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 ...

health care facility A health facility is, in general, any location where healthcare is provided. Health facilities range from small clinics and doctor's offices to urgent care centers and large hospitals with elaborate emergency rooms and trauma centers. The numbe ...

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 ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera. It is listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the longest-running American soap opera in production, and the second in American history after '' ...

. The term was rare in English until recently and is still very rare in North America, but examples include the

polyclinics in England Polyclinics in England were intended to offer a greater range of services than were offered by current general practitioner (GP) practices and local health centres. In addition to traditional GP services they would offer extended urgent care, he ...

(large health care centres able to provide a wider range of services than a standard doctor's (GP) office) and

The Polyclinic The Polyclinic is a group of health care facilities in Seattle, Washington. It has over 14 locations and 200 primary care and specialty physicians in most areas of medicine. On-site services are available at several locations, including laborato ...

in Seattle, Washington, US. Most other languages use a cognate of the even rarer English term "

" (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

however use the term polyclinic more or less like the term policlinic and its cognates in other languages.

References

{{reflist Clinics Types of health care facilities

See also

References