Hospital or a super speciality hospital 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. Health is a primary human right and has been accorded due importance by the Constitution.
Today, hospitals usually are funded by the public sector, by health organizations, (for profit or nonprofit), health insurance companies or charities, including by direct charitable donations. In history, however, hospitals often were founded and funded by religious orders or charitable individuals and leaders. Similarly, modern-day hospitals are largely staffed by professional physicians, surgeons, and nurses, whereas in history, this work usually was performed by the founding religious orders or by volunteers.
Types of specialized hospitals include trauma centers, rehabilitation hospitals, children's hospitals, seniors' (geriatric) hospitals, and hospitals for dealing with specific medical needs such as psychiatric problems (see psychiatric hospital), certain disease categories, and so forth. A hospital may be a single building or a number of buildings on a campus. A teaching hospital combines assistance to patients with teaching to medical students and nurses and often is linked to a medical school, nursing school or university. Hospitals vary widely in the services they offer and therefore, in the departments they have.
Some of the top hospitals in India includes All India Institute Of Medical Science, Delhi, Post Graduate Institute Of Medical Education And Research, Chandigarh, Apollo Hospital, Chennai,
Christian Medical College, Vellore, National Institute Of Mental Health And Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, Bombay Hospital, Mumbai etc. to name a few.
Health is a primary human right and has been accorded due importance by the Constitution through Article 21.Though Article 21 stresses upon state governments to safeguard the health and nutritional well being of the people, the central government also plays an active role in the sector. Recognizing the critical role played by the Health Industry, the industry has been conferred with the infrastructure status under section 10(23G) of the Income Act.
The healthcare sector is one of the most challenging and fastest growing sectors in India. Revenues from the healthcare sector account for 5.2 per cent of the GDP, making it the third largest growth segment in India.
The healthcare industry in the country, which comprises hospital and allied sectors, is projected to grow 23 per cent per annum. According to McKinsey & Co. a leading industrial and management consulting organization, the Indian healthcare sector, including pharmaceutical, diagnostics and hospital services, is expected to more than double its revenues to Rs 2000 billion by 2010. Expenditure on healthcare services, including diagnostics, hospital occupancy and outpatient consulting, the largest component of this spend is expected to grow more than 125% to Rs 1560 billion by 2012 from Rs 690 billion now.
The sector has registered a growth of 9.3 per cent between 2000-2009, comparable to the sectoral growth rate of other emerging economies such as China, Brazil and Mexico. According to the report, the growth in the sector would be driven by healthcare facilities, private and public sector, medical diagnostic and pathology labs and the medical insurance sector.
Healthcare facilities, inclusive of public and private hospitals, the core sector, around which the healthcare sector is centered, would continue to contribute over 70 per cent of the total sector and touch a figure of US$ 54.7 billion by 2012. Adds a FICCI-Ernst and Young report, India needs an investment of US$ 14.4 billion in the healthcare sector by 2025, to increase its bed density to at least two per thousand populations.
In India, the emergence of private medicare services, especially through commercialization and corporatization, has contributed to the transformation. The rapid commercialization of the medical practices with the establishment of multi-million rupee hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres, specialized and general, the demand has registered a very high growth rate in the recent years.