Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

A law specifying which kinds of contracts must be evidenced by a writing to be enforceable. Examples are contracts concerning real estate (except short term leases), sales of goods with a price of more than $500, and contracts which by their terms cannot be performed within a year. The entire agreement does not have to…

The agency in a state which is authorized by that state’s legislature to license physicians to practice within the state. An organization of health care providers and planners required under federal law as a unit in the official planning process. An SHCC concerns itself with where, how large, and what kind of health care facilities…

A statement issued by the statewide health coordinating council (SHCC) covering goals and priorities for the health systems within the state and the desired health status of the residents. The state health plan describes the health systems which would result in high quality health services, available and accessible to all residents, and providing continuity of…

A body, established by the laws of a state, which oversees the practice of medicine within the state. In particular, the board of medical examiners reviews the credentials of physicians applying for licensure to practice within the state, administers examinations if required, investigates the background of applicants, and approves or denies licensure. These medical examiners…

A term which comes up especially in nursing with regard to nursing education programs. To be eligible for registration (to be able to become a registered nurse (RN)), a nurse must be a graduate of a program approved by the State Board of Nursing. The program, however, may or may not have been accredited by…

Orders for the care of a patient under prescribed circumstances, for example, in preparation for specific diagnostic procedures or surgical operation. Standing orders are to be followed for all such patients unless the physician or surgeon directs otherwise. Establishment of such standing orders is done under formal procedures established by the hospital and its medical…

A non-physician who is trained to simulate, accurately and consistently, a patient encounter for teaching and for evaluating the performance of a physician or other health care worker. This is called a “standardized patient encounter (SPE).” The SP may be a patient or simply be acting out the part.  

The measure to be applied, in a malpractice suit, to the actions of the health care professional in order to determine if the professional was negligent. The rule for determining the standard varies from state to state, but it can be generally stated that the standard of care for health care professionals is to exercise…

A term applied to various systems devised for describing the extent of tumors, both as to the tumor itself and its spread through the body, and with consequent implications as to the patient’s likelihood of survival. Some of the staging systems for bowel cancer are, for example, the Dukes system, the Kirklin system, the Astler-Coller…

One of the methods developed for taking into account a patient’s severity of illness, in addition to simply the diagnosis and surgical procedures, in predicting and analyzing the length of stay, cost, and outcome. For a number of diagnoses, objective factors have been identified by which the patient’s condition can be classified into several “stages”…