A polyclinic (where ''poly'' means "many"; not to be confused with the homonym
policlinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
, where ''poli'' means "city" and which is sometimes used for a hospital's outpatient department) is a
clinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
or
health care facility that provides both general and specialist examinations and treatments for a wide variety of diseases and injuries to
outpatient
A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health care ...
s and is usually independent of a hospital. When a polyclinic is so large that it is in fact a hospital, it is also called a
general hospital.
The term was rare in English until recently and is still very rare in North America, but examples include the
polyclinics in England (large health care centres able to provide a wider range of services than a standard doctor's (GP) office) and
The Polyclinic in Seattle, Washington, US.
Most other languages use a cognate of the even rarer English term "
policlinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
" (spelled similarly to and pronounced the same as the English term "polyclinic") for
outpatient departments (outpatient clinics) of (public) hospitals and for large independent (public) clinics for outpatients. Some languages, for example French, specifically use a cognate of "polyclinic" to refer to private outpatient clinics.
Due to the different meanings of "poly" and "poli", it was traditionally considered incorrect to use the English term "polyclinic" for European policlinics. In addition, European policlinics (called "poliklinik", "policlinique", "поликлиника"
oliklinika or similarly in other languages) are more like hospitals or are part of a hospital and are public and therefore free or inexpensive whereas polyclinics are traditionally much less structured and comprehensive organizations consisting of a usually haphazard collection of more or less independent offices of private doctors. The
polyclinics in England however use the term polyclinic more or less like the term policlinic and its cognates in other languages.
See also
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Outpatient department of a hospital (rarely called ''policlinic'' in American English, and only when referring to European hospital outpatient departments)
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References
{{reflist
Clinics
Types of health care facilities