Noun

hospital (plural hospitals)

1. A building designed to diagnose and treat the sick, injured or dying. Usually has a staff of doctors and nurses to aid in the treatment of patients.
2. A building founded for the long term care of its residents, such as an almshouse. The residents may have no physical ailments, but simply need financial support.
3. (obsolete) A place of lodging.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.ix:

     they spide a goodly castle, plast / Foreby a riuer in a pleasaunt dale, / Which choosing for that euenings hospitale, / They thither marcht [...].

Related terms

• hospitable
• hospitality

Danish

A hospital, in the modern sense of the word, is an institution for health care providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment, and often, but not always providing for longer-term patient stays. Its historical meaning, until relatively recent times, was "a place of hospitality", for example the Chelsea Royal Hospital, established in 1681 to house veteran soldiers.

Today, hospitals are usually funded by the public sector, by health organizations, (for profit or nonprofit), health insurance companies or charities, including by direct charitable donations. Historically, however, hospitals were often founded and funded by religious orders or charitable individuals and leaders. Conversely, modern-day hospitals are largely staffed by professional physicians, surgeons, and nurses, whereas in history, this work was usually performed by the founding religious orders or by volunteers. Today, there are various Catholic religious orders, such as the Alexians and the Bon Secours Sisters which still focus on hospital ministry.