Category: P

A brief statement of “how ill” the patient is. Patient condition is described to relatives, other professionals, and in public information releases. It may be described in terms of progression of the illness, for example, as “improving” or “stable.” It may also be described in terms of likelihood of favorable outcome, for example, “good,” “fair,”…

An organizational part of the hospital where inpatients are lodged during their hospitalization.  

Written policies that a long-term care facility (LTCF) is expected to maintain, which govern nursing care and related medical and other services to be provided.  

An individual assigned the responsibility for coordinating all care given to a patient in a long-term care facility (LTCF). A registered nurse (RN) who manages, coordinates, or directs a nursing service, such as obstetrics, among two or more patient care units.  

A hospital committee, typically composed of medical, nursing, and other disciplines involved in direct patient care, along with hospital administration. The purpose of the committee is to monitor patient care practices, evaluate them against standards, and improve care through better liaison among the departments involved.  

The totality of things done for a patient to determine the cause of the patient’s problem(s), plan for treatment of the causes, carry out the plan, and provide comfort and support. Patient care includes that provided by allied health care professionals and their helpers as well as that given by the physician and other health…

Things done by volunteers for patients, such as reading to them and providing library services and toiletries.  

A tongue-in-cheek method described in 1969 by Paul Davis, MD, and Robert Gregerman, MD, “in response to the burgeoning problems of multiauthorship of papers and perceived logarithmic differences (PLDs) in the quality of published papers. The parse analysis assigned decimal values to the real contributions of investigators to a multiauthored paper – e.g., 0.04 or…

A term derived from “para,” meaning “beside.” Paramedical personnel, who prefer to be called “allied health professionals,” are not physicians, but work in the health field. Health care workers who are not physicians or nurses. These include medical technicians, emergency medical technicians, and physician assistants.  

An arrangement with an employee, particularly an officer or executive of a corporation, which protects the employee financially in the event of loss of employment. The arrangement may be a stipulated severance payment, an employment contract with a substantial notice of severance requirement, insurance, or other protection. A handsome severance arrangement is a “golden parachute.”…