by Marta Allison

Created on: October 05, 2008   Last Updated: October 08, 2008

Gone are the days of the one ward hospital where medical and surgical patients convalesce side by side.

Todays hospitals have expanded their mission considerably. The first and foremost goal continues to drive all health care workers, do no harm. Comfort and heal, educate, improve quality of life, improve function, improve community health, treat the mind as well as body, are equally as important.

Among the services most modern hospitals offer are:

Emergency Services...Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Critical Care certified professionals diagnose and treat everything from simple suturing of small lacerations, casting bone fractures, trauma or medical issues to victims of violent crimes,(stabbings, gunshot wounds, beatings), violent accidents,(falls, car accidents, work related injuries, sports and recreational injuries, which include traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, broken bones, ruptured organs, amputations,crush injuries,burns), to life threatening medical conditions,such as, heart attacks, breathing problems, strokes, blood clots, hemorrhage, aneurysms, cardiac arrhythmia's, and more. They can do suturing, casting, xrays,blood sample collection, arterial blood gas collection, IVs, central lines, invasive diagnostic procedures , all in the Emergency room. Most ERs employ Md's whose specialty is Emergency and Trauma Medicine. ERs have their own social workers to address ongoing care and social issues. Addiction Medicine and Psychiatric assessments are usually done in the ER as well. There are specially trained Rn's to attend to victims of sexual assault, by collection of evidential specimens, treating their physical and emotional trauma and coordinating future care and counselling.

All hospitals have medical and surgical units as well as some specialty units like, burn units, transplant units, pediatrics, cosmetic surgery suites, day surgery units.

Surgical Services are provided for routine events like tonsillectomies, appendectomies and gall bladder removals to open heart surgeries and organ transplants,and brain surgeries using state of the art technologies.

Medical Imaging departments offer xrays, ultrasound, CT scans, MRIs, PET scans, angiography, spinal injections under flouroscopy and nuclear medicine services.

Laboratories use "CSI" type instrumentation to test samples such as blood, urine, spinal fluid, amniotic fluid, tissues and a variety of body fluids for diagnosis and treatment.

Many have Cancer treatment centers that provide medical

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