Academic Medical Centres

Academic medical centres also support specific medical schools or universities. Facilities like this offer a variety of services to address their communities ‘ general healthcare needs as well as specialized services while at the same time offering educational opportunities for healthcare students.

Acute Hospitals

Acute hospitals focus exclusively on the treatment and care of people with short-term needs,

Illnesses

Diseases

Injuries

Surgeries

Surgery recoveries

Obstetric care

Postnatal care

These are not prepared to handle people with chronic or long-term care. Most people in acute care hospitals are being treated for 10 days or less.

Ambulatory Surgery Centres

Focusing on medical services on the same day, outpatient surgical centres provide surgical procedures without requiring patients to be admitted to hospitals for surgery or rehabilitation. 

Children’s Hospitals

Children’s hospitals are specialized in children’s care and treatment and conditions affecting younger patients. It is a type of specialty hospital, meaning that staff have received additional training to assist with children’s treatment for a variety of acute and long-term medical needs.

Clinics

Typically, clinics are much smaller than hospitals and operate on an ambulatory basis only. They are not equipped for the recovery, treatment, diagnosis, or observation of patients overnight.

Government agencies may run clinics or may operate between surgeons or private physicians as private entities and partnerships.

Community Hospitals

Non-teaching hospitals are known as community hospitals which serve local communities without federal funding. They can be found in rural or urban settings and provide their local populations with vital services.

District Hospitals

District hospitals serve their geographic regions as healthcare hubs. They have more extensive intensive care facilities and long-term care programs in addition to providing necessary treatments in fields like obstetrics, general surgery, plastic surgery and more.

General Services Hospitals:

General service hospitals focus on general and necessary services for the community, such as:

Surgery

OB/GYN services

Pediatric services

General medical care

These provide nothing in the way of advanced facilities and may not be prepared to provide patients with long-term care. Most of today’s hospitals are hospitals for general services.

Government-Funded Hospitals:

State or federal governments are supplying government-funded hospitals with grants or public funding to operate. 

Hospitals in a Network:

Network hospitals work together to deliver a range of services to a single community or multiple communities. The benefits of becoming affiliated with a hospital network are primarily economic, as this helps improve productivity, reduce service duplication, and ensure quality care for all patients— whether in rural communities or larger cities.

Independent Hospitals:

Independent hospitals are becoming increasingly rare as the cost of health care is growing and many hospitals are searching for the link to the financial benefits network. However, independent hospitals across the country are still finding great success while meeting their communities ‘ medical and healthcare needs.

Large Hospitals:

Because they typically have 500 or more beds, large hospitals are able to serve the community’s broader needs. Some larger hospitals offer a combination of acute and long-term care services, while in some cases they also provide research opportunities and accommodate a variety of specializations.

Long-Term Hospitals:

Long-term care facilities may meet the needs of patients with chronic disease, psychiatric care, cardiovascular rehabilitation, or comprehensive recovery after incidents or injuries. This might include hospitals that offer burn centres, cancer centres, and similar types of care facilities.

Osteopathic Hospitals:

Focusing on diet and the environment to affect wellness as well as body manipulation, osteopathic hospitals take a holistic approach to healing and patient care. Osteopathic hospitals tend to focus on preventive measures rather than diagnosis.

Private Hospitals:

Owners and investors — who recover their investments via fees charged to the patients they assist or their insurance providers — provide funding for private hospitals. Facility owners and administrators determine the budget, manage finances and ensure compliance with various codes and regulations related to medical care.

Because of the many amenities offered, better doctor-to-patient ratios and a variety of services that are not available in facilities with more limited budgets, patients often prefer private hospitals.

Psychiatric Hospitals:

Psychiatric hospitals attend to the mental health needs of their patients. Through the use of medication, psychotherapy, and behavioural therapies, the staff who work in them treat a variety of mental health conditions. Many clinics and treatment centres focus on short-term services while others provide psychiatric patients with long-term care.

Rehabilitation Hospitals:

Rehab hospitals and treatment centres focus exclusively on patient rehabilitation for a variety of diseases and injuries. Some facilities offer inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services while others focus exclusively on inpatient services and intensive therapy schemes.

Rural Hospitals:

Rural hospitals are typically fitted with 100 or fewer beds outside large urban areas and operate on small budgets. They generally provide basic care. When required, patients in need of more critical care will be transferred to larger hospitals in their regions.

Specialty Hospitals:

Typically, specialized hospitals are affiliated with larger hospitals or health care networks and provide specific treatments. Within one community you can find a variety of specialty hospitals, including:

Women’s hospitals

Children’s hospitals

Cardiac hospitals

Oncology hospitals

Psychiatric hospitals

Trauma centres

Cancer treatment centres

Super Specialty Hospitals:

Super specialty hospitals offer highly specialized treatments along with a staff that has received extensive education and training in isolated conditions. They will often have cutting-edge equipment to offer highly sophisticated diagnostic and treatment options to the patients who visit them.

Specialized hospitals or units within hospitals may have access to treatment options that are not accessible in other hospitals, such as organ transplants, specialized medical equipment, and medications that require very specific administration and training.

Teaching Hospitals:

Typically affiliated with universities, colleges, medical schools or nursing schools, teaching hospitals provide medical and healthcare services while teaching and training healers of the future. The students, interns and fellows working and learning in these hospitals are all supervised by qualified physicians, teachers, department chairs and other medical staff.

Trauma Centre Hospitals:

Trauma centres are hospitals that are specially designed to care for patients with traumatic injuries. These can arise from a variety of events, including:

Falls

Auto accidents

Gunshot wounds

Other life-threatening injuries

Trust Hospitals:

Trust hospitals are either charitable or semi-charitable institutions, with plenty of costs being paid by trusts. Some trust hospitals, widely used by patients in the middle class, are called “no profit, no loss” hospitals and provide subsidized services.