Please refer to these definitions when completing the 2010 Most Wired Survey. If you have further questions or need clarification, send an e-mail to mostwired@healthforum.com.
802.11: Wireless networking protocol, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi.
Auto-ID technology: Short for automatic identification, auto-ID is the term used to describe the process of automatic data collection and identification that occurs in real-time. Bar code and RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology are considered types of auto-ID technology.
Clinical guidelines: Recommendations based on the latest available evidence for the appropriate treatment and care of a patient's condition.
Clinical pathways: Systematic approach to achieving particular outcomes for patient care, which identifies the resources required in amount and sequence for that type of case.
Computerized provider order entry (CPOE): A computer-based system that automates and standardizes the clinical ordering process in order to eliminate illegible, incomplete and confusing orders. CPOE systems require providers to enter information into predefined fields by typing or making selections from on-screen menus.
Continuity of care document (CCD): These are structured standards for clinical information exchange that allow physicians and other health care providers to send electronic medical information to each other without loss of meaning.
Disease surveillance system: Automated system that collects and monitors data for disease trends and/or outbreaks so that public health personnel can better protect the local community and nation's health. Disease surveillance is an epidemiological practice by which the spread of disease is monitored in order to establish patterns of progression. The main role of disease surveillance is to predict, observe and minimize the harm caused by outbreak, epidemic and pandemic situations, as well as increase our knowledge as to what factors might contribute to such circumstances.
Electronic bed management system: A tool that is used to keep track of patients in beds, the status of each bed and the availability of beds. The use of color-coding in the application allows the user, at a quick glance, to see the status (empty, dirty, arrived, isolation, pending admit, pending transfer, pending discharge, discharge for death, closed, out of service, etc.) of each bed and bed availability throughout the hospital.
Electronic cabinet: An automated medication dispensing cabinet or automated supply management cabinet.
Electronic data interchange (EDI): ANSI (American National Standards Institute) formatted transaction that is sent directly to the supplier, through a dial-up connection, a third-party network service provider or the Internet.
Electronic health record (EHR): Owned by the patient and has patient input and access that spans episodes of care across multiple care delivery organizations within a community, region or state. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, an EHR should have eight core functions: health information and data, results management, order management, decision-support, electronic communication and connectivity, patient support, administrative processes and results reporting.
Electronic medical record (EMR): A computerized medical record similar in structure, scope and information content to a paper-based record. It is capable of capturing, processing and storing information and is interoperable with other related systems, such as billing and administrative applications. The data in the EMR is the legal record of what happened to the patient and is owned by the care delivery organization.
Electronically stored: Data from paper records is entered into an electronic file.
Electronically updated: Data is entered directly into an electronic file that can interface with other databases for real-time updates.
E-mail: Includes both Internet and private e-mail (e.g., within the organization).
Handhelds: See personal digital assistant.
HL7 CCOW (Health Level Seven International Clinical Context Object Workgroup) standard: An interface standard for context management that enables consistent access to patient data by allowing multiple disparate applications to integrate on the clinician's desktop within a common context.
Hospital-acquired infection surveillance software: An application that systematically monitors hospital-acquired infection rates. This application may be part of the infection control management software.
Infection control management software: An infection assessment and reporting application that automatically identifies patients with pathogens, antibiograms, or antibiotics that need tracking. Uses infection definitions based on the Center for Disease Control Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System, as well as custom, hospital-defined criteria. Tracks spikes in infection rates and identifies locations of affected patients within the facility.
Internet-enabled monitoring device: Allows patients to easily upload personal health care data from personal monitoring devices such as blood glucose monitors, insulin pumps, and blood pressure cuffs. Remote monitoring is used for chronic disease management.
Medical-grade wireless infrastructure: Guarantees wireless coverage throughout a facility to support the use of multiple applications and devices such as pagers, two-way radios, wireless patient monitoring, Wi-Fi, VoIP and cellular phones at 99.999% reliability.
Medication electronically matched: Automated double-check of medications administered at the point of care to ensure the correct medication is given to the correct patient, at the right dosage and time, and via the right route. For example, to identify potential medication errors before they happen, a scan of the nurse's badge, the patient's wristband and the medication, or the nurse logs in and enters codes, presses buttons or both to indicate which medication was taken, in what quantity and for which patient.
Mobile: A PDA (personal digital assistant), a pocket-sized personal computer, mobile phone combined with a PDA, mobile workstations or computers on wheels (COWs) and tablet PCs.
Patient's personal health record (PHR): Electronic patient medical information stored for subsequent direct access by the patient. Content may be entered by the patient or transferred from an existing electronic record, or a combination of both. Also known as a personal medical record.
Patient surveillance system: Automated system that uses software alerts to track patient vital signs to allow clinicians to intervene more quickly-before complications occur.
Personal digital assistant (PDA): A very small, lightweight device that provides functionality approaching that of a laptop computer. Features of modern handhelds include calendar and diary organizing, word processing, data management, remote access to an organization's network, Internet access, wireless access and messaging. Increasingly used in clinical practice for applications such as taking patient notes and ordering prescriptions.
Portal: A single, "one-stop" Web page that allows data from multiple sources to be merged and displayed easily for role-based access control and one that enables users to modify and personalize their own templates to obtain the information they need.
Proximity systems: A form of authentication that is designed for use on common or shared computers. The end user gains access to authorized applications by holding a card close to the reader, which reads the card, or using a keypad to sign in. These systems are convenient for quick access or multiple locations.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID): A data collection technology that uses electronic tags for storing data. An RFID tag is an object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Passive tags require no internal power source, whereas active tags require a power source. Like bar codes, RFID tags identify items. However, unlike bar codes, which must be in close proximity and in line of sight to the scanner for reading, RFID tags do not require line of sight and can be embedded within packages. Depending on the type of tag and application, they can be read at a varying range of distances.
Radio-frequency location system (RFLS): RFLS operates on the same principles as RFID, but it takes the technology one step further to provide hospitals with a more comprehensive, real-time solution for tracking and locating assets.
Real-time care management: Care managers can perform level-of-care reviews online to quickly identify and hone in on patients who require case management interventions, or who are at higher risk for negative outcomes.
Remote location: Anywhere outside of the hospital or a hospital-based or affiliated office. Includes home, remote office or unaffiliated hospital.
Server virtualization: (1) Running multiple different operating systems or multiple instances of the same operating system in one server. (2) Treating all servers in a network or server farm as a single resource.
Single sign-on: A user authentication process that permits a user to enter one name and password in order to access multiple applications. The process authenticates the user for all the applications they have been given rights to and eliminates further prompts when they switch applications during a particular session.
Single sign-off: Offers a simple one-step logout from all open applications as well as automated timed logout. To adequately secure patient information from unauthorized access, a single sign-on solution must provide single sign-off.
Storage area network (SAN): A high-speed subnetwork that interconnects different data storage devices with associated data servers for a large network. SANs support disk mirroring, backup and restore, archival and retrieval of archived data, data migration from one storage device to another, and the sharing of data among different servers in a network.
Storage virtualization: The pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is often used in SAN (storage area network), a high-speed subnetwork of shared storage devices, and makes tasks such as archiving, backup and recovery easier and faster. Storage virtualization is usually implemented with software applications or by using hardware and software hybrid appliances.
Syndromic surveillance or clinical surveillance system: In response to the threat of biologic terrorism and the resurgence of virulent forms of infectious diseases, technologic advances are being applied to disease surveillance. Syndromic surveillance systems have emerged to capture and analyze health-indicator data to identify abnormal health conditions and enable early detection of outbreaks. Given the limited public health experience with biologic terrorism and the variety of possible terrorism scenarios, the research community is exploring the application of advanced detection technology to prediagnostic syndromic data.
Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP): A category of hardware and software that enables people to use the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls by sending voice data in packets using Internet protocol rather than by traditional circuit transmissions of the public switched telephone network. One advantage of VoIP is that the telephone calls over the Internet do not incur a surcharge beyond what the user is paying for Internet access, much in the same way that the user doesn't pay for sending individual e-mails over the Internet.
Web interactive: A beginning-to-end transaction completed through the Web with no manual intervention. The patient is able to complete a transaction and get a confirmation.
Web static form: A Web link to a data collection page, form or template. The patient submits information and receives a response at a later time.
ACRONYMS
- ANSI—American National Standards Institute
- CCD—Continuity of Care Document
- CHCA—Child Health Corporation of America
- CHIME—College of Healthcare Information Management Executives
- COTH—College of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems
- CPOE—Computerized Provider Order Entry
- EDI—ANSI-formatted Electronic Data Interchange
- EHR—Electronic Health Record
- EMR—Electronic Medical Record
- FTEs—Full-Time Employees
- HIMSS—Healthcare Information Management Systems Society
- HIPAA—Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
- PDA—Personal Digital Assistant
- RFID—Radio Frequency Identification
- RFLS—Radio Frequency Location System
- SAN—Storage area network
- VoIP—Voice Over Internet Protocol
- Wi-Fi—Wireless Fidelity
