A '''hospital''' is a health facility where [[patient]]s receive care, often by trained professionals.
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In western civilization, many hospitals were founded by [[Christian]] religious orders such as the [[Knights of St. John]].<ref>The New American Desk Encyclopedia, Penguin Group, 1989</ref>
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Hospital care has improved greatly over earlier times due to the work of [[Louis Pasteur]] on germ theory and [[Joseph Lister]] who implemented [[antiseptic]] cleaning.