Question

1. What is a community hospital? 2. List the 12 types of hospitals discussed in the text. 3. What is the main difference between beneficence and nonmaleficence?

Answer 1

Ans) 1) The American Hospital Association (AHA) defines community hospitals as “all nonfederal, short-term general, and other special hospitals.” Special hospitals include “those dedicated to obstetrics and gynecology; eye, ear, nose, and throat; rehabilitation; orthopedic; and other individually described specialty services.”

2) Hospital types:

Acute care:

Hospital that treats patients in the acute phase of an illness or injury.

Addiction/substance abuse treatment
Hospital that exists solely to provide assessment and treatment of individuals with addictions.

Community (General)
Non-federal, short-term (acute care) hospital where diagnostic and therapeutic services are available to the public.

Rural Hospital
Hospital that is located outside the U.S. Census-designated Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Urban Hospital
Hospital that is located within the U.S. Census-designated Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Long-Term Care Hospital
Hospital that provides medical and skilled nursing services to patients with long-term illnesses who are not in an acute phase but require a level of service not available in a nursing home.

Psychiatric Hospital
Hospital that provides diagnostic and treatment services to patients with mental and/or emotional disorders.

Rehabilitation Hospital
Hospital that provides medical, health-related, social, and/or vocational services to disabled individuals to help them attain their maximum functional capacity.

Teaching Hospital
Hospital that has an accredited medical residency-training program and usually has affiliation with a medical school.

3) As the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence are closely related. Beneficence involves balancing the benefits of treatment against the risks and costs involved, whereas non-maleficence means avoiding the causation of harm. As many treatments involve some degree of harm, the principle of non-maleficence would imply that the harm should not be disproportionate to the benefit of the treatment.