Clinic
Health facility focused on outpatient care, from general practice to specialist services.
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded, typically covering the primary care needs of local communities, in contrast to larger hospitals that offer more specialized treatments and admit inpatients for overnight stays. The word clinic derives from Ancient Greek κλίνειν (klinein) meaning to slope, lean or recline, and κλίνη (klinē) meaning a couch or bed, with κλινικός (klinikos) referring to a physician who visits patients in their beds.
- field
- Healthcare
- known_for
- Providing outpatient care, often as general practices or specialist clinics
- types
- General practice, specialist clinic, polyclinic, mobile clinic, free clinic, retail-based clinic
- etymology
- From Ancient Greek κλίνειν (klinein) meaning to slope, lean or recline
Lore & Background
Clinics are often associated with a general medical practice run by one or several general practitioners. Other types are run by specialists: physical therapy clinics by physiotherapists, psychology clinics by clinical psychologists, and so on. Some clinics are operated in-house by employers, government organizations, or hospitals, while some clinical services are outsourced to private corporations. In China, owners of such clinics do not have formal medical education, and there were 659,596 village clinics in China in 2011. Health care in India, China, Russia and Africa is provided to rural areas by mobile health clinics or roadside dispensaries, some integrating traditional medicine, such as ayurvedic and unani herbal practice in India.
Reader's Guide
The function of clinics differs from country to country. A local general practice run by a single general practitioner provides primary health care and is usually run as a for-profit business, whereas a government-run specialist clinic may provide subsidized or specialized care. Some clinics serve as a place for people with injuries or illnesses to be seen by a triage nurse or other health worker, often less expensive than a casualty department and not open 24/7/365. Large outpatient clinics, sometimes called policlinics, are common in France, Germany, Switzerland, Central and Eastern Europe, former Soviet republics, and many countries across Asia and Africa. In Cuba, policlinics are the backbone of the primary care system. Mobile clinics provide accessible healthcare to remote areas, as seen in Costa Rica and Namibia, where they improved child health and nutrition. The variety of clinic types—from free clinics in the United States to retail-based clinics in supermarkets—demonstrates the adaptability of the clinic model to different healthcare needs and settings.
Did You Know?
- The word clinic derives from Ancient Greek κλίνειν (klinein) meaning to slope, lean or recline.
- An early use of the word clinic was 'one who receives baptism on a sick bed'.
- In China, owners of village clinics do not have formal medical education; there were 659,596 village clinics in China in 2011.
- In the Czech Republic, many policlinics were privatized or leasehold and decentralized in the post-communist era.
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