Author: Glossary

In health care, refers to steps taken to improve the health care provided to individual patients, rather than the health care system.  

A patent for a method or process, comparable to a patent for a product or device. Under current patent law (1995) it is possible for a medical or surgical method or process to be patented, and for the patent holder to require the payment of royalties for use of the method. A surgeon in Arizona,…

When a treatment fails to achieve its intended results, the failure may be due to the method employed or its use. For example, a contraceptive failure may occur because the method was inadequate or because it really was not employed (used) or was employed improperly. Thus the “method effectiveness” or the “use effectiveness” of the…

When a treatment fails to achieve its intended results, the failure may be due to the method employed or its use. For example, a contraceptive failure may occur because the method was inadequate or because it really was not employed (used) or was employed improperly. Thus the “method effectiveness” or the “use effectiveness” of the…

The formal union of two or more corporations (such as hospitals) into a single corporation. In a merger, one of the original corporations retains its identity and continues to exist, while the other corporations are merged into it and lose their former identities. A consolidation is similar to a merger, except that all of the…

Insurance which may be purchased by an individual to add to the benefits provided that individual under Medicare itself. Intelligent purchase of such insurance was virtually impossible until 1992, when uniform benefit packages, which standardized benefits for Medicare supplement insurance, were mandated by the federal government. A total of 10 standard plans (“A” through “J”)…

A physician or other licensed health care professional who is permitted to care for patients independently in the hospital. Each medical staff member must be formally appointed to the medical staff by the governing body, and be authorized by that body to treat patients, independently, in the hospital. This appointment to the medical staff must…

A term used to include both the rights and duties of medical staff members. The rights include, primarily, the right to vote in medical staff meetings. The duties include carrying out the functions which devolve on members under the medical staff bylaws, including committee membership and participation, and accepting the supervision and sanctions laid out…

A term generally used with reference to a geographically defined association of physicians, for example, a city, county, state, or national medical society. Associations whose membership is made up of specialists (for example, surgeons) are usually called “specialty societies.” The medical staff of a hospital is not a medical society.  

A central service, created by a hospital for its physicians, or by one or more medical groups, which provides administrative services such as insurance and other billing, scheduling of consultations, referrals, and hospitalizations, facilities, equipment, and personnel, and so forth. Only one staff, that of the MSO, needs to become expert in the requirements of…