Example sentences
yī医yuàn院zài在nǎ哪ér儿？
Where is the hospital?
tā他qù去yī医yuàn院le了。
He went to the hospital.
About this word
医 is to heal and 院 started out as a walled courtyard, then came to mean an institution housed in one. So 医院 is a "healing institution". Read 院 that way and a cluster of words opens up: 学院 (college), 法院 (law court), 电影院 (cinema), 博物院 (museum). 医院 is the building and the organization, never the person; a doctor is 医生. You go there with 去: 去医院.
The story behind the character
医
The traditional 醫 is a container holding 矢 (an arrow) and 酉 (wine). The ancients treated wounds with an arrow for surgery (lancing, bleeding) and wine for disinfection. So the earliest doctor's toolkit was one arrow and one jug of wine.
院
院 is 阝 on the left with 完 supplying the sound. That 阝 is 阜, which began as a picture of a mound of dirt or a hillside. Mounds and walls sit close together, and 阜 ended up on characters for enclosed spaces. That is why 院 appears in 医院, 学院 and 院子: all walled-in places.