Services specifically designed, staffed, and equipped for the emergency care of patients.

Fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters equipped for air transport of patients.

Paramedical personnel trained to provide basic emergency care and life support under the supervision of physicians and/or nurses. These services may be carried out at the site of the emergency, in the ambulance, or in a health care institution.

Conveying ill or injured individuals from one place to another.

The use of communication systems, such as telecommunication, to transmit emergency information to appropriate providers of health services.

A vehicle equipped for transporting patients in need of emergency care.

Hospital department responsible for the administration and provision of immediate medical or surgical care to the emergency patient.

Situations or conditions requiring immediate intervention to avoid serious adverse results.

The branch of medicine concerned with the evaluation and initial treatment of urgent and emergent medical problems, such as those caused by accidents, trauma, sudden illness, poisoning, or disasters. Emergency medical care can be provided at the hospital or at sites outside the medical facility.

The artificial substitution of heart and lung action as indicated for HEART ARREST resulting from electric shock, DROWNING, respiratory arrest, or other causes. The two major components of cardiopulmonary resuscitation are artificial ventilation (RESPIRATION, ARTIFICIAL) and closed-chest CARDIAC MASSAGE.

Occurrence of heart arrest in an individual when there is no immediate access to medical personnel or equipment.

A way of providing emergency medical care that is guided by a thoughtful integration of the best available scientific knowledge with clinical expertise in EMERGENCY MEDICINE. This approach allows the practitioner to critically assess research data, clinical guidelines, and other information resources in order to correctly identify the clinical problem, apply the most high-quality intervention, and re-evaluate the outcome for future improvement.

First aid or other immediate intervention for accidents or medical conditions requiring immediate care and treatment before definitive medical and surgical management can be procured.

The sorting out and classification of patients or casualties to determine priority of need and proper place of treatment.

Cessation of heart beat or MYOCARDIAL CONTRACTION. If it is treated within a few minutes, heart arrest can be reversed in most cases to normal cardiac rhythm and effective circulation.

Health care workers specially trained and licensed to assist and support the work of health professionals. Often used synonymously with paramedical personnel, the term generally refers to all health care workers who perform tasks which must otherwise be performed by a physician or other health professional.

Damage inflicted on the body as the direct or indirect result of an external force, with or without disruption of structural continuity.

The use of sophisticated methods and equipment to treat cardiopulmonary arrest. Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) includes the use of specialized equipment to maintain the airway, early defibrillation and pharmacological therapy.

Cardiac electrical stimulators that apply brief high-voltage electroshocks to the HEART. These stimulators are used to restore normal rhythm and contractile function in hearts of patients who are experiencing VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION or ventricular tachycardia (TACHYCARDIA, VENTRICULAR) that is not accompanied by a palpable PULSE. Some defibrillators may also be used to correct certain noncritical dysrhythmias (called synchronized defibrillation or CARDIOVERSION), using relatively low-level discharges synchronized to the patient's ECG waveform. (UMDNS, 2003)

Specialized hospital facilities which provide diagnostic and therapeutic services for trauma patients.

The degree to which individuals are inhibited or facilitated in their ability to gain entry to and to receive care and services from the health care system. Factors influencing this ability include geographic, architectural, transportational, and financial considerations, among others.

Services for the diagnosis and treatment of disease and the maintenance of health.

Systems for assessing, classifying, and coding injuries. These systems are used in medical records, surveillance systems, and state and national registries to aid in the collection and reporting of trauma.

The interval of time between onset of symptoms and receiving therapy.

Institutional night care of patients.

Health services, public or private, in rural areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.

Elements of limited time intervals, contributing to particular results or situations.

Persons who have acquired academic or specialized training in countries other than that in which they are working. The concept excludes physicians for which FOREIGN MEDICAL GRADUATES is the likely heading.

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)

Planning for health resources at a regional or multi-state level.

Evaluation, planning, and use of a range of procedures and airway devices for the maintenance or restoration of a patient's ventilation.

Organized groups of users of goods and services.

Interfacility or intrahospital transfer of patients. Intrahospital transfer is usually to obtain a specific kind of care and interfacility transfer is usually for economic reasons as well as for the type of care provided.

The specialty or practice of nursing in the care of patients admitted to the emergency department.

Educational programs designed to inform individuals of recent advances in their particular field of interest. They do not lead to any formal advanced standing.

Health services required by a population or community as well as the health services that the population or community is able and willing to pay for.

Procedures outlined for the care of casualties and the maintenance of services in disasters.

A weapon designed to explode when deployed. It frequently refers to a hollow case filled with EXPLOSIVE AGENTS.

The administration of medication or fluid through a needle directly into the bone marrow. The technique is especially useful in the management of pediatric emergencies when intravenous access to the systemic circulation is difficult.

Coordination of activities and programs among health care institutions within defined geographic areas for the purpose of improving delivery and quality of medical care to the patients. These programs are mandated under U.S. Public Law 89-239.

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.

Professional or volunteer members of a fire department who are trained to suppress fire and respond to related emergency.

A procedure involving placement of a tube into the trachea through the mouth or nose in order to provide a patient with oxygen and anesthesia.

An electrical current applied to the HEART to terminate a disturbance of its rhythm, ARRHYTHMIAS, CARDIAC. (Stedman, 25th ed)

Care provided patients requiring extraordinary therapeutic measures in order to sustain and prolong life.

Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group.

An anatomic severity scale based on the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and developed specifically to score multiple traumatic injuries. It has been used as a predictor of mortality.

The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population.

The observation and analysis of movements in a task with an emphasis on the amount of time required to perform the task.

A voluntary organization concerned with the prevention and treatment of heart and vascular diseases.

The hospital department responsible for the administration and provision of diagnostic and therapeutic services for the cardiac patient.

A group of pathological conditions characterized by sudden, non-convulsive loss of neurological function due to BRAIN ISCHEMIA or INTRACRANIAL HEMORRHAGES. Stroke is classified by the type of tissue NECROSIS, such as the anatomic location, vasculature involved, etiology, age of the affected individual, and hemorrhagic vs. non-hemorrhagic nature. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, pp777-810)

Organized services to provide mental health care.

The levels of excellence which characterize the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality.

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.

The restoration to life or consciousness of one apparently dead. (Dorland, 27th ed)

Statistical measures of utilization and other aspects of the provision of health care services including hospitalization and ambulatory care.

Accidents on streets, roads, and highways involving drivers, passengers, pedestrians, or vehicles. Traffic accidents refer to AUTOMOBILES (passenger cars, buses, and trucks), BICYCLING, and MOTORCYCLES but not OFF-ROAD MOTOR VEHICLES; RAILROADS nor snowmobiles.

A potentially lethal cardiac arrhythmia that is characterized by uncoordinated extremely rapid firing of electrical impulses (400-600/min) in HEART VENTRICLES. Such asynchronous ventricular quivering or fibrillation prevents any effective cardiac output and results in unconsciousness (SYNCOPE). It is one of the major electrocardiographic patterns seen with CARDIAC ARREST.

Individuals licensed to practice medicine.

The process of accepting patients. The concept includes patients accepted for medical and nursing care in a hospital or other health care institution.

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.

Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.

Health care programs or services designed to assist individuals in the planning of family size. Various methods of CONTRACEPTION can be used to control the number and timing of childbirths.

Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive health services provided for individuals in the community.

Evaluation procedures that focus on both the outcome or status (OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT) of the patient at the end of an episode of care - presence of symptoms, level of activity, and mortality; and the process (ASSESSMENT, PROCESS) - what is done for the patient diagnostically and therapeutically.

Organized services to provide immediate psychiatric care to patients with acute psychological disturbances.

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.

The systems and processes involved in the establishment, support, management, and operation of registers, e.g., disease registers.

Statistical models which describe the relationship between a qualitative dependent variable (that is, one which can take only certain discrete values, such as the presence or absence of a disease) and an independent variable. A common application is in epidemiology for estimating an individual's risk (probability of a disease) as a function of a given risk factor.

The confinement of a patient in a hospital.

Community health and NURSING SERVICES providing coordinated multiple services to the patient at the patient's homes. These home-care services are provided by a visiting nurse, home health agencies, HOSPITALS, or organized community groups using professional staff for care delivery. It differs from HOME NURSING which is provided by non-professionals.

Research aimed at assessing the quality and effectiveness of health care as measured by the attainment of a specified end result or outcome. Measures include parameters such as improved health, lowered morbidity or mortality, and improvement of abnormal states (such as elevated blood pressure).

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.

Men and women working in the provision of health services, whether as individual practitioners or employees of health institutions and programs, whether or not professionally trained, and whether or not subject to public regulation. (From A Discursive Dictionary of Health Care, 1976)

Services for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases in the aged and the maintenance of health in the elderly.

Institutions with an organized medical staff which provide medical care to patients.

NECROSIS of the MYOCARDIUM caused by an obstruction of the blood supply to the heart (CORONARY CIRCULATION).

Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.

The largest country in North America, comprising 10 provinces and three territories. Its capital is Ottawa.

Health care provided to individuals.

Organized services to provide health care for children.

Conformity in fulfilling or following official, recognized, or institutional requirements, guidelines, recommendations, protocols, pathways, or other standards.

Outside services provided to an institution under a formal financial agreement.

Services designed for HEALTH PROMOTION and prevention of disease.

Health services, public or private, in urban areas. The services include the promotion of health and the delivery of health care.

The capability to perform acceptably those duties directly related to patient care.

The seeking and acceptance by patients of health service.

A system of medical care regulated, controlled and financed by the government, in which the government assumes responsibility for the health needs of the population.

Recording of the moment-to-moment electromotive forces of the HEART as projected onto various sites on the body's surface, delineated as a scalar function of time. The recording is monitored by a tracing on slow moving chart paper or by observing it on a cardioscope, which is a CATHODE RAY TUBE DISPLAY.

The practice of sending a patient to another program or practitioner for services or advice which the referring source is not prepared to provide.

Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesized to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics.

Organized services to provide health care to expectant and nursing mothers.

Ongoing scrutiny of a population (general population, study population, target population, etc.), generally using methods distinguished by their practicability, uniformity, and frequently their rapidity, rather than by complete accuracy.

The use of community resources, individual case work, or group work to promote the adaptive capacities of individuals in relation to their social and economic environments. It includes social service agencies.

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.

Components of a national health care system which administer specific services, e.g., national health insurance.

Health care services related to human REPRODUCTION and diseases of the reproductive system. Services are provided to both sexes and usually by physicians in the medical or the surgical specialties such as REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE; ANDROLOGY; GYNECOLOGY; OBSTETRICS; and PERINATOLOGY.

A set of techniques used when variation in several variables has to be studied simultaneously. In statistics, multivariate analysis is interpreted as any analytic method that allows simultaneous study of two or more dependent variables.

The organization and administration of health services dedicated to the delivery of health care.

An approach to health care financing with only one source of money for paying health care providers. The scope may be national (the Canadian System), state-wide, or community-based. The payer may be a governmental unit or other entity such as an insurance company. The proposed advantages include administrative simplicity for patients and providers, and resulting significant savings in overhead costs. (From Slee and Slee, Health Care Reform Terms, 1993, p106)

Diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive mental health services provided for individuals in the community.

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)

Use of infusions of FIBRINOLYTIC AGENTS to destroy or dissolve thrombi in blood vessels or bypass grafts.

The proportion of survivors in a group, e.g., of patients, studied and followed over a period, or the proportion of persons in a specified group alive at the beginning of a time interval who survive to the end of the interval. It is often studied using life table methods.

A range of values for a variable of interest, e.g., a rate, constructed so that this range has a specified probability of including the true value of the variable.

The amounts spent by individuals, groups, nations, or private or public organizations for total health care and/or its various components. These amounts may or may not be equivalent to the actual costs (HEALTH CARE COSTS) and may or may not be shared among the patient, insurers, and/or employers.

Preventive emergency measures and programs designed to protect the individual or community in times of hostile attack.

The degree to which the individual regards the health care service or product or the manner in which it is delivered by the provider as useful, effective, or beneficial.

A distribution in which a variable is distributed like the sum of the squares of any given independent random variable, each of which has a normal distribution with mean of zero and variance of one. The chi-square test is a statistical test based on comparison of a test statistic to a chi-square distribution. The oldest of these tests are used to detect whether two or more population distributions differ from one another.

Emergency care or treatment given to a person who suddenly becomes ill or injured before full medical services become available.

The actual costs of providing services related to the delivery of health care, including the costs of procedures, therapies, and medications. It is differentiated from HEALTH EXPENDITURES, which refers to the amount of money paid for the services, and from fees, which refers to the amount charged, regardless of cost.

Application of marketing principles and techniques to maximize the use of health care resources.

A medical specialty concerned with the provision of continuing, comprehensive primary health care for the entire family.

An aspect of personal behavior or lifestyle, environmental exposure, or inborn or inherited characteristic, which, on the basis of epidemiologic evidence, is known to be associated with a health-related condition considered important to prevent.

Health care services provided to patients on an ambulatory basis, rather than by admission to a hospital or other health care facility. The services may be a part of a hospital, augmenting its inpatient services, or may be provided at a free-standing facility.

Excessive, under or unnecessary utilization of health services by patients or physicians.

The practice of medicine as applied to special circumstances associated with military operations.

Age as a constituent element or influence contributing to the production of a result. It may be applicable to the cause or the effect of a circumstance. It is used with human or animal concepts but should be differentiated from AGING, a physiological process, and TIME FACTORS which refers only to the passage of time.

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).

Levels within a diagnostic group which are established by various measurement criteria applied to the seriousness of a patient's disorder.

Studies in which the presence or absence of disease or other health-related variables are determined in each member of the study population or in a representative sample at one particular time. This contrasts with LONGITUDINAL STUDIES which are followed over a period of time.

Organized services to provide health care to adolescents, ages ranging from 13 through 18 years.

Amounts charged to the patient as payer for medical services.

The qualitative or quantitative estimation of the likelihood of adverse effects that may result from exposure to specified health hazards or from the absence of beneficial influences. (Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 1988)

A general concept referring to the organization and administration of nursing activities.

Health care provided to specific cultural or tribal peoples which incorporates local customs, beliefs, and taboos.

Insurance providing coverage of medical, surgical, or hospital care in general or for which there is no specific heading.

Major administrative divisions of the hospital.

Social and economic factors that characterize the individual or group within the social structure.

Organized services for the purpose of providing diagnosis to promote and maintain health.

Services offered to the library user. They include reference and circulation.

The ratio of two odds. The exposure-odds ratio for case control data is the ratio of the odds in favor of exposure among cases to the odds in favor of exposure among noncases. The disease-odds ratio for a cohort or cross section is the ratio of the odds in favor of disease among the exposed to the odds in favor of disease among the unexposed. The prevalence-odds ratio refers to an odds ratio derived cross-sectionally from studies of prevalent cases.

Professional medical personnel approved to provide care to patients in a hospital.

A geographic area defined and served by a health program or institution.

A health care system which combines physicians, hospitals, and other medical services with a health plan to provide the complete spectrum of medical care for its customers. In a fully integrated system, the three key elements - physicians, hospital, and health plan membership - are in balance in terms of matching medical resources with the needs of purchasers and patients. (Coddington et al., Integrated Health Care: Reorganizing the Physician, Hospital and Health Plan Relationship, 1994, p7)

A class of statistical procedures for estimating the survival function (function of time, starting with a population 100% well at a given time and providing the percentage of the population still well at later times). The survival analysis is then used for making inferences about the effects of treatments, prognostic factors, exposures, and other covariates on the function.

Systematic identification of a population's needs or the assessment of individuals to determine the proper level of services needed.

Planning for needed health and/or welfare services and facilities.

The number of new cases of a given disease during a given period in a specified population. It also is used for the rate at which new events occur in a defined population. It is differentiated from PREVALENCE, which refers to all cases, new or old, in the population at a given time.

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)

Contraceptive substances to be used after COITUS. These agents include high doses of estrogenic drugs; progesterone-receptor blockers; ANTIMETABOLITES; ALKALOIDS, and PROSTAGLANDINS.

Hospitals located in a rural area.

Means of postcoital intervention to avoid pregnancy, such as the administration of POSTCOITAL CONTRACEPTIVES to prevent FERTILIZATION of an egg or implantation of a fertilized egg (OVUM IMPLANTATION).

Insurance providing benefits for the costs of care by a physician which can be comprehensive or limited to surgical expenses or for care provided only in the hospital. It is frequently called "regular medical expense" or "surgical expense".

Absolute, comparative, or differential costs pertaining to services, institutions, resources, etc., or the analysis and study of these costs.

Conversations with an individual or individuals held in order to obtain information about their background and other personal biographical data, their attitudes and opinions, etc. It includes school admission or job interviews.

Studies designed to assess the efficacy of programs. They may include the evaluation of cost-effectiveness, the extent to which objectives are met, or impact.

Available manpower, facilities, revenue, equipment, and supplies to produce requisite health care and services.

Fibrinolysin or agents that convert plasminogen to FIBRINOLYSIN.

A cabinet department in the Executive Branch of the United States Government concerned with administering those agencies and offices having programs pertaining to health and human services.

Organized services to provide health care to women. It excludes maternal care services for which MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES is available.

Innovation and improvement of the health care system by reappraisal, amendment of services, and removal of faults and abuses in providing and distributing health services to patients. It includes a re-alignment of health services and health insurance to maximum demographic elements (the unemployed, indigent, uninsured, elderly, inner cities, rural areas) with reference to coverage, hospitalization, pricing and cost containment, insurers' and employers' costs, pre-existing medical conditions, prescribed drugs, equipment, and services.

The capacity of an organization, institution, or business to produce desired results with a minimum expenditure of energy, time, money, personnel, materiel, etc.

Confidence in or reliance on a person or thing.

The administrative process of discharging the patient, alive or dead, from hospitals or other health facilities.

Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.

Organized services to provide diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of genetic disorders.

Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.

A medical specialty concerned with maintaining health and providing medical care to children from birth to adolescence.

Services designed to promote, maintain, or restore dental health.

The total amount of work to be performed by an individual, a department, or other group of workers in a period of time.

Providing for the full range of personal health services for diagnosis, treatment, follow-up and rehabilitation of patients.

Federal program, created by Public Law 89-97, Title XIX, a 1965 amendment to the Social Security Act, administered by the states, that provides health care benefits to indigent and medically indigent persons.

Publications in any medium issued in successive parts bearing numerical or chronological designations and intended to be continued indefinitely. (ALA Glossary of Library and Information Science, 1983, p203)

Those facilities which administer health services to individuals who do not require hospitalization or institutionalization.

Organized services in a hospital which provide medical care on an outpatient basis.

Management of public health organizations or agencies.

Large hospitals with a resident medical staff which provides continuous care to maternity, surgical and medical patients.

Federal, state, or local government organized methods of financial assistance.

An organized procedure carried out through committees to review admissions, duration of stay, professional services furnished, and to evaluate the medical necessity of those services and promote their most efficient use.

An infant during the first month after birth.

Calamities producing great damage, loss of life, and distress. They include results of natural phenomena and man-made phenomena. Normal conditions of existence are disrupted and the level of impact exceeds the capacity of the hazard-affected community.

Processes or methods of reimbursement for services rendered or equipment.

The containment, regulation, or restraint of costs. Costs are said to be contained when the value of resources committed to an activity is not considered excessive. This determination is frequently subjective and dependent upon the specific geographic area of the activity being measured. (From Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)

A province of Canada on the Pacific coast. Its capital is Victoria. The name given in 1858 derives from the Columbia River which was named by the American captain Robert Gray for his ship Columbia which in turn was named for Columbus. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p178 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p81-2)

Any type of research that employs nonnumeric information to explore individual or group characteristics, producing findings not arrived at by statistical procedures or other quantitative means. (Qualitative Inquiry: A Dictionary of Terms Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997)

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.

Hospitals maintained by a university for the teaching of medical students, postgraduate training programs, and clinical research.

Visits made by patients to health service providers' offices for diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up.

Payment by a third-party payer in a sum equal to the amount expended by a health care provider or facility for health services rendered to an insured or program beneficiary. (From Facts on File Dictionary of Health Care Management, 1988)

System of recording financial transactions.

Differences in access to or availability of medical facilities and services.

Dilation of an occluded coronary artery (or arteries) by means of a balloon catheter to restore myocardial blood supply.

A component of the Department of Health and Human Services to oversee and direct the Medicare and Medicaid programs and related Federal medical care quality control staffs. Name was changed effective June 14, 2001.

The inhabitants of a city or town, including metropolitan areas and suburban areas.

Private, not-for-profit hospitals that are autonomous, self-established, and self-supported.

A method of comparing the cost of a program with its expected benefits in dollars (or other currency). The benefit-to-cost ratio is a measure of total return expected per unit of money spent. This analysis generally excludes consideration of factors that are not measured ultimately in economic terms. Cost effectiveness compares alternative ways to achieve a specific set of results.

Theoretical representations and constructs that describe or explain the structure and hierarchy of relationships and interactions within or between formal organizational entities or informal social groups.

Fundamental claims of patients, as expressed in statutes, declarations, or generally accepted moral principles. (Bioethics Thesaurus) The term is used for discussions of patient rights as a group of many rights, as in a hospital's posting of a list of patient rights.