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

[chomiji]

All this terminology is constantly evolving.   :-)

In the U.S., a "clinic" is a much smaller sort of business than a hospital. It may be a regular, free-standing operation. For example, the "Health Unit" at my workplace could be called a "clinic": it provides 'flu shots, allergy shots, dietary counseling, weigh-ins for those trying to lose weight, and even has an actual doctor a couple of afternoons a week; otherwise, the services are provided by Registered Nurses.

A "clinic" can also be a one-time or periodic temporary event: "The Health Unit will be holding a Glaucoma Screening Clinic next week," for example.

I see that you use "clinic" the way that I expect a person from the U.K. to use "hospital." In the U.S., I'd expect "a clinic" or "the clinic": "That's a nasty cough. Better run down to the clinic and see whether they'll prescribe something."

Although it's certainly possible that some U.S. hospitals refer to the time when the doctors will see walk-in patients as "clinic," I'm much more accustomed to hearing that as "office hours," as opposed to being "on call" at home, for emergencies, or "on shift" or "in surgery" at a hospital: "Dr. Slater will be in surgery Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; her office hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, nine to four-thirty. She is on call, for emergencies only, after hours and on the weekends."

I have heard of a doctor in a larger U.K. facility (a high-quality nursing home, in this case) referring to a medical exam as a "surgery visit," meaning that the patient would visit the doctor's examining room for a full physical workup.

Most of my U.S. hospital knowledge is from being a member of a family with multiple serious health issues, requiring that I spend a lot of time in a variety of hospitals, either as next of kin or a patient myself. Actually, nowadays, a lot of the less invasive procedures are performed in "outpatient surgery centers" or other clinical settings, especially in high-population areas like mine. You have your op or other under-anesthesia procedure (e.g., colonoscopy) and are sent home for recovery.

[azure_chaos]

With regards: I see that you use "clinic" the way that I expect a person from the U.K. to use "hospital."

Clinics are held in a hospital by specialist departments (they're never walk-ins always by appointment/referral only - the only exception to this is the audiologist who will take walk-ins for people needing batteries changed in hearing aids lol).

Example:
"I've got a hospital appointment," John told Sherlock.

"Oh really? Who with?" Sherlock asked, trying to sound like he was interested.

"The eye clinic."

You'd never say "I have a clinic appointment," but you might say "I have an appointment for the eye clinic at the hospital," and you could also say "I have an appointment for Mr Ball's clinic," when booking in at the hospital (or simply, "an appointment with Mr Ball" but often you don't get to see that consultant but one of their team that works in their clinic). Note: He's "Mr" Ball because he's a consultant (though some consultants still like to be called Dr, they just all like confusing us, I think).

It's not always that simple though, sometimes the 'clinic' is dropped/implied.

"I've got a hospital appointment," John told Sherlock.

"Oh, really? Who with?" Sherlock asked, trying to sound like he was interested.

"It's with ENT." [Ear, Nose & Throat]

That's on top of the example pepper_field gave.

"Where's Mr Ball," Sherlock demanded impatiently as he glared at the man's secretary.

"He's in clinic until 2. And he won't see you without an appointment."

And to add further confusion about the use of 'surgery', when Members of Parliament hold consultations in their local areas (constituency) they call it a 'surgery' too. So "John Doe MP holds a surgery on the first Monday of every month."

I have a feeling that I may have just made things even more confusing. lol.

[chomiji]

:D

I expect that there are lots of specialty uses like that. In the U.S., the sub-unit of a hospital that specializes is almost always called the [Specialty] Department (for example, the Radiology Department) or, if it involves inpatients, the [Specialty] Unit (foe example, the Cardiology Unit ... I guess that would be the Cardiology Ward on your side of the pond?). And as you said for the U.K., it can also just be called by the name of the specialty: "You'll find her up in Oncology."

In the U.S., the term "clinic" now sometimes extends to other opportunities to consult with experts and maybe get things repaired: a "sewing machine clinic," for example, or a "computer clinic."

[azure_chaos]

Yeah, Radiology is usually 'department'. Unit vs Ward, there seems to have been a shift in recent years to unit for some things. Like you'll have Surgical Ward but High Dependency Unit, Cardiology seems to be one of those that's shifting to unit, at least in my observations, actually I think the one near me goes by "Cardiac" unit. Intensive Care in some places has become ITU (intensive therapy unit). And, as you say, there's always the fact that sometimes we're too lazy to say even department/unit/ward and it just becomes the name of the specialty, "Mr Jones is in Cardiology" vs "Mr Jones is on the cardiology ward/unit" (oddly I've not see that used where it's 'cardiac' so I would wonder if it's mostly an '-ology' thing). And of course, it's not always 'pathology' but sometimes the 'path-lab' where we go to get our blood tests done. lol.

I've seen that use of clinic here too, for computers at least.