Frequently, even college and post graduate and degree holders say that they are going to hospital when they require treatment for minor ailments. This is because of rampant health ignorance and lack of medical awareness. This situation leads to problems to both patients and doctors.
Just we do not take the support of crane for carrying milk and vegetables from shop to home, we should not use term hospital for treatment of small health ailments. We take help of different vehicles like passenger auto or goods auto or lorry depending on the amount of luggage. Similarly, depending on intensity and type of medical condition we need to select which place like hospital, clinic, nursing home, polyclinic would provide the best treatment. Minor ailments like injuries, cuts, stomach ache, head ache, etc., can be treated at home itself.
Clinic:
Clinic is a small organization which provides health facility to only out patients, in contrast to hospital which provides treatment to both inpatients and outpatients. A person may need to take appointment in order to meet a good established doctor and take treatment as he will be available in clinic for particular timings only. Plus, many doctors only work for a few hours at a certain clinic. At other times they are available at other clinics. Doctors in clinic cures the health condition which do not require surgery. Clinic with the help of diagnostic center where the tests for health conditions are conducted and gives report, provides treatment to most health conditions.
Polyclinic:
Polyclinic is a place where wide range of health services for all specializations are available at one place possibly including diagnostics and medical store. It is like local medical super market, as treatment for many medical conditions is available at a single location. But polyclinic do not have major surgical and pre- and post operative care facilities that are provided by a hospital.
Nursing Home:
In outskirts and small towns nursing homes act as substitutes for hospitals. They have nursing aids and skilled nurses at all times possibly even, 24 hours a day. It is mainly concentrated for maternity health purposes, as they require infections free environment and special care. Some nursing homes are set up like hospital to provide many medical facilities. They can handle emergency cases and provide treatment for a person who is injured in accident on high way which is not severe. Nursing home is not fully a hospital but has all the basic facilities of hospital.
Diagnostic Center:
Diagnostic center is a place where tests for different infections and health conditions are conducted in order to confirm the presence of health ailment. They take samples, conduct tests and finally give report. Based on the results in the report, doctor accurately diagnoses the patient and suggests appropriate medication.
Hospital:
Hospital is an organization which provides treatment to patients by specialized staff and nurses to both inpatients and outpatients. Modern-day hospitals are mainly staffed by professional physicians, surgeons, and nurses. Hospitals consist of specialist units such as cardiology or coronary care unit, intensive care unit, neurology, cancer center, obstetrics and gynecology. Hospital is for persons who need to be monitored by doctors regularly.
Types of Hospitals:
- General Hospital
- Intermediate General hospital
- Contagious disease hospital
- Maternity hospital
- Medical hospital
- Orthopedic hospital
- Pediatric hospital
Clinic or Nursing home or Polyclinic are different categories of medical facilities. Each is designed to handle certain medical situation. Each serves their area in the best way. Choosing one for another will not help the patient and causes nuisance to others. All the organizations have doctors in common. So, doctor sounds better than hospital when going for treatment.
All doctors do not provide treatment for all health conditions. They specialize in a certain area. In each specialization there are two types of doctors, physicians and surgeon.
Physician: An M.B.B.S. doctor who specializes in medicine and acquires an M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) degree becomes physician. The job of physician is to understand patient’s problems, study the results of clinical tests, diagnosing the illness and then prescribing the course of treatment. They are not involved in doing surgeries. They are mainly associated with fields of anatomy and physiology.
Surgeon: An M.B.B.S. doctor who specializes in medicine and acquires an M.S. (Master of Surgery)
degree becomes Surgeon. The job of surgeon is to carry out surgeries that involve the cutting of a body, for a specific reason in order to remove a diseased organ or to repair a cut or hole or breakage. They are mainly involved in surgeries of different health problems like General surgery, Surgical gastroenterology, Peripheral vascular surgery , Breast and endocrine surgery, Transplantation, Neurosurgery, Plastic surgery etc.
These are the basic definitions every one should know regarding medical awareness. You should know, when to consult physician and when to consult surgeon to get treatment for health condition. Choosing one for other creates problems to both patients and doctors.