Community hospital

A community hospital can be purely a nominal designation or have a more specific meaning. When specific, it refers to a hospital that is accessible to the general public, and provides a general or specific medical care which is usually short-term, in a cost-effective setting, and also focuses on preventing illnesses and not only treating them. The word community often occurs in the name of the hospital. The word community is used in the sense of a location-based community for a community hospital. The following sections describe community hospitals when referred to in specific countries.