Okuzeka
Medicine vocabulary · Hospital Departments and Staff

Inpatient

Meaning in medicine, with examples

/ˈɪnpeɪʃənt/nounCore term

In medicine, inpatient means: A patient who stays in hospital for at least one night while they are tested or treated.

In Turkish: yatan hasta, yatarak tedavi gören hasta

How it is used

The opposite of outpatient. Used as a noun and as an adjective: 'inpatient bed', 'inpatient care', 'inpatient stay'. Doctors say a patient 'needs to be managed as an inpatient' when it is not safe to send them home.

Example sentences

  1. He was an inpatient for ten days after his hip operation.

  2. We don't have any inpatient beds, so she'll have to wait in the emergency department.

Common collocations

  • inpatient bed
  • inpatient care
  • inpatient stay
  • inpatient ward
  • as an inpatient
  • outpatientA patient who visits a hospital or clinic for an appointment, test or treatment without staying overnight; also used as an adjective for this kind of care.
  • admitTo accept a patient into hospital so that they stay in a bed for treatment or observation, usually for at least one night.
  • wardA part of a hospital with beds where patients stay overnight or longer, usually for one specialty, such as a surgical or children's ward.
  • dischargeTo officially let a patient leave hospital or a clinic's care because they no longer need it there. As a noun it can also mean fluid that comes out of the body.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Hospital Departments and Staff

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.