Answer: "Hospital" and "Surgery" in American/British English
debirlfan asked us "What are the rules for American versus British usage for 'hospital' and 'surgery'?
It's true that British usage on these common medical terms differs from what's encountered in the United States. We'll take a closer look at how these words work.
Interestingly, the fathers of two of the core cast of the manga and anime Bleach are doctors. Protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki's father, Isshin Kurosaki, runs a small private clinic that bears the family name, but Uryū Ishida's father, Ryūken Ishida, runs the town's main medical facility, Karakura Hospital.
Bleach, translated by U.S. publisher Viz, uses U.S. English:
"Yasutora-kun asked me to call you," said Dr. Ishida. "Because he's in the hospital."
Dr. Kurosaki's office was officially open from 9 in the morning until 5 in the evening, but in fact, he saw people at all sorts of times for emergencies.
The usual way of expressing these ideas would be slightly different in British English:
"Yasutora-kun asked me to call you," said Dr. Ishida. "Because he's in hospital."
Dr. Kurosaki's surgery was officially open from 9 in the morning until 5 in the evening, but in fact, he saw people at all sorts of times for emergencies.
"In Hospital" vs. "In the Hospital"
Let's look at the usages for "hospital" first. The U.S. usage requires the use of the article "the," but the British usage doesn't. For those of us accustomed to the American usage, this may seem odd, but in fact, there are a number of U.S. terms that work in the same way. For example:
"Of course I didn't notice you weren't around the house today," snapped Karin. "I was in school!"
On the other hand:
Ichigo realized, to his horror, that a Hollow was manifesting in the hallway. He had never imagined something like that would actually happen in the school.
The way "school" is used in these examples parallels the British usage for "hospital." In the second example, in school could have been used, but then the implication would be slightly different: that would have meant that Ichigo was incredulous about the idea of a malicious spirit showing up at any school, anywhere. In the example as given, he's surprised that the malevolent being has show up at his school ("the school") in particular.
The British use of "in hospital" versus "in the hospital" has a shade of meaning that the U.S. usage doesn't have in that it refers to the subject's condition. "She's in hospital" means something like "She's ill enough that she's been hospitalized," whereas "I saw her in the hospital" could be because "She's visiting someone in the hospital" or "She works in the hospital."
If you usually use U.S. English and want to make sure your use of "hospital" conforms to British use, you can try substituting "school" for a moment, to check whether you've got the correct phrasing. Other examples of similar usage in the U.S. are "in prison" - "Kira couldn't have committed that crime: he's in prison" - and "in college" - "Dr. Kurosaki was still unused to the idea that he now had a kid in college." In both cases, the implication is a little more than that the person is in a particular location: it says something specifically about their status in the world as well, as a detained prisoner or as an enrolled college student. Similarly, the British use of "in hospital" means that the person in question needs a hospital's around-the-clock medical attentions.
Surgery or Doctor's Office?
In the United States, "surgery" usually refers to the work performed by the type of medical specialist known as a surgeon, who performs operations involving cutting and stitching the patient's body. "A surgery" would mean "a surgical operation," although the term is almost always used with an adjective specifying what type of operation:
Before Dr. Ishida became the director of Karakura Hospital and turned his talents to administration, he had performed hundreds of abdominal surgeries.
Still, "operation" would be a far more common term to use.
In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, a "surgery" is the facility in which a doctor performs medical procedures ranging from examinations to X-rays to minor surgical operations, such as stitching a small cut or burning off a wart. The equivalent to the U.S. "office hours" for a doctor can be "surgery hours" (but more often "consulting hours"), and in the United States, such a facility is usually called a "doctor's office":
"Kurosaki-kun," said Dr. Ishida, "I can spare you a surgery visit in about 15 minutes."
"Surgery!" Ichigo was startled. "No one said anything about an operation!"
Dr. Ishida closed his eyes briefly and sighed. "What I meant, young man, was that I will be available to see you in 15 minutes in my office for an examination of those strange symptoms you mentioned!"
The reason to be concerned about these differences is that the wrong usage can throw your reader out of the story. If you have a British character, try to make sure her language sounds British when she discusses the medical situation, and do the equivalent for a scene set on the other side of the Atlantic with a U.S. character. And while we're at it, I may as well note also that when victims of a shooting or a road accident end up at the hospital via ambulance, they're taken to the "A&E" ("Accident and Emergency") or to "Casualty" in England but to the "Emergency Room" (or Suite or Department) in the United States.
Sources
- Week 3 Module 2 Lesson 2.4 National Identity: British and American English (Leeward Community College, University of Hawai'i)
- British and American terms (Oxford Dictionaries)
- ‘At hospital / In hospital / In the hospital (forums, WordReference.com)
- Come to set (Language Log, University of Pennsylvania)
- If a British Doctor Invites You to ‘Surgery,’ Should You Be Worried? (BBC America)
- Selected Vocabulary Differences Between British and American English (Boston University; sadly, this is an orphaned page, and its useful-looking linked siblings are gone)
- Surgery (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)