff physicians and had separate wards for different conditions. State-supported hospitals also appeared in
China during the first millennium A.D.
In Europe the medieval concept of Christian care evolved during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries into a secular one,
but it was in the eighteenth century that the modern hospital began to appear, serving only medical needs and staffed with
physicians and surgeons.
Britain led the field. Guy's Hospital was founded in London in 1724 from a bequest by wealthy merchant Thomas Guy. Other hospitals sprang up in London and other British cities
over the century, many paid for by private subscriptions. In the British American colonies the Pennsylvania General Hospital was founded in Philadelphia in 1751, after £2,000 from private subscription was matched
by funds from the Assembly. In Continental Europe the new hospitals were generally built and run from public funds. Whatever the
financing, by the mid-nineteenth century most of Europe and the United
States had established a hospital system.
See also
- List of hospitals
- Length of stay
External links
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