Hospital
Hospital
Definition of Hospital
‘The hospital is an integral part of a social and medical organization, the function of which is
to provide for the population complete healthcare, both curative and preventive, and whose
out- patient services reach out to the family in its home environment; the hospital is also a
centre for the training of health workers and for bio- social research’.
Classification of Hospital
1. Basing on Objective
a. General hospitals
b. Special hospitals
c. Teaching cum Research Hospital
2. Basing on Administration, ownership, control or financial income
a. Governmental or public
b. Non-governmental or private
c. Semi Govt Hospital
d. Voluntary Agency Hospitals
3. Basing on Length of Stay
a. Short-term or short-stay hospitals (Stay less than 30 days)
b. Long-term or long-stay hospitals: (Stay more than 30 days)
4. Depending on Type of Medical Staff
a. Closed-staff hospital:
b. Open-staff hospital:
5. Basing on bed capacity (Size)
a. Small hospital (Upto 100 beds)
b. Medium hospital (More than 100 to less than 300 beds)
c. Large hospital (More than 300 beds)
6. Basing on type of care:
a. Primary Care
b. Secondary Care
c. Tertiary Care
7. By teaching affiliation:
a. Teaching hospital
b. Non-teaching hospital
8. Basing on system of medicine
a. Allopathic hospital
b. Ayurvedic hospital
c. Homeopathic hospital
d. Unani hospital
e. Hospitals of other system of medicine
9. Basing on regionality
a. Regional
b. District
c. Upazila Health Complex
d. Union Health and Family Welfare Centres
e. Community Clinics
10. As per WHO Classification:
a. Regional Hospital
b. Intermediate/ District Hospital
c. Rural Hospital
General hospitals:
General Hospitals are meant to provide wide-range of various types of healthcare, but with
limited capacity. They care for patients with various-disease conditions for both sexes to all
ages, medical, surgical, paediatrics, obstetrics, eye and ear etc. Usually, General hospitals are
devoid of super-specialist medical care.
Special hospitals:
College is attached for medical/ nursing/ dental/ pharmacy education. Main objective is to
provide medical care, teaching and research is secondary
They are owned, administered and controlled by the government. They provide free care for
patients. The governmental hospitals are owned by:
Corporate Hospital
Hospitals which are public limited companies formed under the companies act. Run on
commercial lines. eg, Apollo Voluntary Agency Hospital: Not for profit hospitals by the
Voluntary Organizations. eg, HOPE Foundation Fistula Hospital
These are hospitals where over 90% of all patients admitted stay less than 30 days.
These are hospitals where over 90% of all patients admitted stay 30 days or more, i.e. mental
hospital.
Closed-staff hospital:
Physicians are held responsible for all medical activities in the hospital including the
diagnosis and treatment of patient fee paying and emergency.
Open-staff hospital:
This type of hospital permits other physicians in the community to admit and treat patients to
the hospital' and treat them.
Open medical staff, which means any physician can request to practice at the facility,
regardless of their hospital affiliation.
A closed hospital system is one in which all doctors are on staff, and also doctors that aren't
on staff may not have access or privileges at said hospital.
Primary care is the day-to-day healthcare given by a health care provider. Typically this
provider acts as the first contact and principal point of continuing care for patients within a
healthcare system, and coordinates other specialist care that the patient may need. Provides
mostly basic health care. It is generally regarded as the ‘gateway’ to receiving more specialist
care. eg, Upazila Health Complex
This is first level of referral services and more complicated services are dealt with which is
beyond the scope and capacity of the primary level. This hospital is assigned to some
specialist services particularly in Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetric and
Gynaecology and Pediatric.
This level deals with highly specialized services provided at regional and central level
hospital. Such as teaching hospital, super specialized hospital like NIMHANS, IIPHH,
PGIMER
These institution provide referral support to primary and secondary level care
2. Extramural: Services outside the wall of hospital. eg, OPD, Outreach services, Medical
Camps, Immunization Program
The Rehabilitation Services are dedicated to providing high quality, individualized, and
effective interventions aimed at promoting both patient safety and a return to independent
function. Services include Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Speech-Language
therapy etc with compassion and empathy in a patient and family centered care environment.