Category: W

A term used by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) for the documentation it requires of a facility which is attempting to “clear” a Type I recommendation. JCAHO gives general directions for organization of the WPR.  

A name trademarked by Curran Care for an approach to developing health care delivery services around each patient’s care needs from preadmission, through acute and post-acute care, and home health care.  

A distributed hypertext information system usually associated with the Internet (the Net). The World Wide Web (frequently referred to as “the Web”), is really the first application to run on the Internet which makes the Net’s vast amount of information available to the masses. Prior to the Web, information on the Net was primarily accessed…

From “coming out of the woodwork,” used in health care to mean the appearance of previously unidentified problems (unmet needs) when programs for them are announced. For example, when Medicare was initiated in the mid-sixties, an unexpected number of cataract and hernia operations were performed; people who had previously lived with these problems had them…

An area of a building so designated because it often has standing water or because the floor is regularly drenched to a greater degree than with ordinary floor cleaning.  

The first major United States Supreme Court abortion decision since Roe v. Wade. While Webster neither reexamined nor expressly over-ruled Roe V. Wade, the Court’s opinion was divided (this means that the Justices did not all agree with one another), and showed a willingness to reexamine Roe v. Wade in an appropriate case. It is…

A genus on nonbloodsucking flies. The females of W. magnifica and W. vigil deposit their parasitic maggots in wounds and the openings of the body. This causes myiasis, particularly in children.  

A small parasitic whiplike nematode worm, Trichuris trichiura {Trichocephalus dispar), that lives in the large intestine. Eggs are passed out of the body with the feces, and human infection results from the consumption of water or food contaminated with fecal material. The eggs hatch in the small intestine but mature worms migrate to the large…

The SI unit of magnetic flux, equal to the flux linking a circuit of one turn that produces an e.m.f. of 1 volt when reduced uniformly to zero in 1 second.  

A position in which the patient lies on the back with the legs hanging down: sometimes adopted to aid childbirth. A rarely used position for difficult deliveries in which the patient assumes a dorsal recumbent position with the hips at the edge of the bed and the legs hanging down, but supported. The position of…