Glossary

Author: Glossary

  • Gateway

    In computer networking terms, any method by which a user can access the resources of one online network while being connected to another. A subscriber of CompuServe, for instance, may also access resources on the Internet, or Medline, while maintaining an account and connection only with CompuServe. Gateways can simplify life for the user because…

  • Gaming

    Attempting to manipulate “the system” in an illegal or unethical manner. The terms “gaming” and “to game the system” are used, for example, in connection with efforts to bill under the prospective payment system (PPS) in such a way as to maximize income by giving as the principal diagnosis that diagnosis which places the patient…

  • Gainsharing

    Sharing with employees any increase in revenue which is the result of gains in productivity. Gainsharing is a form of incentive program or profit-sharing (the term “profit” is not used in the nonprofit environment). A financial collaboration between hospitals and health care professionals in which the parties agree to divide any benefits they achieve from…

  • Futility policy

    A hospital policy dealing with the issues presented by futile care.  

  • Futile care

    Useless; vain. Treatment, other than comfort care, which will not result in improvement or cure and which could not, in the opinion of the physician (and, usually, consultants), reasonably be expected to result in a quality of life which would be acceptable to the patient. In clinical practice, any intervention that will not improve a…

  • Fund-raising

    Planned and coordinated activities by which the organization seeks gifts. Fund-raising goes under the term “development,” and the fund-raising director is called “the director of development.”  

  • Fund balance

    A term often used by nonprofit organizations in their financial statements to indicate the difference between assets and liabilities. A positive fund balance is sometimes called a gain; in the profit sector, it would be called a profit. A negative fund balance is a loss in either sector. Nonprofit organizations may also refer to the…

  • Full-time equivalent

    A concept used in developing statistics on the size of a work force. The idea is to express a work force made up of both full- and part-time employees as the number of workers that would be employed if all were full time. It is computed by dividing the total hours worked by all employees…

  • Freedom-of-choice

    A policy which permits patients to choose their own physicians. Such choice is at least restricted for persons who are members of an HMO or other managed care plan, because they must go to physicians within the plan (or themselves pay for care obtained elsewhere). In some HMOs patients must be satisfied with the physician…

  • Free-standing facility

    A facility which is not a physical part of a hospital or other health care facility. A free-standing facility may be a facility for carrying out ambulatory surgery, urgent care, emergency care, or other care. “Free-standing” does not necessarily indicate separate ownership; a hospital may operate a free-standing facility or the facility may be owned by…