Today, hospitals are usually funded by the public sector, by health organizations (for profit or nonprofit), health insurance companies or charities, including by direct charitable donations. Historically, however, hospitals were often founded and funded by religious orders or charitable individuals and leaders. Conversely, modern-day hospitals are largely staffed by professional physicians, surgeons, and nurses, whereas in history, this work was usually performed by the founding religious orders or by volunteers. Today, there are various Catholic religious orders, such as the Alexians and the Bon Secours Sisters which still focus on hospital ministry.

There are over 17,000 hospitals in the world.

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in the East of England The UK has a publicly funded health care system called the National Health Service

All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi, India

Specialized

A teaching hospital in Canada

Types of specialized hospitals include trauma centers, rehabilitation hospitals, children’s hospitals, seniors’ (geriatric) hospitals, and hospitals for dealing with specific medical needs such as psychiatric problems (see psychiatric hospital), certain disease categories such as cardiac, oncology, or orthopedic problems, and so forth.

A hospital may be a single building or a number of buildings on a campus. Many hospitals with pre-twentieth-century origins began as one building and evolved into campuses. Some hospitals are affiliated with universities for medical research and the training of medical personnel such as physicians and nurses, often called teaching hospitals. Worldwide, most hospitals are run on a nonprofit basis by governments or charities. Within the United States, most hospitals are nonprofit.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : Hospitals