Answer: "Hospital" and "Surgery" in American/British English

[chomiji]

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.

Comments

[sg_wonderland]

For one American view of the 'clinic', I tend to think of that more as a place where one would see any one of a number of doctors or maybe just a nurse. Most clinics come with a rotating staff of doctors, especially rural clinics. You might also see a nurse who can administer some shots, but could not write a prescription for, say, antibiotics; that would have to entail a doctor's examination

[chomiji]

Yes, that's the usual U.S. definition of a clinic; see my response to pepper_field.

From the U.S viewpoint, the U.K. use of "surgery" to mean the facility in which a doctor provides an examination is distinctive and can be startling.

Doctors in the U.S. who perform operations of some sort typically have an office facility in which they provide examinations and perhaps a few other services, as well as "hospital privileges" at one or more hospitals or other larger medical facilities. An obvious example is the usual obstetrics/gynecology set up: you see the doctor(s) for your checkups in the office, but when you deliver the baby or need a D&C, you need to go to a larger facility such as a hospital, although you will be attended primarily by your own doctor(s) - the same one(s) who examined you in the office - while you are there.

The plurals in the preceding paragraph are because in more populous U.S. cities, group practices are very common.

[sg_wonderland]

Group practices are rare in my rural area; I'm guessing that's basically a city/country type of thing.

I really love it when folks offer this kind of advice for non-American writers trying to write American characters. For me, nothing takes me out of a story faster than hearing an American character using a British-ism or vice versa.

I spent a ton of time the other day (Downton Abbey fic) trying to discover if Carson would carry in the tea tray or if that would be some other servant. I still don't know definitively. I suppose I will actually have to watch an episode to find out. What a sacrifice!

[chomiji]

I think the group practice idea is definitely driven by population. When you have more people, they need more doctors, and when you have a certain number of doctors in similar areas of practice in close geographic proximity, it makes sense to practice as a group: you can split overhead costs (such as running the waiting room and ordering supplies) and back each other up, so no one has to be on call every weekend or evening.

>> What a sacrifice! <<

XD

There's also a marvelous book called Ager's Way to Easy Elegance (1980), written by an old-school butler, that covers a lot of the details of who used to do what. The book is aimed at encouraging modern folks without servants to take proper care of their clothes etc., but a lot of the author's actual experiences come out in his discussion of the various topics. (You would likely have to buy a used copy.)

[azure_chaos]

From the pov of England (and I say that because I don't know if it differs in Scotland

[chomiji]

I'm learning some fascinating details here

[azure_chaos]

I'm learning something too. :)

Yup, everyone here just goes to a GP, men, women & children as a first point of contact for everything. Often surgeries will also run things like an 'asthma clinic', which are often run by the practice/surgery's nurse. And, apparently it's usually a nurse at the GP's surgery who will do the women's smear tests once every 3 years (unless you're high risk); my sis-outlaw said it's rare that a GP will get involved in doing those but anything that's not routine is likely to go through the GP then referred to a specialist.

It would be wonderful to be able to choose which doctor's services you want to buy. In theory we were supposed to be getting this choice, but it's not happened as far as my experience. Of course, we do have the option of private health insurance, but that's another issue altogether lol.