Flailing object found around research hospital (9)
I believe the answer is:
threshing
'flailing' is the definition.
(I know that flailing can be written as threshing)
'object found around research hospital' is the wordplay.
'object' becomes 'thing' (an object is a thing or item).
'found around' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'research' becomes 'res' (academic abbreviation).
'hospital' becomes 'h' (abbreviation for hospital on maps).
'res'+'h'='resh'
'thing' enclosing 'resh' is 'THRESHING'.
(Another definition for threshing that I've seen is " Separating grain".)