At the Hospital 267
Hospitals play an important role in the health care system. A hospital is a health HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care"care institution providing the patient treatment by specialized personnel and equipment 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which is set up to deal with different diseases and injurHYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injury"ies. Types of specialized hospitals include trauma centers, rehabilitation hospitals, infection and military hospitals, children's hospitals, seniors' (geriatric) hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, etc. Some hospitals are affiliated with universities for medical research and the training of medical personnel such as physicians and nurses, often called teaching hospitals.
People need to go to the hospital for different reasons. There are two major types of admissions: elective and emergency admissions. Elective admission: You have a known medical condition or complaint that requires further workup, treatment, or surgery. The admission itself may be delayed until a time is convenient for both you and your doctor.You may be instructed go to the hospital several days in advance for lab work, X-rays, ECGs, or other prescreening tests. Emergency admission: This occurs through the emergency department. You may be admitted to a floor, a specialized unit (for example, the medical or surgical intensive care unit), or a holding (observation) unit.The following factors should be considered in a decision to admit patient to a hospital:
· Patient’s medical problem
· The history relating to patient’s current medical problem
· Patient’s past medical history
· The possibility that patient’s medical problem could be serious
· Other medical problems that may complicate or cause the current problem to worsen.
· Abnormal tests, ECGs, lab work, X-rays
· Abnormal physical exam
· Unstable vital signs - temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen concentration in patient’s blood
· Diagnosis - what kind of problem the patient has
· Prognosis - what most likely will happen because of this patient’s conditions and in what time
· Whether the patient requires care that cannot be given as an outpatient
· Whether the patient requires diagnostic testing that cannot be performed as an outpatient
· Whether the patient requires the immediate service of a consultant
· Outpatient care fails to improve patient’s condition or patient’s condition worsens
· Patient needs surgery.
If patients need to stay in the hospital, they’ll first go through an admission process. The admission staff will take some information about the patient and fill in patient’s case history. Before the patient is taken to the room, admitting procedures are performed. The information about the patient is recorded. It may include: name, address, home and work telephone number, date of birth, place of employment, occupation, emergency contact information, or the names and telephone numbers of those individuals the hospital should contact if the person being admitted needs emergency care or their condition worsens significantly, reason for hospitalization, allergies to medications or foods. A doctor or a hospitalist will write orders for patient’s care.
III.Vocabulary and Speech Exercises