| SPICU | surgical pulmonary intensive care unit |
|---|---|
| TICU | trauma intensive care unit |
| CCN | caudal central nucleus; community care network; coronary care nursing; critical care nursing |
| CCU | cardiac care unit; Cherry-Crandall unit; coronary care unit; critical care unit |
| PCCM | pediatric critical care medicine; primary care case management; primary care case manager |
| delivery of health care | The concept concerned with all aspects of providing and distributing health services to a patient population. (12 Dec 1998) |
|---|---|
| delivery of health care, integrated | 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) (12 Dec 1998) |
| 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. (12 Dec 1998) |
| quality indicators, health care | Norms, criteria, standards, and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determinng the quality of health care. (12 Dec 1998) |
| quality of health care | The levels of excellence which characterise the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality. (12 Dec 1998) |
| infant care | Care of infants in the home or institution. (12 Dec 1998) |
| insurance, long-term care | Health insurance to provide full or partial coverage for long-term home care services or for long-term nursing care provided in a residential facility such as a nursing home. (12 Dec 1998) |
| intermediate care facilities | Institutions which provide health-related care and services to individuals who do not require the degree of care which hospitals or skilled nursing facilities provide, but because of their physical or mental condition require care and services above the level of room and board. (12 Dec 1998) |
| International Classification of Health Problems in Primary Care | A classification of diseases, conditions and problems arranged for use in primary care where diagnostic precision is seldom possible. (05 Mar 2000) |
| intraoperative care | Patient care procedures performed during the operation that are ancillary to the actual surgery. It includes monitoring, fluid therapy, medication, transfusion, anaesthesia, radiography, and laboratory tests. (12 Dec 1998) |
| terminal care | Medical and nursing care of patients in the terminal stage of an illness. (12 Dec 1998) |
| tertiary medical care | Specialised consultative care, usually on referral from primary or secondary medical care personnel, by specialists working in a centre that has personnel and facilities for special investigation and treatment. (05 Mar 2000) |
| episode of care | An interval of care by a health care facility or provider for a specific medical problem or condition. It may be continuous or it may consist of a series of intervals marked by one or more brief separations from care, and can also identify the sequence of care (e.g., emergency, inpatient, outpatient), thus serving as one measure of health care provided. (12 Dec 1998) |
| uncompensated care | Medical services for which no payment is received. Uncompensated care includes charity care and bad debts. (12 Dec 1998) |
| united states agency for health care policy and research | 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 centre for health services research. (12 Dec 1998) |