An established plan that outlines the actions that must be taken to accomplish a particular task.
A standard way of doing something.
A type of treatment.
A treatment given at one time.
In medicine, something which is “done” or “carried our” for a patient by a physician or other person. A procedure is usually discrete, and a relatively short time is required for its execution. Procedures are generally either diagnostic or therapeutic (treatment). A diagnostic procedure would be the taking of an X-ray or blood pressure, while a therapeutic procedure might be anything from removing a splinter from a finger to an extensive operation such as repair of a hernia. A given operation, which might be called a “procedure,” is often actually several procedures, and the array of procedures which make up a given operation will vary from patient to patient. For example, cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) for one patient may include “exploration of the common bile duct,” while for another patient, this procedure may be omitted. For this reason, a proper description of an operation requires that its procedures be listed. For the purposes of health care financing (charges and payments for procedures), a hernia repair “procedure” might also include both preoperative and postoperative care. For more information about procedures in financing terminology.