Hospitals are a medical facility that provides patient care using specialized health science, auxiliary healthcare professionals, and medical equipment. The most common type of hospital is the general hospital, which often contains an emergency room to address urgent health problems ranging from fire and accident victims to unexpected diseases.
A district hospital is usually the largest health care centre in its region, with many intensive care beds and additional beds for patients requiring long-term care. Trauma centres, rehabilitation hospitals, children’s hospitals, seniors’ (geriatric) hospitals, and institutions dealing with specific medical requirements such as mental care (see psychiatric hospital) and disease categories are specialized hospitals.
When compared to standard hospitals, specialized hospitals can help lower healthcare expenses. Depending on the sources of income, hospitals are categorized as general, speciality, or government.
A teaching hospital integrates patient care with instruction for health science and auxiliary healthcare students. A clinic is a health science facility that is smaller than a hospital. Hospitals have a variety of departments (for example, surgery and urgent care) as well as speciality units such as cardiology. Some hospitals have departments, while others have chronic care units. A pharmacy, pathology, and radiology are examples of standard support units.
Hospitals are often supported by public funds, for-profit or nonprofit health organizations, health insurance companies, or charities, including direct philanthropic donations. Historically, religious groups or benevolent individuals and leaders frequently founded and sponsored hospitals.
Hospitals are now staffed mainly by professional physicians, surgeons, nurses, and allied health practitioners. However, in the past, this labour was typically handled by members of founding religious orders or volunteers.
However, several Catholic religious orders, such as the Alexians and the Bon Secours Sisters, continue to focus on hospital ministry in the year the 1990s, as do several other Christian faiths, such as the Methodists and Lutherans.
Hospitals are original “places of hospitality,” which is still kept in the names of several institutions, such as the Royal Hospital Chelsea, founded in 1681 as a retirement and nursing home for veteran soldiers.
Etymology
A white H on a blue backdrop is used to signify hospitals in the United States.
During the day, hospitals can be identified by a variety of emblems. In the United States, for example, a white ‘H’ on a blue background is commonly utilized. By the Geneva Conventions, a hospital may be marked with the red cross, red crescent, or red crystal during times of armed conflict.
Hospitals in the Middle Ages provided different services from current institutions, such as almshouses for the needy, pilgrim hostels, or hospital schools. The term “hospital” derives from the Latin hospes, which means “alien” or “foreigner,” and so “guest.”
Another term derived from this was the hospital, which came to signify hospitality, or the relationship between a guest and a sheltered, as well as hospitality, friendliness, and hospitable greeting. The Latin word then came to imply a guest-chamber, guest’s lodge, or an inn through metonymy.
Thus, the source of the English words host (where the p was eliminated for ease of pronunciation), hospitality, hospice, hostel, and the hotel is Hospes. The latter contemporary word stems from Latin via the Old French romance word hostel, which evolved into a silent s that was eventually eliminated from the word and is represented by a circumflex in the modern French word hôtel. Spital is a German term with similar roots.
Types
Some patients visit a hospital for diagnosis, treatment, or therapy and then leave (“outpatients”), whilst others are “admitted” and stay overnight or for several days, weeks, or months (“inpatients”). Hospitals are separated from other types of medical facilities by their ability to admit and care for inpatients, whereas clinics are generally used to characterize smaller medical institutions.
Acute and general care
The term “general hospital” redirects here. General Hospital is an American soap opera.
The general hospital, often known as an acute-care hospital, is the most well-known form of the hospital. These hospitals treat a wide range of diseases and injuries. Most have an emergency department (sometimes known as “accident & emergency”) or trauma centre to cope with life-threatening situations. Larger cities may have several hospitals of various sizes and facilities. In addition, some hospitals have ambulance services, particularly in the United States and Canada.
A district hospital is often the largest health care centre in its region, with intensive care, critical care, and long-term care beds.
In California, a “district hospital” is a type of healthcare facility established shortly after World War II to solve the scarcity of hospital beds in many local areas.
Even today, district hospitals remain the only public hospitals in 19 of California’s counties and the only locally accessible hospital in nine more counties where one or more other hospitals are located significantly from a local community.
District hospitals account for 28 of California’s rural hospitals and 20 critical-access hospitals. They are founded by local governments, have boards chosen by their constituents, and exist to meet local needs. They are a significant source of healthcare for uninsured and Medi-Cal patients (California’s Medicaid program serves low-income people, some seniors, people with disabilities, children in foster care, and pregnant women). In California, district hospitals supplied $54 million in uncompensated care in 2012.
Specialized
Starship Children’s Health is an Auckland, New Zealand-based children’s hospital.
A speciality hospital is dedicated solely to one or a few related medical specialities.
Rehabilitation hospitals, children’s hospitals, seniors’ (geriatric) hospitals, long-term acute care facilities, and hospitals for specific medical needs such as psychiatric problems (see psychiatric hospital), specific disease categories such as cardiac, oncology, or orthopaedic problems, and so on are all subtypes.
Fachkrankenhäuser are specialized hospitals in Germany; one example is Fachkrankenhaus Coswig (thoracic surgery). In India, specialist hospitals are known as super-speciality hospitals, as opposed to multispecialty hospitals, which include numerous disciplines.
When compared to regular hospitals, specialized hospitals can help lower healthcare expenses. For example, Narayana Health’s cardiac centre in Bangalore specializes in cardiac surgery and can accommodate a substantially more significant number of patients.
It has 3,000 beds and performs 3,000 paediatric cardiac surgeries every year, the most of any facility in the world. Because surgeons are paid on a fixed salary rather than per treatment, the hospital can take advantage of economies of scale and reduce its cost per procedure as the number of procedures increases. Working on a single procedure, such as a production line, can help each specialize become more efficient.
A teaching hospital provides care to patients while also training future medical professionals such as medical students and student nurses. It could be affiliated with a medical school or a nursing school and be active in medical research. In addition, students may witness clinical activity in the hospital.
Clinics generally solely provide outpatient treatments. However, some may have a few inpatient beds and a restricted variety of services generally provided in hospitals.
Wards or departments
A hospital has one or more wards that accommodate inpatient hospital beds. It may also have emergency services, an operating theatre, an intensive care unit, and a variety of medical speciality departments.
For example, a trauma centre is a well-equipped hospital. Other services such as a hospital pharmacy, radiography, pathology, and medical laboratories may be available. Outpatient departments in some hospitals include behavioural health care, dentistry, and rehabilitation services.
A hospital may also have a nursing department led by a chief nursing officer or director of nursing hospital’s professional nursing practice, research, and policy.
Many units have a nursing and a medical director who function as administrators for their respective fields. A medical director, for example, is in charge of physicians and medical treatment in an intensive care nursery. In contrast, the nursing manager oversees all nurses and nursing care.
Examples of support units include a medical records department, a release of information department, technological support, clinical engineering, facilities management, plant operations, dining services, and security departments.
Remote surveillance
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the establishment of virtual wards throughout the British National Health Service. Patients are handled at home, with oxygen saturation probes used to monitor their levels if necessary and telephone help.
Between March and June 2020, West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust managed over 1200 patients at home and is expected to maintain the system following COVID-19, initially for respiratory patients.
In April 2020, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust launched a COVID Oximetry@Home service. This allows them to monitor over 5000 patients in their homes every day. Nurses, caregivers, and patients can use the technology to record and monitor vital signs such as blood oxygen levels.
History
Fa Xian, a Chinese Buddhist monk who travelled across India around AD 400, documented examples of healing facilities.
According to the Mahavamsa, a sixth-century AD chronicle of Sinhalese history, King Pandukabhaya of Sri Lanka (r. 437-367 BC) had lying-in-homes and hospitals (Sivikasotthi-Sala).
Gundeshapur, an essential city in the southwest of the Sassanid Persian Empire, built AD 271 by Shapur I, also had a hospital and medical training centre. Temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius, known as Asclepeion, served as medical advising, diagnosis, and healing centres in ancient Greece.
The Roman Empire adopted the Asclepeia. While public healthcare was non-existent in the Roman Empire, military hospitals known as valetudinarian existed in military barracks and served soldiers and enslaved people within the fort.
There is evidence that some civilian hospitals, while unavailable to the Roman public, were occasionally privately built for that family in extraordinarily affluent Roman residences in the countryside. However, this practice appears to have halted in 80 AD.
The Middle Ages
Also, see Byzantine medicine, Western European medical, and Medieval Islamic medicine.
The Roman Empire’s acceptance of Christianity as a religion prompted an increase in care services. Following the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325, construction of a hospital in each cathedral town, with Saint Sampson in Constantinople and Basil, bishop of Caesarea in modern-day Turkey, among the earliest hospitals.
By the twelfth century, Constantinople had two well-organized hospitals staffed by male and female doctors. Systematic treatment processes and specialized wards for specific disorders were available. Harun Al-Rashid founded Baghdad’s first general hospital in the Islamic world in 805 AD.
By the 10th century, Baghdad had five more hospitals, Damascus had six by the 15th century, and Córdoba alone had 50 significant hospitals? many of which were solely for military use.
The Islamic bimaristan was a medical centre, nursing home, and lunatic institution. It typically treated the impoverished the same way the wealthy would have been treated in their own houses. Hospitals in this era were the first to demand medical diplomas to license doctors, and compensation could be made for carelessness. It was against the law for hospitals to turn away patients who could not pay. These hospitals were sponsored financially by waqfs and public monies.
Europe in the early modern and Enlightenment periods
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Europe, the medieval concept of Christian care transformed into a secular one. For example, in England, following King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, the church abruptly ceased to be a supporter of hospitals, and the hospital’s St Bartholomew’s, St Thomas’s, and St Mary of Bethlehem’s (Bedlam) were endowed directly by the crown; this was the first instance of secular support being provided for medical institutions.Ruins of the Hospital San Nicolás de Bari in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, designated by UNESCO as the Americas’ oldest hospital.
The voluntary hospital movement began in the early 18th century, with hospitals opening in London by the 1720s, notably Westminster Hospital (1719), promoted by the private bank C. Hoare & Co, and Guy’s Hospital (1724), funded by the wealthy merchant Thomas Guy’s gift.
Over the century, new hospitals sprang constructed in London and other British towns, many of which were funded by private subscriptions. From 1730 to 1759, St Bartholomew’s Church in London was reconstructed, and the London Hospital, Whitechapel, opened in 1752
These hospitals marked a turning point in the institution’s function; they began to grow from being essential places of care for the sick to being centres of medical innovation and discovery, as well as the primary location for the education and training of future practitioners. Some of the best surgeons and doctors worked and passed on their knowledge in hospitals.
They also evolved from simple shelters to complicated institutions that provide medicine and care for the sick. In response to a plague epidemic, King Frederick I of Prussia established the Charité in Berlin in 1710.
The notion of voluntary hospitals expanded to Colonial America as well; the Bellevue Hospital started in 1736 (first as a workhouse, then as a hospital); the Pennsylvania Hospital opened in 1752, and the New York Hospital in 1771, and the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1811.
When the Vienna General Hospital opened in 1784, it quickly became the world’s largest hospital, providing physicians with a new facility that grew into one of the most important research centres.
Another Enlightenment-era charity invention was the dispensary, which provided free medications to the impoverished. The London Dispensary was the first of its kind in the British Empire, opening its doors in 1696.
The concept took some time to catch on until the 1770s, when numerous such organizations sprouted out, notably the Public Dispensary of Edinburgh (1776), the Metropolitan Dispensary and Charitable Fund (1779), and the Finsbury Dispensary (1780). (1780). In addition, dispensaries were established in New York in 1771, Philadelphia in 1786, and Boston in 1796.
Let’s talk about the Top 10 Best hospitals in Chennai in 2022
- MIOT International, Chennai
Established: 1999
There are 1,000 different kinds of beds.
About the MIOT International, Chennai
- MIOT (Madras Institute of Orthopedics and Traumatology) International, founded in 1999, is a hospital accredited by NABL and NABH.
- It is the first hospital in India to have a dual-energy imaging 750 HD CT scan.
- It used to be a centre for orthopaedics. Still, it also does neurosurgery, cardiology, thoracic and cardiovascular care, nephrology, oncology, knee replacement, hip replacement, plastic surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics, craniofacial and cosmetic surgery, and more.
- The hospital is on 14 acres and has won many awards, such as the Niryat Shree Gold Award in 2002 and 2009, the FIEO Niryat Shree Bronze Trophy in 2008, and the FIEO Southern Region Export Excellence Award in 2012-2013, 2013-2014, and 2015-2016.
Times of India also named the Best Multispecialty Hospital in Chennai, the Best Hospital for Orthopedics, the Best Hospital for Gastro and Gastro surgery, and the Best - Hospital for Nephrology.
- In India, the first T-Replete Haplo-Identical Bone Marrow Transplant was done in 2013 at the MIOT Institute of Hematology, Hemato-Oncology and BMT.
- A 26-year-old mother with jaundice and a badly damaged liver which was getting worse quickly, is saved by an emergency liver transplant.
2. MGM Healthcare, Chennai
Established: 1970
There are 400 different kinds of beds.
About MGM Healthcare in Chennai
In Chennai, MGM Healthcare is a super speciality hospital with 400 beds.
The hospital now has a lot more to offer:
- 102 transplants of hearts in a year (3rd highest in the world)
- 110 heart transplants for children (Highest in Asia)
- India has had more than 365 heart-lung transplant surgeries, which is more than any other country.
- India has more LVAD, RVAD, and BIVAD devices than any other country.
- The team of experts has done more than 250,000 heart surgeries.
- It is the first green hospital in India that has been certified by USGBC LEED Platinum.
- The hospital has emergency care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
3. SIMS Hospital, Vadapalani, Chennai
Established: In 2012
There are 345 beds.
Very Specialized,
About the SIMS Hospital in Chennai’s Vadapalani area
- SIMS Hospital in Chennai offers 360-degree advanced tertiary healthcare services, including multi-super specialization and, very soon, a state-of-the-art multi-organ transplant service centre.
- In its technology, the hospital brings together well-known experts from different areas of medicine.
- SIMS Hospital in Chennai has a variety of technologies and a wide range of resources. It is led by a team of caring super specialists who provide care for the whole person: nurses, paramedical staff, and our health service personnel help.
- SIMS healthcare facilities are built and stocked to meet the needs of picky domestic and international patients.
4. Fortis Malar Hospital, Chennai
Established: 1992
There are 500 beds.
Multi-speciality,
About Chennai’s Fortis Malar Hospital
- Fortis Healthcare is India’s top provider of integrated healthcare delivery services.
This organization’s healthcare verticals are mostly made up of hospital, diagnostic, and daycare facilities. - Fortis Malar Hospital in Chennai provides complete medical care in more than 40 specialities, such as cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopaedics, nephrology, gynaecology, urology, paediatrics, and diabetes, to name a few.
- Fortis Malar is known for its cutting-edge medical technology and caring service for patients.
- The hospital has more than 160 consultants and 650 employees to take care of the more than 11,000 people staying there.
5. Vijaya Hospital, Chennai
Established: 1972
There are 750 beds.
Very Specialized,
About Vijaya Hospital, Chennai
- Vijaya Hospital was one of the first hospitals in Chennai with more than one type of care when it opened in 1972.
- This hospital is part of the Vijaya Medical and Educational Trust (VMET), which Sri started. B. Nagi Reddi, who won the Dada Saheb Phalke award and created Vijaya Vauhini Studios.
- Vijaya Eye Foundation, Vijaya Hospital (VH), Vijaya Heart Foundation (VHF), and Vijaya Health Centre (VHC) are all part of the trust (VHC).
- Since it opened in 1987, the Vijaya Health Centre has done more than 13,000 surgeries on beating hearts and more than 50,000 angio procedures.
- Vijaya Health Centre is one of the largest centres in South India. It has all the latest technologies and all the facilities that a hospital has to offer.
- The Vijaya Institute of Trauma and Orthopedics was set up as a place specializing in trauma and orthopaedic services.
- The hospital’s primary goals are to give good health care at a price people can afford and treat patients with respect and kindness.
6. Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road, Chennai
Established: 1983
About Apollo Hospitals, Greams Road, Chennai
- It was founded in 1983.
- One of the best places in India to get care for your heart.
- The first hospital in India to use coronary angioplasty, stereotactic radiation therapy, and radiosurgery (for brain tumours).
- Some primary specialities are heart, cancer, bones, joints, spine, organ transplants, neurology, gastroenterology and colorectal, bariatric surgery, gynaecology and infertility, and ophthalmology.
- The first Indian hospital to get certifications from ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
- The first hospital in South India to be accredited by the Joint Commission International USA. It has since been re-accredited four times.
- The Indian government has called it a “Centre of Excellence.”
- The Week magazine has chosen it several times as the “Best Private Sector Hospital in India.”
- Times Health’s 2016 All India Multispecialty Hospital Survey put them in first and second place.
- NABH and JCI are both approved.
7. Dr Rela Institute and Medical Center, Chennai
Established: 2018
Number of Beds: 450 Different Types
About Chennai’s Dr Rela Institute and Medical Centre
- Dr Mohamed Rela, a well-known liver transplant surgeon, started the Dr Rela Institute and Medical Centre. It is a quaternary care hospital that aims to meet the needs of a wide range of patients.
- Dr Rela, who started the hospital, set a world record when he transplanted the liver of a 5-day-old baby. His name is now in the Guinness Book of Records.
- The hospital is close to an airport, a train station, and a road. It has 450 beds, 130 critical care beds, 14 operating rooms, radiology services, and modern reference laboratories.
8. Global Hospitals, Chennai
Chennai, India
Established: 1999
There are 1,000 different kinds of beds.
About the Chennai Global Hospitals
- Global Hospitals have been around since 1999, and NABH, NABL, and HALAL have approved it.
- It is part of Parkway Pantai Ltd, one of the region’s largest private healthcare groups.
Parkway Pantai has more than 4,000 beds in Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, India, China, and Vietnam. In addition, it has a network of more than 22 hospitals.
9. The Apollo Specialty Hospital, OMR
Established: 2017
There are 260 different kinds of beds.
About the Apollo Specialty Hospital, OMR
- Apollo Specialty Hospitals, OMR, opened in 2017 and is Asia’s largest healthcare provider, serving more than 150 million people in 140 countries.
- The NABH-accredited healthcare provider helps people in OMR and the surrounding area with their tertiary healthcare needs.
- The hospital focuses on many areas of medicine, but Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurology, and Trauma get the most attention.
10. Billroth Hospital, Chennai
Established: 1990
There are 600 beds.
Multi-speciality
About Billroth Hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- Billroth hospital in Chennai is a well-known hospital.
- Its facilities and infrastructure are among the best in the world. Its goal is to offer standard health care.
- There is state-of-the-art technology and well-trained doctors and nurse practitioners who help the institution do well by giving patients the best care and support possible.
The critical care unit at Billroth Hospital is always on high alert. It is led by senior anaesthetists and physicians and helped by nurse practitioners, junior doctors, physiotherapists, nutritionists, radiology and imaging technicians. - The Radiology and Imaging Sciences department at Billroth Hospital is one of the most advanced in the country and on par with the best hospitals.
- NABL, the National Accreditation Board for Calibration and Laboratories, has given Billroth Hospital an award for their high-quality labs and lab services.
- Since it opened 25 years ago, the hospital has provided excellent services at the right time and to the right people.
- The hospital has teamed up with some well-known NGOs to give free care to people.
- These programs aim to provide as many people as possible with the best medical care in the country.
- Every weekend, free medical camps are held in rural areas by Billroth Hospital. Senior doctors and nurses work at these camps to help those in that area as much as possible.
