Category: D

A formal plan for coping with a disaster. An accredited hospital is expected to have both an external disaster plan and an internal disaster plan. Often such plans have basic elements relating to any kind of disaster and dealing with such items as emergency communication, alerting of police and fire departments, mobilization of off-duty personnel,…

A sudden natural or man-made event which causes extensive damage, destruction, or injury, and requires mobilization of emergency health care resources. Examples are fire, flood, earthquake, tornado, collapse of a building, nuclear accident, war, mine cave-in, airplane crash. A natural or man-made occurrence such as a flood, tornado, earthquake, forest fire, bridge or building collapse,…

An agreement between an employer, an HMO, or other health care plan and a health care provider for the provision of health care services to the enrollees.  

The person designated by the governing body to be responsible for management of the medical staff and for carrying out policy for the medical staff as promulgated by the board. Ordinarily the DMA is a physician, and may be nominated by the medical staff. A physician with this title is ordinarily paid. This term is…

An operating officer. The title “director” is used by many institutions for their officers and executives. The chief executive officer (CEO) may be called the director, and various subordinates may carry titles such as “director of development,” “director of nursing,” and the like.  

A member of the governing body when the official term for that body is “board of directors.” When the governing body is called the “board of trustees,” its members are individually “trustees.”  

An agreement between an employer (or health plan or insurer) and a health care provider for the provision of health care services to the employees (beneficiaries). This is often referred to as a “direct provider agreement (DPA).”  

An individual who is responsible for the care of an individual, as contrasted with a “consultant” who is responsible only for giving an opinion. However, the consultant may take over the care of the patient and become the direct care provider.  

Eating patterns which increase the likelihood for developing disease or other adverse health effects. Examples are: percentage of fat calories above 30 percent of total food calories increase one’s risk for death from heart disease; being overweight is linked to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes; lack of adequate fluid intake puts many elderly persons at…

A system for paying for hospital care being tried by the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) for patients of Medicare HMOs. In this system, a patient’s prior hospitalization history during the preceding 15 months is used to predict future costs. Prior utilization is expected to reflect the patient’s health status and the physician’s practice patterns.…