Patients and Treatment
Admit patients, diagnose their condition and treat them before time runs out.
Hospital capacity
Your Hospital board has four spaces. Each Outpatient Clinic and Clinical Trial card adds one Patient space. Patients cannot be moved after assignment. If you have no free space, still draw the Patient in case it is Terminal; reject any other Patient and lower Quality of Care by one per rejection. If several arrive and there is not room for all, choose which to admit.
- Space one · 2. Space two · 3. Space three · 4. Space four.
Diagnosing and healing
During Treatment, pay Diagnostics equal to the Patient’s diagnostic difficulty and flip it to reveal the treatment side. Then pay Healing equal to its healing difficulty. On a cure, gain the listed Credits and Victory Points, advance your treated-patient track, and put the Patient on top of the Patient deck. Staff can replace Diagnostics or Healing; Congress Doctors can act as Staff.
You may diagnose and heal Patients in any order and repeat either action while you have resources. Once revealed, a Patient cannot be hidden again. Partial healing is allowed by placing resources on a Patient; unresolved Patients still receive Time in Cleanup.
Patient priorities
| Priority | What happens |
|---|---|
| 4 — Non-severe | No death deadline. They do not receive Time once diagnosed. |
| 3 — Chronic | Healing difficulty is the number of Time tokens on the Patient. At zero Time, they heal without Healing resources. |
| 2 — Severe | Dies at two Time tokens. |
| 1 — Critical | Does not need diagnosis; must be cured in the round it arrives or it dies when Time is added. |
| Terminal | Takes no Hospital space. Treat with one Healing in the arrival round. If untreated it dies; if treated, it stays and needs one Healing each round to maintain its recurring reward. |
Patient deaths
After adding Time, Priority 1 dies with any Time; Priority 2 dies at two; a Terminal Patient dies at one. An undiagnosed Patient with two or more Time is briefly checked by the other players, without revealing its difficulty to its owner. In solo, check only the priority corner without looking at the treatment details. Put a dead Patient on top of the deck with its diagnosis side up, return its resources to supply, and reduce Quality of Care by two (one for Terminal Patients).
Using helicopters
A Helicopter can remove one Patient from your hospital, make all players draw one Patient, or do both. This can rescue capacity or trade one difficult case for a new arrival. Read the Ambulance rewards for its other benefits.