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Hospital
Acute care hospitals are traditional hospitals that provide inpatient
and outpatient services. Inpatient services are for people admitted to the hospital for care
that cannot be provided in a doctor's office or at home, to those who need surgery or
specialized procedures and to women giving birth. Outpatient services are provided to
individuals who need routine medical care, post-surgery follow-up care and emergency care.
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Primary care - the medical care received on first contact with the medical system (before being referred elsewhere).
Primary care is distinguished from secondary (consultative) and tertiary (referral) care by several characteristics. Primary care deals with
more common and less well-defined problems, generally in community settings such as offices, health centers, schools, or homes. Patients
have direct access to an appropriate source of care, which continues over time for a variety of problems and includes needs for preventive
services. Compared with specialty medicine, primary care uses both capital and labor less intensively and is less hierarchical in organization.
In specialty care, patients have typically been referred by another physician who has already explored the patient's problem and initiated preliminary
diagnostic work. In primary care the patient is usually known to the physician and usually initiates entry into the system, often with poorly specified
and vague complaints. The major task is to elucidate the patient's problem and elicit information that will lead to a diagnosis and choice of the most
appropriate management. Primary care physicians, in contrast to specialists, deal with a broader range of problems, in individual patients as well
as across their practice population. |
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Long-term care facilities provide extended care for people who require ongoing
medical attention. Many, but not all, patients in these facilities are elderly and suffer from health
problems related to stroke or Alzheimer's disease. Long-term care facilities are sometimes called
nursing homes.
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