Jeff Pulver has a really good post about hospitals being less than visitor, or patient friendly when it comes to working there as a visitor.
Hospital care in the USA though considered the model for the world is dropping. HMO’s, managed care, budget constraints and such are making even the most modern hospitals more like prisons than care facilities. Despite all the technology we posess, the emphasis at them is about treatment with profit as the motive. Since charities have a harder time raising money, it means the hospitals they support have to make due with less.
Hopefully the more forward thinking newer hospitals in newer communities reverse this trend.