inpatient
n.a person who stays in a hospital for at least one night to get medical care. You use this word to distinguish them from people who visit for just an hour or two.
n.a patient who is admitted to a hospital or clinic for treatment that requires at least one overnight stay. Often contrasted with 'outpatient'.
“The hospital provides meals and a bed for every inpatient.”
“After the surgery, he was moved to the surgical ward as an inpatient for three days of observation.”
“The facility is designed to accommodate both acute inpatients requiring constant monitoring and outpatients who only visit for brief physical therapy sessions.”
Commonly used as a modifier in noun phrases like 'inpatient care' or 'inpatient treatment'.
While the hyphenated form exists in older texts, modern medical and general English prefers the closed compound 'inpatient'.
“In Sudan, 37 percent of facilities were reported non-functional in 2026, while only three per cent of assessed facilities had inpatient care, he said.”
“Preventable illness accounts for half of GP appointments and 70% of inpatient hospital bed days.”