Talk:Tag:amenity=clinic

Please create new topics for discussion using the Add topic tab above. Don't forget to sign your posts with --~~~~. You may wish to use Template:Resolved and its friends to mark resolved issues. --achadwick 23:41, 30 September 2011 (BST)

Remote areas, mobile clinics

Should mobile health clinics be tagged like this? In some remote/undeveloped areas they may be the only thing going. I guess only tag if they run on a reliable schedule, and if opening_hours=* can be used to express when they're available? First-world mapper here, so no experience of how these things operate elsewhere. Hints and cluebats welcome! --achadwick 00:03, 1 October 2011 (BST)

Photo

Could somebody add a photo to the main page please? Ideally of the exterior of such a building. --achadwick 00:04, 1 October 2011 (BST)

Resolved: Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 15:10, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Is size an acceptable criterion for calling something an amenity=clinic?

Should we be stressing size as a distinguishing factor as much as we do? I've hum'ed and ha'ed and stuck my finger in the sand at "tens of staff", but it's almost certain that anyone can find examples of things called "clinics" in their country which have more or fewer staff, or where size isn't really anything special in the naming. FWIW, I'm using a rough model of what Wikipedia is calling a "general out-patient clinic" or "polyclinic", possibly with a hint of the US-style "free clinic" too.

I still think we need to say it's a centre between a diagnosing/minor surgery place (doctor, dentist, optometrist, whatever), and an inpatient/major surgery place (hospital). Both in terms of care offered and (probably, but less importantly) rough size.

--achadwick 00:30, 1 October 2011 (BST)

I athink size is only in some cases importent. This depends on the definiton of a "clinic". If it is a outpatient treatment facility of a hospital, then it may bigger then one building and have more then e.g. ten physicians/staff. --Fabi2 03:18, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

health services in developing countries

I am doing some mapping for a village in Papua New guinea. It has two types of health care features.

The main one is called a "health centre", it has no doctors, three nurses, can prescribe drugs, give family planning advice, first aid, set broken bones, (e.g. malarials), has a birthing room (of sorts). Has one bed for emergency care of a patient. It is the main health care facility for around 3000 people. Is this a clinic? Maybe the discussion is more about how many people it serves and what services are provided than how many staff. There are probably fewer than 10 doctors in the whole of the province!

The second facility is a very small building for "Village heatlh volunteers". There are about 7 of these. These are locations where a volunteer health worker can provide simple first aid, dispense drugs prescribed above. They are also places where "vaccination clinics" and community education may take place. This is perhaps more like a "pharmacy".

What I have found using OSM is that it is very western centric and does not cope so well with developing country contexts across a whole range of facilities.

Graham

Thanks for pointing this out. I tried to make it a bit wider open with Proposed_features/Healthcare 2.0, but a "health centre" seems to be a different thing in every country. I will look on it and will try to make the proposal a little bit better, so you hopefully have not to tag every nurse, at least, if they have their own traditonal medical system there. But it also allows to define and add additional facilities for the western medical system. --Fabi2 04:10, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

I made some better definitons (and will make some more) and now the first facilities can be put in the clinic and the second in the frist aid facility category of Healthcare 2.0. --Fabi2 03:48, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

What really is a "clinic" today?

I am looking for a good definition of a "clinic" in contrast to physician's office and hospital.

Originating from greece "clinic" means something like "education and research on inpatients and their illnisses". But why then call some health facilities themselves "clinic" and not "hospital" ("hospital" clearly refers to inpatient care), today? Why a "clinic" is then a facility to treat outpatients besides from a hospital, which treats inpatients? And if there may be a size limit for a clinic, why this is then a highly specialized healh care facility whith maybe inpatient care? So they may need the staff of a very small hospital, e.g. for their surgeries?

Is "clinic" just an other word for hospital? I can make an arbitray abtract definition of "clinic" based on some of the above definitions, but this is then less reality compatible for the mappers. --Fabi2 03:52, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

In small villages, there are places that offer medical care, but can not offer hospitalization. dr&mx 17:30, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Apologies for the imprecision of English. Ultimately the source of the word "clinic" is Greek, but has come to us via Latin and French. Expect an oddly-assorted set of definitions! Both the dictionary definition and the Wikipedia page highlight outpatient care and I suggest retaining that criterion that in the OSM tag documentation: amenity=clinics are for outpatient care; amenity=hospitals are for inpatient care. amenity=clinics are smaller, but not as small as an amenity=doctors; amenity=hospitals are bigger.

The blurb about clinics being "[buildings] where a specific, specialised branch of medicine is practised" comes about because some such places might be found within hospitals and call themselves "clinics". Perhaps this should be dropped. Probably we should add a note about amenity=clinic not denoting being some kind of research facility as well.

--achadwick 10:17, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

It also think it's best to define it as only outpatient care, even if it is not in reality. Clinic is also used as a term and branch in psysician's training, which relates to the recognition (and reseach) of disease if a physician see an (maybe) inpatient in his bed. In this cases, as far as I know, it refers to specilized inpatient care facilities, as the do this type of research on the development to the disease in the inpatient.

How big an amenity=doctor can be, to be not called amenity=clinic? E.g. Is a bigger facility (they use one building for their "office") of three ophthalmologists and one anaesthesiologist, which do also day surgery, already a clinic? I ask as I also look for a good definition for Proposed_features/Healthcare 2.0 and there may be cases where is no plate with "office" or "clinic" on it. -Fabi2 04:30, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

The difference doctors from the (outpatient) clinic in the fact that in one place inspected, and the other procedures performed dr&mx 08:32, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

This only depends on the resources, e.g. apropriate staff the health care related facility has. There are bigger physician's offices where ther do day surgery, if you mean this with "procedures". --Fabi2 22:26, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Now I made this definition for a clinic: "A (poly)clinic is an integrated health facility which treats > 50% outpatients. The staff works together coordinated under a common leadership/management and so, other resources, such as equipment, are also shared. This facility usually spans at least one building on the whole." --Fabi2 03:48, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Rendering

Shouldn't a clinic be rendered in the same way that hospitals are? --AnderOSM (talk) 23:43, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Rendering is considered here.--Zuse (talk) 19:32, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Further more, the colours should be changed: red cross on white (now it is a white cross on red, that means Switzerland!) --Männedorf (talk) 22:51, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Resolved: rendering is handled by data consumers and not decided at OSM Wiki Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 15:10, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Suggestion to use healthcare=yes instead

I don't think it's correct to suggest use of "healthcare=yes" for a doctor's office or surgery, or a clinic. The example just added by Floridaeditor is:

"i.e. a clinic that practises only orthopædics). However, this is not correct. healthcare=yes with healthcare:specialty=orthopaedics is the correct way to map, as documented by the page healthcare=*, and should be used instead."

An orthopedist is a physician, so her office is a amenity=doctors, or perhaps a amenity=clinic if it is a large facility with a number of different orthopedic surgeons who practice at the same location. The tag healthcare=yes should not be used when something more specific can be tagged instead - actually, I can't think of any appropriate uses of that tag, it's like using office=yes. --Jeisenbe (talk) 13:02, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

that does not admit inpatients

Why this criterium was applied? Is it actually followed? How object that does admit inpatients and otherwise fulfills requirements would be tagged? Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 07:22, 23 October 2021 (UTC)

See https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2021-October/062698.html - as amenity=hospital Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 15:09, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Resolved: Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 15:09, 6 January 2022 (UTC)