Hospital life
A patient goes to the hospital in the morning for tests and returns home the same day. Which word describes this patient?
outpatient
What is the difference?
Expected answer:
The police searched the apartment.
I’m looking for my glasses.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, outpatient services in many hospitals:
a) increased immediately
b) decreased temporarily
b) decreased temporarily
Which is most natural?
The doctor will:
a) attend the patient
b) see the patient
c) look the patient”
b) see the patient
Opposites:
decrease / less / decline (or decrease)
What is the difference between:
A doctor says:
“We’re searching the report.”
Is this natural?
Not very natural. Better:
“We’re looking for the report.”
Why might hospitals search for additional staff during flu season?
Because patient numbers increase.
Difference:
A hospital had 20% growth last quarter.
What does “quarter” mean?
A period of 3 months.
A nurse says:
“The ER is clogged.”
What probably happened?
Too many patients / the system is blocked / overcrowded.
Situation challenge:
Create a sentence about a missing MRI result using:
We’re looking for the MRI report.
A hospital report says:
“Employees are taking less time off.”
What might this indicate?
They might be under pressure.
The hospital could be busier.”
Situation:
A doctor forgot a patient’s name but says:
“I mean it, I’m really sorry.”
What does “I mean it” express?
Sincerity / seriousness.
Choose the best option:
Patient complaints became _____ frequent after the new system.
a) more
b) less
c) often
b) less
Complete naturally:
The hospital staff _____ working overtime because the number of patients has increased.
Expected answer:
must be / might be / could be
The hospital staff must be working overtime…
A hospital administrator says:
“We searched the database for the patient’s information.”
Why is “searched” correct here?
Because they examined a system/database carefully.
A patient says:
“I’ve been coughing more often this quarter.”
Why does “quarter” sound unusual here?
Because “quarter” is more common in business/reporting contexts.
Use:
I believe the report might contain an error.
Create a sentence using:
The report shows a long-term increase in diabetes cases.
Situation:
A patient has waited 4 hours in the emergency room.
Use:
The staff might be struggling to attend to all the patients.
Use:
in one realistic hospital sentence.
The IT team must be searching the system because too many files clogged the database.
Clinical deduction challenge.
Situation:
There must be a flu outbreak.
The hospital might be overwhelmed because respiratory cases increased.”
A hospital director speaks to the staff after a difficult quarter.
Use:
Our staff struggled this quarter, but we must focus on reaching our long-term goals.
A clinic hired 40 new employees after a strong quarter.
What might this indicate?
Use a modal of deduction.
The clinic must be growing quickly.
The business could be doing well financially.