Inpatient care is the care of whose Disease requires admission to a hospital. Progress in modern medicine and the advent of comprehensive Clinic ensure that patients are only admitted to a hospital when they are extremely ill or have severe physical Physical trauma.
Patients' homes should also be visited and examined before they are discharged from the hospital to determine any immediate challenges and corresponding goals, adaptations and assistive devices that need to be implemented. Follow-up appointments should also be coordinated with the patient prior to discharge to monitor the patient's progress as well as any potential complications that may have arisen.
It is believed the first inpatient care in North America was provided by the Spain in the Dominican Republic in 1502; the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno in Mexico City was founded in 1524 and is still providing inpatient care.
Perhaps the most famous provider of inpatient care was Florence Nightingale who was the leading advocate for improving medical care in the mid-19th century. Nightingale gained fame and credibility during the Crimean War where she and 38 women volunteer nurses traveled to Crimea to treat wounded soldiers. During her first winter at the hospital 4077 soldiers died in the hospital there. She would use this experience to change the course of inpatient care by focusing on improving sanitary conditions and better living conditions within the hospital. Nightingale became known as "The Lady with the Lamp" and is still considered the founder of modern nursing. The Nightingale School of Nursing continues today and her image is the one depicted each year on nurses' day.
The concept of hospitalist medicine provides around-the-clock inpatient care from physicians whose sole practice is the hospital itself. They work with the community of primary care physicians to provide inpatient care and transition patients back to the care of their primary care provider upon discharge. Using this approach, primary care physicians are no longer required to make rounds or be on call.
Today, hospitalist medicine is the fastest growing segment of medicine and is being adopted by hospitals worldwide for inpatient care.
In 2011, approximately one quarter of hospital stays in the United States were in the intensive care unit; these accounted for nearly half the aggregate total hospital charges that year.
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