A patient is any person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment Therapy , or treatment, is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a diagnosis. In the medical field, it is synonymous with the word "treatment". Among psychologists, the term may refer specifically to psychotherapy or "talk therapy". The person is most often ill Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered a synonym for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist. Some have described illness as the subjective perception by a patient of an objectively defined disease or injured Injury is damage or harm caused to the structure or function of the body caused by an outside agent or force, which may be physical or chemical, and either by accident or intentional. Personal Injury also refers to damage caused to the reputation of another rather than physical harm to the body. A severe and life-threatening injury is referred to and in need of treatment by a physician A physician—also known as doctor of medicine, medical doctor, or simply doctor—practices the ancient profession of medicine, which is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease or injury. This properly requires both a detailed knowledge of the academic disciplines underlying or other health care professional A health care provider or health professional is an organization or person who delivers proper health care in a systematic way professionally to any individual in need of health care services, although one who is visiting a physician for a routine check-up Physical examination or clinical examination is the process by which a doctor investigates the body of a patient for signs of disease. It generally follows the taking of the medical history — an account of the symptoms as experienced by the patient. Together with the medical history, the physical examination aids in determining the correct may also be viewed as a patient.

The word patient originally meant 'one who suffers'. This English noun comes from the Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native, fluent speakers, Latin continues to be taught in schools and has been, and currently is, used in the process of new word production in modern languages from many word patiens, the present participle In linguistics, a participle can be a verb or an adjective (participial phrase). It is a derivative of a non-finite verb, which can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns of the deponent In linguistics, a deponent verb is a verb that is active in meaning but takes its form from a different voice, most commonly the middle or passive. A deponent verb doesn't have active forms; it can be said to have deposited them verb, patior, meaning 'I am suffering,' and akin to the Greek Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (& verb πάσχειν (= paskhein, to suffer) and its cognate noun πάθος (= pathos).

Outpatients and inpatients

An outpatient is a patient who is not hospitalized for 24 hours or more but who visits a hospital A hospital, in the modern sense of the word, is an institution for health care providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment, and often, but not always providing for longer-term patient stays. Its historical meaning, until relatively recent times, was "a place of hospitality", for example the Chelsea Royal Hospital,, clinic A clinic is a small private or public health facility that is devoted to the care of outpatients, often in a community, in contrast to larger hospitals, which also treat inpatients. Some grow to be institutions as large as major hospitals, whilst retaining the name clinic. These are often associated with a hospital or medical school, or associated facility for diagnosis or treatment. Treatment provided in this fashion is called ambulatory care Ambulatory care is any medical care delivered on an outpatient basis. Many medical conditions do not require hospital admission and can be managed without admission to a hospital. Many medical investigations can be performed on an ambulatory basis, including blood tests, X-rays, endoscopy and even biopsy procedures of superficial organs. Outpatient surgery Outpatient surgery, also known as ambulatory surgery, same-day surgery or day surgery, is surgery that does not require an overnight hospital stay. The term “outpatient” arises from the fact that surgery patients may go home and do not need an overnight hospital bed. The purpose of outpatient surgery is to keep hospital costs down.[citation eliminates inpatient hospital admission, reduces the amount of medication A pharmaceutical drug, also referred to as medicine, medication or medicament, can be loosely defined as any chemical substance intended for use in the medical diagnosis, cure, treatment, or prevention of disease prescribed, and uses the physician's time more efficiently. More procedures are now being performed in a surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a person who performs surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such to remove a diseased organ or to repair a tear or breakage. Surgeons may be physicians, dentists, podiatrists or veterinarians. In earlier times,'s office, termed office-based surgery, rather than in a hospital-based operating room An operating theater was a tiered theatre or amphitheatre in which students and other spectators could watch surgeons perform surgery. Today the term is sometimes used synonymously with operating room (OR) or operating suite, the room within a hospital where surgical operations are carried out today. Outpatient surgery is suited best for healthy people undergoing minor or intermediate procedures (limited urologic, ophthalmologic, or ear, nose, and throat procedures and procedures involving the extremities).

An inpatient on the other hand is "admitted" to the hospital and stays overnight or for an indeterminate time, usually several days or weeks (though some cases, like coma In medicine, a coma is a profound state of unconsciousness. A person in a coma cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to pain, light or sound, does not have sleep-wake cycles, and does not take voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma can be described as comatose patients, have been in hospitals for years).

Alternative terminology

Due to concerns such as dignity Dignity is a term used in moral, ethical, and political discussions to signify that a being has an innate right to respect and ethical treatment. It is an extension of Enlightenment-era beliefs that individuals have inherent, inviolable rights, and thus is closely related to concepts like virtue, respect, self-respect, autonomy, human rights, and, human rights Human rights are "rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Proponents of the concept usually assert that everyone is endowed with certain entitlements merely by reason of being human and political correctness Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, disability, and age-related contexts. In current usage, the term is primarily pejorative, while the term politically incorrect has been, the term "patient" is not always used to refer to a person receiving health care. Other terms that are sometimes used include health consumer, health care consumer or client. These may be used by governmental agencies, insurance companies, patient groups, or health care facilities. Individuals who use or have used psychiatric Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders—which include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808. It literally means the 'medical treatment of the mind' . A medical doctor specializing in services may alternatively refer to themselves as consumers, users, or survivors The Consumer/Survivor/Ex-Patient Movement, also known as the User/Survivor Movement, is a diverse association of individuals who are either currently "consumers" (clients) of mental health services, or who consider themselves survivors of psychiatry or mental health services, or who simply identify as "ex-patients" of mental.

In nursing homes A nursing home, convalescent home, Skilled Nursing Unit , care home or rest home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living. Residents include the elderly and younger adults with physical or mental disabilities and assisted living Assisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs); coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being. Assistance may include the administration or supervision of facilities, the term resident is generally used in lieu of patient,^[1], but it is not uncommon for staff members at such a facility to use the term patient in reference to residents. Similarly, those receiving home health care Home Care, , is health care or supportive care provided in the patient's home by healthcare professionals (often referred to as home health care or formal care; in the United States, it is also known as skilled care) or by family and friends (also known as caregivers, primary caregiver, or voluntary caregivers who give informal care). Often, the are called clients.

See also

• Casualty A casualty is a person who is the victim of an accident, injury, or trauma. The word casualties is most often used by the news media to describe deaths and injuries resulting from wars or disasters. Casualties is sometimes misunderstood to mean fatalities, but non-fatal injuries are also casualties
• Doctor-patient relationship The doctor-patient relationship is central to the practice of medicine and is essential for the delivery of high-quality health care in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The doctor-patient relationship forms one of the foundations of contemporary medical ethics. Most medical schools and universities teach medical students from the beginning,
• e-Patient e-Patients are health consumers who use the Internet to gather information about a medical condition of particular interest to them. The term encompasses both those who seek online guidance for their own ailments and the friends and family members (e-Caregivers) who go online on their behalf. e-Patients report two effects of their online health
• Patient advocacy A patient advocate acts as a liaison between patients and Health Care Providers to help improve or maintain a high quality of health care for the patients. The terms patient advocate and patient advocacy have a broad range of usage and may be applied to the actions of many different individuals and organizatons. The patient advocate may be an
• Patient empowerment The patient empowerment concept, a recent outgrowth of the natural health movement, asserts that to be truly healthy, people must bring about changes in their social situations and in the environment that influences their lives, not only in their personal behavior
• Patients Not Patents Patients Not Patents is a patient advocacy group whose primary activity is challenging the validity of medical patents before the United States Patent and Trademark Office .[citation needed] Its founder and Executive Director is Jeffrey Light
• Patients' Bill of Rights A Patient's Bill of Rights is a statement of the rights to which patients are entitled as recipients of medical care. Typically, a statement articulates the positive rights which doctors and hospitals ought to provide patients, thereby providing information, offering fair treatment, and granting them autonomy over medical decisions
• Radiological protection of patients Patients are exposed to ionizing radiations when they undergo diagnostic examinations using x rays or radiopharmaceuticals, therapy of cancer or benign lesions using radiations emitted by radioisotopes or those by radiation generators; and in interventional procedures using fluoroscopy. There is a tremendous increase in use of ionizing radiation
• Virtual patient The term 'virtual patient' is used to describe interactive computer simulations used in health care education. Virtual patients allow the learner to take the role of a health care professional and develop clinical skills such as making diagnoses and therapuetic decisions The use of virtual patient programmes is increasing in healthcare education,

References

1. ^ Foundations of Caregiving, published by the American Red Cross The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States, and is the designated U.S. affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

External links

• Jadad AR, Rizo CA, Enkin MW (June 2003). "I am a good patient, believe it or not". BMJ 326 (7402): 1293–5. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1136/bmj.326.7402.1293. PMID A PMID is a unique number assigned to each PubMed citation of life sciences and biomedical scientific journal articles. The related Pubmed Central archive may additionally assign a separate number, a PMCID (PubMed Central Identifier), normally written with a PMC prefix 12805157. a peer-reviewed article published in the British Medical Journal's (BMJ) first issue dedicated to patients in its 160 year history
• Sokol DK (21 February 2004). "How (not) to be a good patient"]. BMJ 328 (7437): 471. doi A digital object identifier is a character string used to uniquely identify an electronic document or other object. Metadata about the object is stored in association with the DOI name and this metadata may include a location, such as a URL, where the object can be found. The DOI for a document is permanent, whereas its location and other metadata:10.1136/bmj.328.7437.471. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7437/471. review article with views on the meaning of the words "good doctor" vs. "good patient"
• Mary Shomons respone to the Time Magazine article "When the Patient is a Googler"

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