Patient Safety
Safety Management
The development of systems to prevent accidents, injuries, and other adverse occurrences in an institutional setting. The concept includes prevention or reduction of adverse events or incidents involving employees, patients, or facilities. Examples include plans to reduce injuries from falls or plans for fire safety to promote a safe institutional environment.
Medical Errors
Errors or mistakes committed by health professionals which result in harm to the patient. They include errors in diagnosis (DIAGNOSTIC ERRORS), errors in the administration of drugs and other medications (MEDICATION ERRORS), errors in the performance of surgical procedures, in the use of other types of therapy, in the use of equipment, and in the interpretation of laboratory findings. Medical errors are differentiated from MALPRACTICE in that the former are regarded as honest mistakes or accidents while the latter is the result of negligence, reprehensible ignorance, or criminal intent.
Safety
Organizational Culture
Risk Management
The process of minimizing risk to an organization by developing systems to identify and analyze potential hazards to prevent accidents, injuries, and other adverse occurrences, and by attempting to handle events and incidents which do occur in such a manner that their effect and cost are minimized. Effective risk management has its greatest benefits in application to insurance in order to avert or minimize financial liability. (From Slee & Slee: Health care terms, 2d ed)
Root Cause Analysis
Multi-step systematic review process used for improving safety by investigation of incidents to find what happened, why it happened, and to determine what can be done to prevent it from happening again.
United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
An agency of the PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE established in 1990 to "provide indexing, abstracting, translating, publishing, and other services leading to a more effective and timely dissemination of information on research, demonstration projects, and evaluations with respect to health care to public and private entities and individuals engaged in the improvement of health care delivery..." It supersedes the National Center for Health Services Research. The United States Agency for Health Care Policy and Research was renamed Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) under the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999.
Systems Analysis
Medication Errors
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Activities and programs intended to assure or improve the quality of care in either a defined medical setting or a program. The concept includes the assessment or evaluation of the quality of care; identification of problems or shortcomings in the delivery of care; designing activities to overcome these deficiencies; and follow-up monitoring to ensure effectiveness of corrective steps.
Institute of Medicine (U.S.)
Identifies, for study and analysis, important issues and problems that relate to health and medicine. The Institute initiates and conducts studies of national policy and planning for health care and health-related education and research; it also responds to requests from the federal government and other agencies for studies and advice.
Total Quality Management
Iatrogenic Disease
Leadership
Multi-Institutional Systems
Nursing Staff, Hospital
Personnel who provide nursing service to patients in a hospital.
Hospitals
Institutions with an organized medical staff which provide medical care to patients.
Hospital Administrators
United States
The term "United States" in a medical context often refers to the country where a patient or study participant resides, and is not a medical term per se, but relevant for epidemiological studies, healthcare policies, and understanding differences in disease prevalence, treatment patterns, and health outcomes across various geographic locations.
Social Responsibility
Patient Care
Human Engineering
Medical Staff, Hospital
Professional medical personnel approved to provide care to patients in a hospital.
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
A private, voluntary, not-for-profit organization which establishes standards for the operation of health facilities and services, conducts surveys, and awards accreditation.
Quality Indicators, Health Care
Norms, criteria, standards, and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determining the quality of health care.
Attitude of Health Personnel
Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.
Institutional Management Teams
Clinical Competence
The capability to perform acceptably those duties directly related to patient care.
Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
Malpractice
Medical Order Entry Systems
Information systems, usually computer-assisted, that enable providers to initiate medical procedures, prescribe medications, etc. These systems support medical decision-making and error-reduction during patient care.
Patient Care Team
Care of patients by a multidisciplinary team usually organized under the leadership of a physician; each member of the team has specific responsibilities and the whole team contributes to the care of the patient.
Cooperative Behavior
Medication Systems, Hospital
Overall systems, traditional or automated, to provide medication to patients in hospitals. Elements of the system are: handling the physician's order, transcription of the order by nurse and/or pharmacist, filling the medication order, transfer to the nursing unit, and administration to the patient.
Health Care Surveys
Consumer Product Safety
Consumer Product Safety refers to the measures and regulations implemented to ensure household items, toys, and other consumer products are designed, manufactured, and distributed in a manner that minimizes risks of harm, injury, or death to consumers during normal use or foreseeable misuse.
Food Safety
Activities involved in ensuring the safety of FOOD including avoidance of bacterial and other contamination.
Health Facility Administrators
Managerial personnel responsible for implementing policy and directing the activities of health care facilities such as nursing homes.
Patient Handoff
The transferring of patient care responsibility from one health-care professional to another.
Medical Records Systems, Computerized
Medication Systems
Overall systems, traditional or automated, to provide medication to patients.
Hospital Information Systems
Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems
Systems developed for collecting reports from government agencies, manufacturers, hospitals, physicians, and other sources on adverse drug reactions.
Quality of Health Care
Interdisciplinary Communication
Communication, in the sense of cross-fertilization of ideas, involving two or more academic disciplines (such as the disciplines that comprise the cross-disciplinary field of bioethics, including the health and biological sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences and law). Also includes problems in communication stemming from differences in patterns of language usage in different academic or medical disciplines.
Liability, Legal
Health Services Research
The integration of epidemiologic, sociological, economic, and other analytic sciences in the study of health services. Health services research is usually concerned with relationships between need, demand, supply, use, and outcome of health services. The aim of the research is evaluation, particularly in terms of structure, process, output, and outcome. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)
Questionnaires
Trustees
Board members of an institution or organization who are entrusted with the administering of funds and the directing of policy.
Hospitals, Teaching
Hospitals engaged in educational and research programs, as well as providing medical care to the patients.
Organizational Innovation
Lebanon
I'm sorry for any confusion, but the term "Lebanon" is a geographical name and not a medical condition or term. It is the name of a country located in the Middle East, known for its rich history, diverse culture, and beautiful landscapes. If you have any questions related to medical definitions or health-related topics, I would be happy to help!
Inservice Training
Societies, Hospital
Societies having institutional membership limited to hospitals and other health care institutions.
Electronic Prescribing
The use of COMPUTER COMMUNICATION NETWORKS to store and transmit medical PRESCRIPTIONS.
Health Facility Environment
Physical surroundings or conditions of a hospital or other health facility and influence of these factors on patients and staff.
Health Personnel
Patient Simulation
Nurses
Professionals qualified by graduation from an accredited school of nursing and by passage of a national licensing examination to practice nursing. They provide services to patients requiring assistance in recovering or maintaining their physical or mental health.
Process Assessment (Health Care)
An evaluation procedure that focuses on how care is delivered, based on the premise that there are standards of performance for activities undertaken in delivering patient care, in which the specific actions taken, events occurring, and human interactions are compared with accepted standards.
Treatment Outcome
Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.
Efficiency, Organizational
Hospital Design and Construction
The architecture, functional design, and construction of hospitals.
Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted
Adjunctive computer programs in providing drug treatment to patients.
Infection Control
Workload
Clinical Pharmacy Information Systems
Models, Organizational
Hospitals, Public
Communication
Factor Analysis, Statistical
A set of statistical methods for analyzing the correlations among several variables in order to estimate the number of fundamental dimensions that underlie the observed data and to describe and measure those dimensions. It is used frequently in the development of scoring systems for rating scales and questionnaires.
Internship and Residency
Programs of training in medicine and medical specialties offered by hospitals for graduates of medicine to meet the requirements established by accrediting authorities.
Decision Support Systems, Clinical
Computer-based information systems used to integrate clinical and patient information and provide support for decision-making in patient care.
Documentation
Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care)
Patients
Diffusion of Innovation
Information Centers
Continuity of Patient Care
Medical Audit
Medical Informatics Applications
Automated systems applied to the patient care process including diagnosis, therapy, and systems of communicating medical data within the health care setting.
Ontario
A province of Canada lying between the provinces of Manitoba and Quebec. Its capital is Toronto. It takes its name from Lake Ontario which is said to represent the Iroquois oniatariio, beautiful lake. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p892 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p391)
Home Care Agencies
Public or private organizations that provide, either directly or through arrangements with other organizations, home health services in the patient's home. (Hospital Administration Terminology, 2d ed)
Pilot Projects
Academic Medical Centers
Medical complexes consisting of medical school, hospitals, clinics, libraries, administrative facilities, etc.
Helsinki Declaration
An international agreement of the World Medical Association which offers guidelines for conducting experiments using human subjects. It was adopted in 1962 and revised by the 18th World Medical Assembly at Helsinki, Finland in 1964. Subsequent revisions were made in 1975, 1983, 1989, and 1996. (From Encyclopedia of Bioethics, rev ed, 1995)
Professional Staff Committees
Committees of professional personnel who have responsibility for determining policies, procedures, and controls related to professional matters in health facilities.
Chief Executive Officers, Hospital
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Societies, Nursing
Societies whose membership is limited to nurses.
Product Surveillance, Postmarketing
Retrospective Studies
Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.
Health Facility Size
Knowledge Management
Hospitals, Pediatric
Special hospitals which provide care for ill children.
Electronic Health Records
Media that facilitate transportability of pertinent information concerning patient's illness across varied providers and geographic locations. Some versions include direct linkages to online consumer health information that is relevant to the health conditions and treatments related to a specific patient.
Netherlands
Country located in EUROPE. It is bordered by the NORTH SEA, BELGIUM, and GERMANY. Constituent areas are Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, formerly included in the NETHERLANDS ANTILLES.
Internationality
State Medicine
Clinical Audit
A detailed review and evaluation of selected clinical records by qualified professional personnel to improve the quality of patient care and outcomes. The clinical audit was formally introduced in 1993 into the United Kingdom's National Health Service.
Organizational Policy
A course or method of action selected, usually by an organization, institution, university, society, etc., from among alternatives to guide and determine present and future decisions and positions on matters of public interest or social concern. It does not include internal policy relating to organization and administration within the corporate body, for which ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION is available.
Physician-Nurse Relations
Organizational Objectives
Program Development
The process of formulating, improving, and expanding educational, managerial, or service-oriented work plans (excluding computer program development).
Patient Care Management
Generating, planning, organizing, and administering medical and nursing care and services for patients.
International Cooperation
Canada
Health Facility Administration
Management of the organization of HEALTH FACILITIES.
Risk Assessment
After-Hours Care
Medical care provided after the regular practice schedule of the physicians. Usually it is designed to deliver 24-hour-a-day and 365-day-a-year patient care coverage for emergencies, triage, pediatric care, or hospice care.
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
The period of medical education in a medical school. In the United States it follows the baccalaureate degree and precedes the granting of the M.D.
Medical Informatics
Anthropology, Cultural
Whistleblowing
Students, Medical
Terminology as Topic
Health Plan Implementation
Delivery of Health Care
Program Evaluation
Nursing Staff
Personnel who provide nursing service to patients in an organized facility, institution, or agency.
Cross-Sectional Studies
Practice Guidelines as Topic
Directions or principles presenting current or future rules of policy for assisting health care practitioners in patient care decisions regarding diagnosis, therapy, or related clinical circumstances. The guidelines may be developed by government agencies at any level, institutions, professional societies, governing boards, or by the convening of expert panels. The guidelines form a basis for the evaluation of all aspects of health care and delivery.
Surgery Department, Hospital
General Surgery
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate
Great Britain
Administrative Personnel
Individuals responsible for the development of policy and supervision of the execution of plans and functional operations.
Feasibility Studies
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).
Clinical Governance
A framework through which the United Kingdom's National Health Service organizations are accountable for continually improving the quality of their services and safeguarding high standards of care by creating an environment in which excellence in clinical care will flourish. (Scally and Donaldson, BMJ (4 July 1998): 61-65)
Data Collection
Systematic gathering of data for a particular purpose from various sources, including questionnaires, interviews, observation, existing records, and electronic devices. The process is usually preliminary to statistical analysis of the data.
Patient Identification Systems
Hospital Units
Those areas of the hospital organization not considered departments which provide specialized patient care. They include various hospital special care wards.
Pharmacists
Guideline Adherence
Insurance, Liability
Medication Reconciliation
The formal process of obtaining a complete and accurate list of each patient's current home medications including name, dosage, frequency, and route of administration, and comparing admission, transfer, and/or discharge medication orders to that list. The reconciliation is done to avoid medication errors.
Professional-Patient Relations
Patient Participation
Intensive Care Units
Hospital units providing continuous surveillance and care to acutely ill patients.
Pathology, Surgical
Double-Blind Method
Work Schedule Tolerance
Primary Health Care
Care which provides integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. (JAMA 1995;273(3):192)
Qualitative Research
Employee Discipline
Concept Formation
Inpatients
Persons admitted to health facilities which provide board and room, for the purpose of observation, care, diagnosis or treatment.
Prospective Studies
National Health Programs
World Health Organization
Surgical Equipment
Advisory Committees
Groups set up to advise governmental bodies, societies, or other institutions on policy. (Bioethics Thesaurus)
Pediatrics
Health Planning Councils
Clinical Alarms
Components of medical instrumentation used for physiological evaluation of patients, that signal when a threshold value is reached.
Monitoring, Physiologic
Hospital Communication Systems
The transmission of messages to staff and patients within a hospital.
Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over
'Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over' refers to the maximum number of hospital beds equaling or exceeding 500 that are medically staffed and equipped to provide patient care and accommodation within a healthcare facility.
Professional Competence
Staff Development
Education, Pharmacy, Graduate
Educational programs for pharmacists who have a bachelor's degree or a Doctor of Pharmacy degree entering a specific field of pharmacy. They may lead to an advanced degree.