Author: Glossary
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Virtual community
A social aggregation of individuals who develop personal relationships because of their common use of computer mediated communications (CMC), that is, they have become acquainted and continue their association in cyberspace. Such communities appear after the participants carry on discussions over periods of time and discover that they have common interests. Members of a virtual…
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Value inventory
A statement elicited from an individual as to that person’s values with regard to living and functioning, for example, the person’s tolerance for discomfort and pain, desire for personal mobility, willingness to be kept on life support systems, and similar matters. Value inventory questionnaires have been developed as adjuncts to advance directives to make those…
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Value driven
A term being used in health care to categorize a system which has been designed to achieve specified goals in the health of a community and its health care rather than to make financial profit. Of course, financial profit is also a value, and systems designed to make profits, could also be called value driven.…
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Value-added tax
A tax imposed on goods and services at each stage of production. The end result is similar to a sales tax, but usually produces much more revenue because the tax is not so “visible” and therefore less painful. It has been discussed as one method of financing health care under health care reform.
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Usenet
An Internet (The Net) resource consisting of many online discussion forums about topics ranging from the mundane to the sublime, occasionally prompting some to include ridiculous to the description of topics discussed. Because of the high volume involved, not all Internet service providers choose to make all forums available to their subscribers. Forum messages travel…
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Urgent care center
A sort of competitor of an emergency department, but presumably for less “emergent” problems. The term has no legal (or regulatory) definition as yet. Sometimes it is stated that a facility, to be called an “urgent care center,” must have certain laboratory and X-ray services, but must not hold itself out as ready for emergencies…
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Upcoding
Changing the coding of a patient’s diagnoses (and perhaps operations) in order to obtain a higher payment for the services rendered. More accurately called “updassifying”.
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Unrelated business income tax
Tax paid by a nonprofit corporation on the profits of activities which are not related to the nonprofit purpose of the corporation. A nonprofit corporation is normally exempt from taxation, but may engage in profit-making activities and pay taxes on those, while preserving its tax-exempt status, by complying with specific federal tax law requirements regarding…
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Universal resource locator
The official name for a site or address of a resource on the Internet. Resources include home pages, graphic images, text files, and digitized sights and sounds (such as movies).
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Unit record
A medical record (file) in which are kept the records of all hospitalizations of the individual. This is the preferred method of filing of medical records.