Hospital Admissions A patient can be admitted to hospital in one of three ways: • as an outpatient (to see a consultant but not needing a bed) • as a day patient (needing a hospital bed for tests or minor surgery but not needing to stay overnight) • as an inpatient (needing to stay in hospital) It is relatively easy to organize beds for inpatients who come through a GP, but not so easy to predict numbers who come through A&E (the majority of total admissions). Because of the difficulty in predicting numbers, a hospital has to keep a number of empty beds available. It is important that accurate and clear medical records accompany patients from before admission and after discharge, and that they document all treatment, test results, and communications. Medical records are frequently referred to in law courts, and they are used for research. In many countries there are laws which govern who can have access to them. They consist of material such as: • handwritten medical notes • computerized files • correspondence between health professionals • laboratory reports • x-ray films and scans • photographs • printouts from monitoring equipment. As well as basic personal details, the form that is filled in for every patient on admission consists of details of past hospitalizations and surgeries, the name of a person to contact, whether the patient has insurance, and whether there are any advance directives. There are instructions from the patient about what efforts should or should not be made to extend their life and who is to make medical decisions in the event of them being in a coma. This information is given a code number, and in many hospitals it is written on a plastic bracelet and fixed to the patient’s wrist.