Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 951.
Parts of a Hospital.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 951.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, become a member of ESL Podcast, and download a learning guide for this episode.
This episode is a dialogue that takes place at a hospital about the parts of a hospital.
Let's get started.
Why was she brought into the hospital?
I'm not sure.
I got a call from her coworker.
If it weren't an accident then she wouldn't be in the emergency room or the trauma unit.
Then she might be in the cardiology department.
If she is in severe condition, she'll be in the ICU.
It may also be the baby.
She's pregnant.
Then she might be in the obstetrics and gynecology department.
And if the baby has been born, it would be in the neonatal unit.
I'm just not sure where to go.
Maybe I'll start in the cardiology department.
That's fine.
Go past the neurology and oncology departments, and it's on your right.
If you see the burn unit, then you've gone too far.
You can't look her up for me to see if she's been admitted?
I'm sorry, but our computer systems are down right now.
If you wait until they're up again, I can try to find her for you.
And go out of my mind worrying?
No thanks.
I'm going to find her even if I have to look behind every bedpan.
Our dialogue begins by Jordan saying to an employee of the hospital Excuse me, my girlfriend was brought into the hospital about two hours ago, but I can't find her.
Jordan is speaking to the admissions clerk.
If you are admitted to a hospital, that means that you are formally registered, usually to stay overnight or to stay for a longer period in the hospital.
The person who takes care of the paperwork, of getting your information, your insurance documents and so forth, is called the admissions clerk.
The word admissions comes from the verb to admit, to let into.
The admissions clerk says, why was she brought into the hospital?
Jordan says, I'm not sure.
I got a call from her coworker, but she didn't give me any details.
The admissions.
Clerk says if it weren't an accident then she wouldn't be in the emergency room or the trauma unit.
The emergency room or in a hospital, sometimes called the ER by its initials, is the part of the hospital that treats or takes care of people who have very serious or dangerous medical problems that need to be treated right away.
If you break your leg or you have a cut in your arm and it's bleeding, or you would go to the emergency room.
You can't wait to make an appointment to go see your doctor next week.
You have to go right now.
A trauma.
T-R-A-U-M-A unit is a part of a hospital that takes care of people who have injuries like a broken leg, but not illnesses like influenza or some other disease.
Trauma units take care of people who have had accidents, physical injuries that usually result from some activity, such as playing sports or driving a car and getting in a car accident.
That sort of thing.
Jordan says it may have been her heart.
She has a heart condition.
A heart condition is when you have some problem with your heart.
Some problem that might be serious enough for you to have to go to a hospital for example.
People who have heart conditions can have a lot of different things wrong with the heart.
It's just a general term.
The admissions clerk then says...
Then she might be in the cardiology department.
Cardiology, C-A-R-D-I-O-L-O-G-Y, is an area of medicine that deals with the heart.
It's the area of The clerk says if she is in severe condition, she'll be in the ICU.
The ICU is the intensive care unit.
The word unit in a hospital just means the section or area.
Intensive care is when someone is very sick or perhaps even close to dying.
And so you need someone to be watching over them, to be looking after them 24 hours a day.
The intensive care unit is the place where people go with all sorts of different kinds of illnesses and problems, but who are all in danger of dying really.
Jordan says, it may also be the baby.
She's pregnant.
To be pregnant, P-R-E-G-N-A-N-T, means you are expecting a baby.
You are expecting a child.
The situation in this dialogue, as in other dialogues, is meant to reflect the changes that have taken place in some cases in the US.
These are situations that are not necessarily the same as in other countries or, for that matter, even a few years ago here in the US.
It has become common in the past 20 years for a larger percentage of women to get pregnant before they get married and even have children before they are married.
The admissions clerk says then she might be in the obstetrics and gynecology department.
Obstetrics O-B-S-T-E-T-R-I-C-S is the area of medicine related to childbirth, to the care of women who are pregnant and who are having a baby.
Gynecology G-Y-N-E-C-O-L-O-G-Y is the area of medicine that deals with illnesses and diseases affecting girls and women.
Affecting females.
A man would not go to a gynecology department unless he were the doctor in the gynecology department.
If you need more explanations about this, you can talk to your own doctor or maybe your parents.
The admissions clerk says if the baby has been born and of course one would think Jordan would know if that were about to happen, it would be in the neonatal unit.
Neonatal N-E-O-N-A-T-A-L is the part of the hospital that takes care of babies who have been born very recently, usually within say, 24 hours of the birth.
Jordan, who is quite clearly a confused person at this point, says, I'm not sure where to go.
Of course, it seems unlikely that the girlfriend wouldn't have a telephone, a cell phone, nowadays.
But well, Jordan apparently doesn't think of that.
He says, maybe I'll start in the cardiology department.
The admissions clerk says, that's fine, okay.
Go past the neurology and oncology departments, and it's on your right.
The neurology N-E-U-R-O-L-O-G-Y department is the part of the hospital that takes care of people who have problems with their brain and what is called the nervous system.
The nervous system is the way that the body communicates messages, or the brain communicates messages to the rest of the body.
You could say
So if you have a problem with your brain, like my neighbor, then you might be in the neurology department.
There's also a part of the hospital called an oncology, O-N-C-O-L-O-G-Y department.
An oncology department takes care of people who have cancer.
The admissions clerk says, if you see the burn unit, then you've gone too far.
In other words, if you are walking down the hallway of the hospital and you see something called the burn unit, you've walked too far.
You have to turn around and go back.
The burn B-U-R-N unit is the part of the hospital that treats people who have been burned by fire or some other hot object.
Jordan says, you can't look her up for me to see if she's been admitted.
Jordan is asking the admissions clerk if she can give him that information by looking it up.
To look someone up is a phrasal verb meaning to search for that person, usually nowadays in a database that is in a computer.
To be admitted, as we mentioned earlier, means to be formally taken into and registered at a hospital.
Jordan wants to know if the admissions clerk can just look up the information for him.
That isn't always possible, especially if you're not a family member.
In fact, In many hospitals there are strict rules about the kind of information you can get by talking to the admissions office.
But that doesn't seem to be the problem here.
The admissions clerk says, I'm sorry, but our computer systems are down right now.
When we say the computer systems are down, we mean the computer isn't working again.
She says, if you wait until they're up again, I can try to find her for you.
If you wait until the computer systems are working again, then the admissions clerk says she can try to find the girlfriend for Jordan.
Jordan says, and go out of my mind worrying?
To go out of your mind means to go crazy, to become irrational, usually because you're very worried or anxious about something.
Jordan says, no thanks.
I'm going to find her even if I have to look behind every bedpan.
A bedpan B-E-D-P-A-N.
One word, bedpan is a small container that is used for people, basically to do what they would normally do in a bathroom.
But if they can't get out of their bed, they need somewhere to go, we would say, informally.
And that is what a bedpan is.
What Jordan is really saying is that he's going to look everywhere to find her instead of just waiting for the computer system to come back up.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Excuse me, my girlfriend was brought into the hospital about two hours ago, but I can't find her.
Why was she brought into the hospital?
If it weren't an accident, then she wouldn't be in the emergency room or the trauma unit.
Then she might be in the cardiology department.
If she's in severe condition, she'll be in the ICU.
It may also be the baby.
She's pregnant. then she might be in the obstetrics and gynecology department.
And if the baby has been born, it would be in the neonatal unit.
I'm just not sure where to go.
Maybe I'll start in the cardiology department.
That's fine.
Go past the neurology and oncology departments, and it's on your right.
If you see the burn unit, then you've gone too far.
You can't look her up for me to see if she's been admitted?
I'm sorry, but our computer systems are down right now.
If you wait until they're up again, I can try to find her for you.
And go out of my mind worrying?
No thanks.
I'm going to find her, even if I have to look behind every bedpan.
You don't need to look up the name of our script writer anywhere.
I'll tell you.
It's Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
