Wikipedia:WikiProject Hospitals/Tutorials

Guidelines

Naming conventions

Hospital articles should follow the WP:COMMONNAME policy. If disambiguation is needed because several hospitals have the same name, it should adhere to the "Hospital (Town)" or "Hospital, Town" format, depending on the local convention. If both the hospital and town/city name are the same, then you would generally use the "Hospital (Town, State)" format.

Format of articles

• Place {{Infobox hospital}} at the top of the article.
• Avoid promotional laundry lists of services provided.

Notability

Hospitals, clinics, and related organizations must comply with the WP:ORG notability standard, which requires, as an absolute minimum:

1. that the hospital has been noticed by two unrelated, independent third-party sources,
2. that at least one source that discusses the organization in-depth (many paragraphs directly about the hospital), and
3. that at least one source that is outside of the organization's local/service area.

A single author or publisher counts as only one source, regardless of the number of publications by this person. Routine coverage and passing mentions (such as "The victim was taken to E. Normous Medical Center" or "Dr Smith of Smallville Hospital, said...") do not count.

Nearly all hospitals, regardless of size, and most medical clinics and related organizations will have been the subject of at least one in-depth article in their local newspaper. In practice, large, regional hospitals will almost always meet all of these standards, but some smaller hospitals and many clinics will not.

Hospitals that do not meet all parts of this standard do not qualify for a stand-alone article, and should instead be described in a section on healthcare or emergency services in their hometown articles or parent organization, with suitable redirects from the hospital's name. Additionally, if the independent sources available to you would not permit you to write more than one or two paragraphs, then it may be preferable to add that information to a larger article, with appropriate redirects.

Finding sources

Search engines do not always do a good job of finding articles, so sometimes you have to dig a little. You should start with a search engine to find a good regional, national, or international source.

TV stations may be considered as a regional source, so a search of their websites may generate some results. Local and regional newspapers will usually cover a significant event, usually associated with the anniversary of the hospital, purchase of new equipment, or major expansion.