Author: Glossary
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Democratization
A process of putting more decision-making into the hands of the individual. A system of health care in which persons collaborate in the decisions about their health and health care is a democratized system.
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Demarketing
Efforts to persuade individuals not to buy, or to go elsewhere. A hospital has a serious problem when the price set for a given Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) under the prospective payment system (PPS) is lower than the lowest cost the hospital can achieve for care for a patient with that DRG and still maintain…
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Definitive care
A level of therapeutic intervention capable of providing comprehensive health care services for a specific condition.
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Decision support software
A special class of computer software designed to make relevant knowledge accessible to decision makers.
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Data warehouse
An emerging component of integrated computer systems. The data warehouse obtains data from one or more sources and makes it readily available for answering management questions about the organization and its activities. In the hospital, transactions such as patient billing, collecting insurance payments, giving services to patients, purchasing, and others are going on continuously, and…
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Data element
In general usage, an “item of information.” When used in connection with computers, a data element may be one part of a data record (a logically connected group of data elements).
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Database management system
A computer program used to manage a database. In its simplest form, it is a computerized filing system. In more elaborate forms, it relates information from different files together to produce new files, reports, and detailed analyses. Different DBMSs also tend to have their own languages with which they can be programmed for specific purposes,…
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Darling case
A landmark hospital law case which established that the hospital is responsible for care provided to patients, and that the medical staff must be accountable to the hospital for the care provided by medical staff members. The case involved a young man named Darling who was brought to a hospital with a leg fracture suffered…
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Cyberspace
Computer-generated space, in which the traveller is called a “cybernaut.” The term was coined by science fiction author William Gibson in 1984. It is now also being applied to computer conferencing, computer bulletin boards, and other innovative communication activities and applications of information technology, particularly in education and health care. An example: a college course…
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Customer
In health care, “customer” is often used to mean the person or entity buying the services. For example, an employer might be the customer of a health care plan which enrolls the employees. In the context of quality management, the customer is the person (or department) for whom services are provided. For example, the customers…