Tertiary referral hospital
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A tertiary referral hospital or tertiary care center is a term without a formal definition which in the United States generally refers to:
- a major hospital that usually has a full complement of services including pediatrics, general medicine, various branches of surgery and psychiatry or
- a specialty hospital dedicated to specific subspecialty care (pediatric centers, Oncology centers, psychiatric hospitals). Patients will often be referred from smaller hospitals to a tertiary hospital for major operations, consultations with subspecialists and when sophisticated intensive care facilities are required.
In both the United Kingdom and the United States, a tertiary referral hospital can also mean any hospital that provides tertiary care.
Some examples of tertiary referral center care are:
- Head and neck oncology
- Perinatology (High-risk pregnancies)
- Neonatology (High-risk newborn care)
- PET scans
- Organ transplantation
- Trauma surgery
- High-dose chemotherapy for cancer cases
- Growth and puberty disorders.
