When the profession of medicine was just in its infancy, medicines were made by the doctors even as the patients were examined and treated in one single room. However, with passing of time, the medicine world became more organized. Today, those self-made medicines are completely lost in the din of mechanically manufactured medicines. However, medicine is not the only segment where machines have made their foray. There is now complex machinery for each and every task that was earlier performed by hand or not performed at all. With so much changing around, those one-room clinics too have not remained the same.
The first changes appeared when medical practitioners decided to expand the one-room clinic to a two or three room establishment in the wake of patients that required a constant vigil. While clinic have made further progress, these establishments can still be found in several small towns and locations. Now certain situations began coming up where patients would require vigilance for longer duration. For this purpose, clinics expanded even further, including several rooms and comprehensive treatment units. This huge establishment now came to be termed as a hospital. As it has come to be seen now, hospitals too have evolved from the initial definitions. While initially hospitals were only for single-doctors, now multi-specialized hospitals are coming up with a boom. The focus of these hospitals is to provide the patients with a complete experience, where they can get their complete health checked. These multi-specialty hospitals are the talk of the day and have changed the entire lookout of people. Certain norms have also come to play where hospitals catering to more than one specialty will only be considered as a hospital.
A lot of commercialization is happening in the field of hospital. With big companies and establishments coming to the forefront, the competition and services provided to the patients is also seeing a change. The hospitals now come equipped with everything starting from pathology labs, doctor consultations, rooms to keep patients for more than a few hours to Intensive care Units, chemists, café, mess and the list goes on.
As the competition strengthens, the hospitals are taking a more privatized and service-oriented outlook. Separate managers are being allotted for looking after the maintenance and proper working of the hospitals. The nurses work properly and on time. The toilets are speck clean, with a 24-hour cleaner employed to ensure clean sanitary conditions. A separate dietician dedicates what kind of food should be catered to the patient and the same is served made especially within the hospital mess. Air conditioned or heated rooms, depending on the season have become a must, even as the entire hospital enjoys centralized cooling or heating systems.
Gone are the days when one would find visiting hospitals as one of the most trying of all tasks. The dirtiness, unhygienic conditions, rats jumping around, rooms without electricity, cries and filth all around - all that had become synonymous with a public hospital - is now taking a change for good. Simply go and visit your nearest hospital and feel elevated into a world full of luxury, class and health!
