Sidestepping the "chiropractors are not doctors" issue, is clinic not just a plural of doctors? 1 doctor = doctor, 2 doctors (and/or nurses) = clinic?

ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 12d (1 reply)

A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs of populations in local communities, in contrast to larger hospitals which offer more specialized treatments and admit inpatients for overnight stays.

Most commonly, the English word clinic refers to a general practice, run by one or more general practitioners offering small therapeutic treatments, but it can also mean a specialist clinic. Some clinics retain the name "clinic" even while growing into institutions as large as major hospitals or becoming associated with a hospital or medical school.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinic

A clinic is a place, not a group of people.

CameronDev@programming.dev · 1 pts · 12d

I'll buy that definition a little, but there are "clinics" that are spread across multiple locations. And worse, the most famous "clinic", The Mayo Clinic, is hospital sized, and across multiple locations.

¯\(ツ)/¯

calliope@retrolemmy.com · 3 pts · 12d

No, it’s more nuanced than just a plural of “doctor.”

Wikipedia goes into more detail, but there are a lot of groups of doctors that are not clinics. Most general practitioners and family doctors aren’t in clinics, for example.

I found this brief explanation helpful:

Most commonly, the English word clinic refers to a general practice, run by one or more general practitioners offering small therapeutic treatments, but it can also mean a specialist clinic. Some clinics retain the name "clinic" even while growing into institutions as large as major hospitals or becoming associated with a hospital or medical school.

The important things being that clinics mainly offer “small therapeutic treatments” or have specialists.

Many (maybe even most) other doctors work at hospitals or offices that aren’t clinics.

Hospitals differ from clinics in the severity of things they can treat. Family doctors and personal general practitioners tend to work in something other than a clinic.