Health Management Definitions and Unique Concepts

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) - A term used to collectively describe fundamental skills that are required to independently care for oneself. These activities include keeping a safe environment, bathing, breathing, communicating, dressing, drinking, eating, eliminating, and sleeping.

Asynchronous Telecommunication - Refers to the electronic transferring of patient information that is transmitted between healthcare professionals to send electronic reports, results, and other medical-related data to be reviewed by the receiver at a later time.

Related words:

• Synchronous Telecommunication

• Store-and-forward

• Hub-and-spoke

• Remote Patient Monitoring

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Chronic Condition Management refers to one's ability to independently monitor and coordinate treatment of diagnosed condition(s). Chronic condition management is often measured in populations through studies and evidence; however, individualized chronic condition management can be measured by one's comprehension to improve or maintain livelihood, reduce or sustain healthcare costs, and minimize the effects and impact of the condition.

Clearinghouse - In Patient Better’s health managing program, it is the word used to describe the person that in the event the patient becomes incapacitated, the Clearinghouse has the authority to make decisions on behalf of the patient. The Clearinghouse has an interchangeable meaning in which you will find healthcare professionals referring to the clearinghouse as the power of attorney. When the patient is diagnosed, the Clearinghouse is in agreement to take on the primary responsibilities and delegates tasks needed within the home of the patient. The Clearinghouse is second in command to the patient (if the patient remains of sound mind and body throughout the condition) and is often referred to as to a primary caregiver.

Document management system (DMS) is a technological system that is implemented in healthcare clinics to track, manage, and store documents. DMS could stand on its or as a component in the practice's chosen electronic record management system.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) - Refers to a robust electronic system that stores patient information electronically. These types of records are typically found within large interdisciplinary or regional hospitals, medical centers, and other health entities.

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Electronic Medical Record (EMR) - An electronic medical record is a smaller scaled version of the electronic health record. This electronic system stores patient information within smaller or private practices that typically offer one specialized medical service.

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Evidence-based medicine (EBM) involves the clinical decisions being made by integrating the patient’s preferences, evidence of efficacy, and the provider’s experiences with medical treatment.

(Please see value-based medicine).

Fee for Service (F4S) - Is a traditional payment model within clinics where services are unbundled and paid for separately.  In healthcare, it gives an incentive for physicians to provide more treatments.

Health is a broad word used when referring to the status of a living being at any given time. 2) Soundness of the body or mind free from disease or abnormality. 3) A condition of optimal well-being.

Health Communication is a historically conceptualized idea created by industrial experts geared for health professionals to enhance the quality of treatment for the betterment of the patient's safety and experience.

However, Patient Better realized that if health communication is only applied to one person or group in what should be an interaction between two, then the concept becomes skewed. And that is how the provider-patient synergy was formulated into the parent-child interaction. Whereas in today’s health setting, the traditional provider-patient relationship has become obsolete and the interaction between the professional and patient must be modernized into an equal partnership in care.

For health management purposes Patient Better applied two meanings to health communication and categorized them into two perspectives. By doing this, we have developed a reciprocal and equally beneficial tool where the health professional and the patient can interact.

The Healthcare Professional’s Perspective:

Health communication is the study and practice of communicating health information and education between professional and patient. The purpose for professionals to disseminate health information is to influence the patient’s health choices by improving their health literacy.

• Increase patient’s health knowledge and awareness
• Influence behaviors and attitudes toward a health issue
• Demonstrate healthy practices
• Demonstrate the benefits of behavior changes
• Advocate a position on a health issue
• Increase support
• Alleviate misconceptions about health

The Patient’s Perspective:

Health communication is the focus on the dissemination and transmission of information that is exchanged between the patient and the clinician to influence personal health choices and improve health literacy.

• Know the best communication practices in a professional environment to prevent and safeguard against errors.
• Remove barriers and identify obstacles that may prevent an activity-driven appointment to have a productive office visit.
• Learn the fundamentals of health management communication, like definitions and vocabulary, health literacy, and the difference between medical jargon and terminology and how it affects appointment preparation.

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Health History - In clinical terms, the health history refers to the patient's summary of past and present health. The health history is an overview of the patient’s health and is a snapshot that helps health professions better understand the patient’s health status that may lead and contain relevant information bearing on their health future. The medical history comes up as an account of all medical events and occurrences that a person may have experienced, and this is an important tool in the management of the patient. In Patient Better context, the health history refers to the patient’s “table of contents” of the health story.

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Health Story - Detailed chronological personal remembrance of one’s life or health occurrence that may include emotions, pain scales, status, reactions, circumstance, and underlying events and causes.

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Healthcare refers to the efforts that are made to treat, maintain, or restore physical, or psychological well-being by trained licensed professionals.

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Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) - A United States law that designed privacy standards to protect patients’ medical records and other health information provided to healthcare professionals, medical offices and hospitals, and third-party payers.

Health Management refers to one's ability to self-manage care.

A health management program (HMP) is a life tool that teaches patients and their at-home caregiving team how to schedule, coordinate, delegate tasks, and financial plan. Through novel concepts HMP educates people the skills needed to become more self-reliant in overseeing one's care.

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Hub-and-spoke - A version of synchronous communication that is applied in healthcare settings. Hub-and-spoke is a method of organization involving the establishment of a main campus, or hub, and is complemented by satellite campuses or offices.

Informal Caregiver - Are people (typically family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, church members, and others that are part of the patient's social circle) who have taken on the responsibility to care for another, that go unpaid and have no formal medical training, who helps deliver care, provides service and aids people with activities of daily living (ADLs).

Loose Note - This is a note that does not pertain to any specific project or relevancy structure or arrangement.

Meaningful Learning (ML) - Refers to the concept that people take previously learned information and apply it to new. For understanding this concept, it is good to contrast meaningful learning with the much less desirable, rote learning.

Meaningful Use - Meaningful Use means that electronic health record technology is used in a "meaningful" way and ensures that health information is shared and exchanged to improve patient care. According to the CDC, there are five "pillars" of health outcomes that support the concept:

Meaningful Use:

• Improve quality, safety, and efficiency while reducing health disparities.

• Engage patients and families.

• Improve care coordination.

• Improve public health.

• Ensure privacy for personal health information[i].

[i] Slight, S. P., Berner, E. S., Galanter, W., Huff, S., Lambert, B. L.,

Lannon, C., Lehmann, C. U., McCourt, B. J., McNamara, M., Menachemi, N., Payne, T. H., Spooner, S. A., Schiff, G. D., Wang, T. Y., Akincigil, A., Crystal, S., Fortmann, S. P., & Bates, D. W. (2015). Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records: Experiences From the Field and Future Opportunities. JMIR medical informatics, 3(3), e30. https://doi.org/10.2196/medinform.4457

Medical is a word that is applied when one refers to the the practice of medicine. 2) Requires professional treatment at any specific point of care. 3) Pertaining to the healing of disease, illness, or sickness.

Medical Jargon - Medical jargon is commonly used terms and abbreviations used in healthcare practices. Jargon is not universal and can have multiple meanings in general medicine. Jargon can differ from one office to the next.

Medical Record - This is a compilation of written or digital notes, documents, reports, observations, and patient information created by licensed healthcare professionals to record a specific health occurrence and treatment. Medical records are then submitted and stored within a medical entity’s database to be reviewed for an extended period of time.

Medical Terminology - Medical terminology is a universal description of terms and abbreviations used in healthcare to precisely describe the human body, and includes the components, processes, and procedures that are performed. Medical terminology is universal and is defined by the National Library of Medicine. Medical terminology uses the same prefixes and suffixes are used to add meanings to different roots. The root of a term typically refers to the organ, tissue, or condition.

Outcomes - In self-management terms, outcomes or health outcomes refer to measurement’s result of the entire health occurrence. These measurements are based on the episode’s overall health costs and the patient’s experience or health status that is affected by health use (Please refer to class 1.4 Health Literacy). However, there are seven primary measures that professionals will use to conclude their patient’s outcome and are listed as followed: 1. Mortality 2. Safety of Care 3. Readmissions 4. Patient experience 5. Effectiveness of care 6. Timeliness of Care 7. Data Transparency.

Patient-Centered Care (PCC) - Involves individual patients in their specific care demands. The IOM (Institute of Medicine) defines patient-centered care as: “Providing care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions.”

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Patient Engagement - Patient engagement is a broader concept that combines patient activation with interventions designed to increase activation and promote positive patient behavior, such as obtaining preventive care or exercising regularly.

Pay for Performance - In the healthcare industry, pay for performance (P4P), also known as “value-based purchasing”, is a payment model that offers financial incentives to physicians, hospitals, medical groups, and other healthcare providers for meeting certain performance measures.

Primary caregiver - A primary caregiver is someone who’s faced with the duty of taking care of a friend or loved one who is no longer able to care for themselves. Primary caregivers may be caring for children, a senior, a spouse with a terminal illness, or any friend or family member who requires assistance with daily activities.

Relationship-Centered Care (RCC) - A framework for conceptualizing healthcare that recognizes that the nature and quality of relationships in health care influence the process and outcomes of health care. An extension of Patient-Centered Care, Relationship-Centered Care is founded upon four principles: (1) that relationships in health care ought to include the personhood of the participants, (2) that affect emotions are important components of these relationships, (3) that all health care relationships occur in the context of reciprocal influence, and (4) that the formation and maintenance of relationships in care participation are morally valuable.

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[i] Beach, M. C., Inui, T., & Relationship-Centered Care Research Network (2006). Relationship-centered care. A constructive reframing. Journal of general internal medicine, 21 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), S3–S8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00302.x

Remote Patient Monitoring - Remote patient monitoring is a technology to enable monitoring of patients outside of conventional clinical settings, such as in the home or in a remote area, which may increase access to care and decrease healthcare delivery costs.

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Retail Health Clinic - A retail health clinic is a walk-in clinic located in a retail store, supermarket, or pharmacy to treat uncomplicated illness and provide preventative healthcare services.

Rote learning is the process of memorizing information based on repetition. Rote learning enhances students' ability to quickly recall basic facts and helps develop foundational knowledge of a topic. Examples of rote learning include memorizing multiplication tables or the periodic table of elements.

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Secondary Caregiver - Are the trained representatives of home health and home care companies to assist the elderly, disabled, mentally ill, and/or terminally ill in the comfort of the individual’s home. Home care assistants often work in private homes to help patients with daily tasks such as personal grooming, meal preparation, driving to and from medical appointments and documenting in-person and virtual medical office visits.

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Self-care is the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being, happiness, and interests.

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Self-management program - A self-managing program refers to a program that helps people who have ongoing health conditions and caregivers learn how to manage their care more effectively. For many people, a self-managing program reduces stress, allowing them to follow treatment more closely and identify financial errors, duplicate tests, and become more proficient in health communication and literacy. Self-management education programs are clinically proven to reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.

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Self-managing care is a term used to refer to the management, overseeing, or the controlling of one’s affairs (e.g., to manage one’s documents, care delivery, participants and contributors, finances, or time) as it relates to health.

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Store-and-forward - Store-and-forward telemedicine is collecting clinical information and sending it electronically to another site for evaluation. Information typically includes demographic data, medical history, documents such as laboratory reports, and images, video and/or audio files.

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Synchronous Telecommunication - In the medical world, synchronous telecommunication is the real-time communication that is conducted by the provider and patient to exchange information in a live setting.

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Telehealth - Telehealth is the distribution of health-related services and information via electronic information and telecommunication technologies primarily used among health professionals Includes learning, continued education, through means of virtual technology.

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Telemedicine - refers to the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by means of telecommunications technology. It allows the clinician to contact, treat, advise, remind, educate, and monitor long-distance patients.

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Value-Based Medicine - The Center for Value-Based Medicine suggested value-based medicine (VBM) as the practice of medicine based upon the patient-perceived value conferred by an intervention. VBM starts with the best evidence-based data and converts it to patient value-based data so that it allows clinicians to deliver higher quality patient care than EBM alone. The final goals of VBM are improving the quality of healthcare and using healthcare resources efficiently.

(For further evaluation, please see Evidence-Based Medicine)

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Virtual Medicine - The term virtual medicine refers to the treatment of various medical conditions long-distance through means of telecommunication. Telemedicine platforms include live video and audio, instant messaging in a remote setting.

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