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Hospital

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A hospital is an institution for health care providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment, and often, but not always providing for longer-term patient stays. Today, hospitals usually are funded by the public sector, by health organizations, (for profit ornonprofit), health insurance companies or charities, including by direct charitable donations. In history, however, hospitals often were founded and funded by religious orders or charitable individuals and leaders. Similarly, modern-day hospitals are largely staffed by professionalphysicians, surgeons, and nurses, whereas in history, this work usually was performed by the founding religious orders or by volunteers.

Etymology

During the Middle Ages the hospital could serve other functions, such as almshouse for the poor, hostel for pilgrims, or hospital school. The name comes from Latin hospes (host), which also is the root for the English words hotel, hostel, and hospitality. The modern wordhotel derives from the French word hostel, which featured a silent s, eventually removed from the word to leave a circumflex on modern French hôtel. The word also is related to the Sanskrit word 'Ispital' and the German 'Spital'. Grammar of the word differs slightly depending on the dialect. In the U.S., hospital usually requires an article; in Britain and elsewhere, the word normally is used without an article when it is the object of a preposition and when referring to a patient ("in/to the hospital" vs. "in/to hospital"); in Canada, both uses are found.