ABSTRACT
The healthcare environment starts with the emergency medical services that may be bringing the patient to the medical facility. The healthcare facilities are a mixture of temporary or permanent housing and health management practices which include primary care, diagnostic care, acute care, complex health care, rehabilitation, and continuing care. These actions take place in hospitals, stand-alone surgical units, nursing homes, facilities for the aged, rehabilitation centers, assisted living facilities, and individual homes and doctors’ offices. For the purposes of this discussion, the greatest amount of information will be about the hospital and its environment and then much briefer material will be provided on some of the other facilities (See endnotes 1, 6).
