There are numerous types of locations in the United States where individuals can seek care. Locations of care depends on the needs of the patient, which could be either be long term care or short term care. There are four different types of hospitals. According to Goldsteen and Goldsteen (2013), “hospitals are classified as general, special, rehabilitation, and chronic disease, and psychiatry” (pg.37). The primary function of a general hospital is providing patients with services to treat a variety of medical conditions. Special Hospitals are facilities that treat patients with specified medical conditions, which could either be surgical or nonsurgical conditions. Rehabilitation and chronic disease hospitals have services for handicapped and disabled patients who require restorative services. Lastly, psychiatric hospitals provide services to patients that have psychiatric illnesses. …show more content…
Ambulatory care or outpatient care is short-term care institutions, such as dialysis clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, offices of physicians, etc. In 2007, there were 1.2 million ambulatory patient visits to office-based physicians (Goldsteen & Goldsteen, 2013, p. 56). Ambulatory care is usually where an individual goes for a routine checkup or for a non-serious injury. However, urgent care is classified as an ambulatory care, yet urgent care treats patients with possibly life-threatening injuries or symptoms.
Nursing homes are long-term care institutions that provide housing and medical services to the elderly. In nursing homes, elderly people are sometimes monitored 24/7 if needed. In other nursing homes, the elderly get live on their own and don’t need to be monitored. Hospice care can be considered either short term or long term. Hospice care is a special care for individuals that have a serious illness and only has a limited life expectancy. Hospice care can be available in either inpatient facilities or at