Hospitalization

Inpatient care is the care of patients whose condition requires admission to a hospital. 
Inpatient care is care provided in a hospital or other type of inpatient facility, where you are admitted, and spend at least one night—sometimes more—depending on your condition.

As an inpatient:

• You are under the care of doctors, nurses, and other types of health care professionals within a hospital.
• You are often admitted to a particular service, such as Neurology, Cardiology, Orthopedics, Oncology, General Surgery, etc., depending on what you are being treated for.
• You may be an inpatient due to surgery, illness, childbirth, or traumatic injury.
• Your inpatient stay may have been planned ahead—such as a knee replacement surgery or childbirth.
• Your stay may have been the result of an emergency or unplanned illness or injury, such as a heart attack or serious car accident.You are in need of medicine, care, monitoring, and medical treatment—the kind that’s provided by around-the-clock medical staff.

Once a doctor decides you no longer require inpatient care, you are discharged from the facility. Discharge notes often include instructions to follow up with various doctors, take prescribed medications, and even receive outpatient services, if needed.