Author: Glossary
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Joint venture
A business arrangement between two or more parties to share profits, losses, and control. In health care, the term usually indicates a formalized cooperative effort between the hospital and its medical staff (or physicians from its medical staff), as opposed to a relationship in which the two, hospital and physicians, are in competition with one…
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Joint conference committee
A hospital committee with members from the governing body, the medical staff, and the hospital management (administration). Its purpose is to facilitate understanding and communication, not to introduce a channel of management which competes with the line channels of the hospital administration and the medical staff.
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Jocko
A common pronunciation of the acronym JCAHO.
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Job lock
Remaining in employment for fear of losing one’s health insurance coverage. This is caused by waiting periods for pre-existing conditions, high rates, and outright denials of coverage.
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Jackson hole group
An informal “think tank” founded by Paul Elwood, MD, President of Interstudy, in the early 1970s. Elwood convenes a small group of persons interested in the problems they perceive in the health care system at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and leads informal discussions on possible solutions to the problems. Their commitment is to…
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Inurement
Private gain from corporate activities. A nonprofit corporation cannot keep its tax exempt status if there is “inurement” to individuals or proprietary (for-profit) interests. One common area in which inurement issues are raised today is physician recruitment. Hospitals often provide incentives to attract physicians in needed specialties. If the hospital contracts to pay the physician…
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Intrapreneur
A person within an organization who creates a new venture or “product” for the organization, as contrasted with an “entrepreneur,” a person who organizes a new venture and assumes the risk.
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Interstudy
A nonprofit health care research body, a “think tank,” located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Internet
A worldwide network of computer networks that can share information because a common set of language protocols (“TCP/IP”) are used by all. Having origins similar to America’s interstate highway system, the Internet was created in the interests of national defense by the US government. Begun by Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn in the early 1970’s…
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Intergenerational dialog
Discussion in which several generations consider issues and problems from their respective points of view. When the young people in a community meet with senior citizens to discuss problems, the dialog is intergenerational.