A community hospital can be purely a nominal designation or have a more specific meaning. When specific, it refers to a hospital that is accessible to the general public, and provides a general or specific medical care which is usually short-term, in a cost-effective setting, and also focuses on preventing illnesses and not only treating them.[1][2][3] The word community often occurs in the name of the hospital. The word community is used in the sense of a location-based community for a community hospital. The following sections describe community hospitals when referred to in specific countries.