Glossary of Terms

Care pathways: Multidisciplinary patient care plans related to a specific medical condition. They are designed to support the use of clinical guidelines and evidence-based medicine. The pathways provide detailed guidance at each stage of a patient’s care (e.g., treatments, interventions) over a given time period, including progress and expected outcomes. Their purpose is to support the continuity and coordination of services, thereby improving the quality of patient care.
Case manager: A healthcare professional who helps to coordinate the team of health care service providers (including doctors, nurses and therapists) for a patient. They seek out and coordinate resources as well as ensure communication with the patient, family and healthcare providers.
Continuity of care: The process of transitioning care of a patient from one healthcare provider to another, including the update and exchange of medical records between physicians. Whether between the primary care physician, the hospitalist or a skilled nursing facility, the intent is to provide the necessary communication to ensure a smooth and safe transition of care for the patient.
Diagnostic related groups (DRGs): A medical coding system that classifies hospital patient cases by diagnosis into one of approximately 700 groups. These codes are used to determine how much the hospital will be paid for treating each patient.
Evidence-based medicine (EBM): The attempt to uniformly apply the standards of evidence gained from the scientific method to medical practice. EBM seeks to assess the quality of evidence relevant to the risks and benefits of treatments.
Hospital medicine: Hospital medicine is a fast-growing medical specialty dedicated to the care of hospitalized patients. Hospitalists are highly knowledgeable in hospital systems and technologies, and are experts in managing patients with multiple acute care concerns.
Hospitalist: A hospitalist is a physician whose practice is dedicated entirely to the care of hospitalized patients. The hospitalist is often an internal medicine specialist, though some are trained in subspecialties like critical care or geriatrics.
Inpatient: A patient admitted to the hospital for a diagnosis requiring a higher level of care than can be provided at home or in a doctor’s office. They are referred to as an inpatient from the initial admission until they are discharged from the hospital.
Medicaid: Medicaid is the U.S. government health program serving eligible individuals and families with low incomes, including parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. It is managed by the states, but is funded by both the states and the federal government.
Medicare: Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government. It provides health insurance coverage to eligible people who are either age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria.
Order Sets: Standardized templates for the care of a hospitalized patient with a specific diagnosis. These templates are carefully developed using the latest, approved research guidelines and evidence-based medicine. The purpose is to improve efficiency, simplify work flow, increase patient safety, and improve the care of the hospitalized patient. They can be easily individualized to a given patient’s condition.
Outpatient: A patient who is being cared for in a clinic setting or at home. It also includes those patients who are referred to the hospital for special tests and procedures but do not stay overnight (e.g., outpatient surgical procedures).
Pathways: Clinical care protocols established along with order sets to provide uniform, evidence-based medical care. A clinical pathway is defined by the National Institute of Health as a multidisciplinary set of daily prescriptions, orders and outcome targets for managing the overall care of a patient with a specific diagnosis.
Primary care physician: A medical doctor who provides general care for a patient and is typically first consulted in case of illness or injury. They are most familiar with all aspects of a patient’s health, general well-being and unique circumstances. They also coordinate the referral to specialists as required.
SIP Hospitalist Institute™: Sound Inpatient Physician’s internal learning center funded and staffed by Sound Inpatient Physicians. The SIP Hospitalist Institute is dedicated to continuing education and professional growth. The Institute provides cross team networking and strives to implement best practices and evidence-based care throughout Sound’s hospitalist teams.
Specialist: A physician who has successfully completed years of additional education and training to become an expert in a specific area of medicine. Often, they are required to pass a national board certification exam and complete continuing education credits to maintain their specialist status.
Unassigned patient: A hospital patient, generally admitted through the emergency room, who has no designated primary care physician but requires hospitalization and post-hospital care. Addressing the care of unassigned patients, typically uninsured patients, is a key element in the hospitalist medicine model. Sound Inpatient Physicians works with the community of primary care physicians to facilitate post-hospital care upon a patient’s discharge.
Web-based application: As a new generation of software, this is a valuable tool in facilitating communication between hospitalists and managing their patients' care. It provides a vehicle for detailed written sign-out and is accessible from any location by multiple users. It was designed by Sound hospitalists with skilled developers exclusively for the practice of hospital medicine.