A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V
A
Academic Medical Center (AMC): A partnership uniting a medical school, a hospital, and physician groups for the purpose of educating and training medical students, as well as conducting research.
Accountable Care Organization (ACO): Groups of doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients.
Accountable Health Plan (AHP): Under the Managed Competition Act, providers and insurance companies would
be encouraged (through tax incentives) to form AHPs,
similar to HMOs, PPOs, and other group practices. AHPs would compete on the basis of offering high-quality, low-cost care and would offer insurance and healthcare as a single product. They would be responsible for looking after the total health of members and reporting medical outcomes in accordance with federal guidelines.
Accreditation: Hospital accreditation is a self-assessment and external peer assessment process used by healthcare organizations to accurately assess their level of performance in relation to established standards and to implement ways to continuously improve. Hospitals pursue accreditation because it is required in order for their organizations to receive payment from federally funded Medicare and Medicaid programs. Approximately 77% of the nation's hospitals are currently accredited, and of those, approximately 88% are accredited by The Joint Commission.
Acute Care: A pattern of healthcare in which a patient is treated for an acute (immediate and severe) episode of illness; for the subsequent treatment of injuries related to an accident or other trauma; or during recovery from surgery. Acute care is usually delivered in a hospital setting by specialized personnel using complex and sophisticated technical equipment and materials. Unlike chronic care, acute care is usually only delivered over a short time span of 30 days or less.
Advanced Console Server (ACS): Secure, remote access to any device with a serial port via telnet or SSH.
Air Handler Unit (AHU): A device used to regulate and circulate air as part of a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.
Airflow Management (AFM): The practice of managing air flow through a facility in order to attain maximum efficiency and effectiveness of airflow systems.
Airside Economizer: An economizer that directs exterior air into the data center when the air temperature is at or below the cooling set-point.
Alternate Delivery Systems: Health services provided in other than an inpatient, acute-care hospital or private practice. Examples within general health services include skilled and intermediary nursing facilities, hospice programs, and home healthcare. Alternate delivery systems are designed to provide needed services in a more cost-effective manner.
Ambulatory Care: Ambulatory care or outpatient care is medical care provided on an outpatient basis, including diagnosis, observation, consultation, treatment, intervention, and rehabilitation services. This care can include advanced medical technology and procedures even when provided outside of hospitals.
Ambulatory Setting: A type of healthcare setting where health services are provided on an outpatient basis. Ambulatory settings usually include physicians' offices, clinics, and surgery centers.
American Accreditation Health Care Commission (AAHCC): AAHCC accreditation is an important quality "seal of approval" for provider networks and managed care organizations. Gaining accreditation requires meeting standards for confidentiality, staff qualifications and credentials, program qualifications, quality improvement programs, accessibility and on-site review procedures, information requirements, utilization review procedures and appeals.
American Hospital Association (AHA): Founded in 1898, the AHA is a national organization that provides education for healthcare leaders and is a source of information on healthcare issues and trends. Through representation and advocacy activities, AHA ensures that members' perspectives and needs are heard and addressed in national health policy development, legislative and regulatory debates, and judicial matters. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for healthcare leaders and is a source of information on healthcare issues and trends.
American Society for Healthcare Engineers (ASHE): Association for healthcare facility managers, engineers and other professionals dedicated to optimizing the healthcare physical environment.
Ancillary Services: Supplemental services, including laboratory, radiology, physical therapy and inhalation therapy that are provided in conjunction with medical or hospital care.
Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ): The authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) is that person or office charged with enforcing the Life Safety Code. In many states the AHJ is the state fire marshal who has local inspectors work on his/her behalf. For some occupancies, there is more than one AHJ; each AHJ’s approval must be secured. For example, the AHJ's for a hospital might include: state fire marshal; building official; fire department fire prevention officer; state health care licensing agency; The Joint Commission; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); and the facility’s insurance carrier.
Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS): A transfer switch is an electrical switch that switches a load between two sources. This is a critical component of any emergency or standby power system.
B
Behavioral Healthcare: Treatment of mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.
Blockchain: A decentralized, distributed and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that any involved record cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks. Potential applications for healthcare being evaluated include the use of blockchain to improve the accuracy of healthcare provider directories and lower the cost of keeping that information up to date by sharing the data and workload.
Building Automation System (BAS): The automatic centralized control of a building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting and other systems through a building management system or building automation system.
C
Center for Public Health Preparedness (CPHP): Established by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to strengthen bioterrorism and emergency preparedness linking academic expertise to state and local health agency needs.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS): A federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides health coverage to more than 100 million people. CMS seeks to strengthen and modernize the Nation's healthcare system providing access to high quality care and improved health at lower costs.
Centers of Excellence: A network of healthcare facilities selected for specific services based on criteria such as experience, outcomes, efficiency, and effectiveness. An example might include an organ transplant managed care program wherein members access selected types of benefits through a specific network of medical centers.
Clinical Information System (CIS): A platform that allows healthcare providers and administrators collect, store, manage and retrieve clinical information and patient data.
Cold Aisle: An aisle where rack fronts face into the aisle. Chilled airflow is directed into this aisle so that it can enter the fronts of the racks in a highly efficient manner.
Cold Aisle Containment (CAC): The practice of isolating the cold aisle of a row from mixing with other airflow through a data center. Used to improve efficiency of a building's cooling infrastructure.
Computer-Based Patient Record (CPR): A term for the process of replacing the traditional paper-based chart through automated electronic means; generally includes the collection of patient-specific information from various supplemental treatment systems.
Computer Room Air Conditioner (CRAC): (Pronounced “crack”) Uses a compressor to mechanically cool air.
Computer Room Air Handler (CRAH): (Pronounced “craah”) Uses chilled water to cool air.
Critical Access Hospital: Critical Access Hospital is a designation given to eligible rural hospitals by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The federal program aims to offer small hospitals in rural areas to serve residents that would otherwise be a long distance from emergency care.
D
Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE): A measure that is calculated by dividing the IT equipment power consumption by the power consumption of the entire data center. The inverse of this measure is PUE.
Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM): Comprises software tools for discovering, monitoring and controlling assets forming a data center; includes both power and computing resources.
Department of Health (DoH): A U.S. government department which focuses on issues related to the general health of its citizens.
Department of Labor (DoL): A U.S. government department responsible for setting national labor standards, labor dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training and social security.
Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM): A standard for handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging. It includes a file format definition and a network communications protocol. The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) holds the copyright to this standard.
Direct Expansion (DX): Air conditioning unit, also called a DX unit, which directly cools the air supplied to the building using a condensed refrigerant liquid.
Distributed Antenna System (DAS): A network of spatially separated antenna nodes connected to a common source via a transport medium that provides wireless service within a geographic area or structure.
DSView: Brower-based software enabling management of remote devices through secure connection. Gives access/control to servers, blades, virtual machines, network equipment, serial consoles and power strips.
E
Electronic Health Record (EHR): A digital version of a patient's paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.
Electronic Medical Record (EMR): A narrower view of a patient's medical history used by providers for diagnosis and treatment and are not designed to be shared outside the individual practice.
Emergency Care and Hospital Operations (ECHO): Same as Emergency Operations Plan
Emergency Department / Emergency Room (ED / ER): A section of an institution that is staffed and equipped to provide rapid and varied emergency care, especially for those stricken with sudden and acute illness or the victims
of severe trauma.
Emergency Operations Plan (EOP): Provides the structure and processes that the organization uses to respond to and initially recover from an event. The EOP is the response and recovery component of the Emergency Management Program (EMP).
Emergency Power Facility Assessment Tool (EFPAT): A secure web-based tool that can be used by critical public facility owners/operators, or emergency response agencies, to input, store, update and/or view temporary emergency power assessment data.
Emergency Power Supply Systems (EPSS): An independent source of electrical power that supports important electrical systems on loss of normal power supply. A standby power system may include a standby generator, batteries and other apparatus.
Energy Star®: The ENERGY STAR program was established by the EPA in 1992, under the authority of the Clean Air Act Section 103(g). Within healthcare, the ENERGY STAR Score for Hospitals applies to general medical and surgical hospitals, including critical access hospitals and children’s hospitals. The objective of the ENERGY STAR score is to provide a fair assessment of the energy performance of a property relative to its peers, taking into account the climate, weather, and business activities at the property. To identify the aspects of building activity that are significant drivers of energy use and then normalize for those factors, a statistical analysis of the peer building population is performed. The result of this analysis is an equation that will predict the energy use of
a property, based on its experienced business activities. The energy use prediction for a building is compared to its actual energy use to yield a 1 to 100 percentile ranking of performance, relative to the national population.
Environet™: Infrastructure management software by Vertiv™ Geist™ provides visibility, access and management through a holistic view of your facility’s environment, power consumption and cooling.
Environment of Care (EOC): Refers to any site where patients are treated, including inpatient and outpatient settings. The main objective of the EOC is to provide a safe, functional and effective environment for patients, staff members, and others.
Essential Electrical System (EES): Important electrical circuits in a healthcare facility that must be powered at all times. These circuits are required to be treated differently and even separated from other circuits that are not absolutely necessary during a power failure.
Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO): A managed care plan where services are covered only if you go to doctors, specialists, or hospitals in the plan's network (except in an emergency).
Extended Care Facility (ECF): An institution devoted to providing medical, nursing, or custodial care for an individual over a prolonged period, such as during the course of a chronic disease or the rehabilitation phase after an acute illness.
F
Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI): A nonprofit organization that works to develop guidelines for designing and building hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR): A draft standard describing data formats and elements (known as resources) and an application programming interface (API) for exchanging electronic health records.
Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE): Earning the distinction of board certification in healthcare management signifies expertise, experience and commitment to continuing education and professional development.
Freestanding Ambulatory Surgery Center (FASC): Medical facilities that specialize in elective same-day or outpatient surgical procedures. They do not offer emergency care.
Full Time Equivalent (FTE): The hours worked by one employee on a full-time basis. The concept is used to convert the hours worked by several part-time employees into the hours worked by full-time employees. On an annual basis, an FTE is considered to be 2,080 calculated at 8 hours per day.
G
General Services Administration (GSA): An independent agency of the US government manages federal property and provides contracting options for government agencies.
H
Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA): A process for identifying the hospital's highest vulnerabilities to natural and man-made hazards and the direct and indirect effect these hazards may have on the hospital and community. It provides the hospital with a basis for determining the most likely standards and potential demands on emergency and other services that could occur during a crisis so that effective preventive measures can be taken and coordinated disaster response plan can be developed.
Health Care Reform Act (HCRA): A law that requires most insurance plans to cover a set of recommended preventive services at no extra cost.
Health Information Exchange (HIE): Health information exchange is the mobilization of healthcare information electronically across organizations within a region, community or hospital system. In practice the term HIE may also refer to the organization that facilitates the exchange.
Health Information Management (HIM): The practice of acquiring, analyzing, and protecting digital and traditional medical information vital to provide quality patient care.
Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS): A global, cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on better health through information and technology leading efforts to optimize health engagements and care outcomes using information and technology.
Health Information Service Provider (HISP): An organization that manages security and transport for health information exchange among healthcare entities or individuals using the Direct standard for transport.
Health Information Technology (HIT): Information technology applied to health and healthcare. It supports health information management across computerized systems and the secure exchange of health information between consumers, providers, payers, and quality monitors.
Health Information Technology Evaluation Collaborative (HITEC): A multi-institutional, academic collaborative, it serves in a research and evaluative role with respect to health information technology initiatives in New York State. It was formed to evaluate and develop evaluation instruments for health information exchange initiatives across the state, while integrating a variety of stakeholders, including providers, payers, employers, foundations, the federal government,
RHIOs, and vendors.
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH): Part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It was created to motivate the implementation of electronic health records and supporting technology in the United States.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA): A US legislation that provides data privacy, and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. It gives patients more control of their health information. It sets boundaries on the use and release of health records. It established safeguards that healthcare providers and others must achieve to protect the privacy of health information. It holds violators accountable, with civil and criminal penalties that can be imposed if they violate patients' privacy rights.
And it strikes a balance when public responsibility supports disclosure of some forms of data - for example, to protect public health.
Health Level Seven (HL7): Health Level Seven or HL7 refers to a set of international standards for transfer of clinical and administrative data between software applications used by various healthcare providers. HL7 International specifies a number of flexible standards, guidelines, and methodologies by which various healthcare systems can communicate with each other (interoperability).
Health Management Information System (HMIS): A data collection system specifically designed to support planning, management, and decision making in health facilities and organizations. An efficient and effective HMIS is critical to both the healthcare system and to people's health by providing the system and data central for policy planning, setting of targets and policy implementation.
Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS®): A widely used set of performance measures in the managed care industry, developed and maintained by the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
Health Related Facility (HRF): Places that provide healthcare. They include hospitals, clinics, outpatient care centers, and specialized care centers, such as birthing and psychiatric care.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA): An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the primary federal agency for improving health care to people who are geographically isolated, economically or medically vulnerable.
Health Technologies: This term encompass all the devices, medicines, vaccines, procedures and systems designed to streamline healthcare operations, lower costs and enhance quality of care. Artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, voice search, chatbots and virtual reality (VR) are among the most promising health technologies.
Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB): Established by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to combat fraud and abuse in health insurance and healthcare delivery.
Heat Exchanger: A device used to transfer heat energy, typically used for removing heat from a chilled liquid system.
Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS): A patient satisfaction survey required by CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for all hospitals in the U.S. The survey is for adult inpatients, excluding psychiatric patients.
Hospital Emergency Response Data System (HERDS): A statewide electronic web-based data collection system linked to healthcare facilities (all New York state hospitals) through a secure internet site that allows hospitals to relay resources or needs to the Department of Health during emergencies, or respond immediately to rapid request surveys in preparedness planning efforts.
Hospital Information Systems (HIS): Provides a common source of information about a patient's health history. The system has to keep data in a secure place and controls who can reach the data in certain circumstances.
Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program (HIQRP): This initiative requires hospitals to submit data for specific quality measures for health conditions common among people with Medicare, and which typically result in hospitalization. Hospitals that do not participate in HIQRP receive a reduction in their Medicare annual inpatient payment update.
Hospital Network: Network is a group of hospitals, physicians, other providers, insurers and/or community agencies that work together to coordinate and deliver a broad spectrum of services to their community. Network participation does not preclude system affiliation.
Hospital Outpatient Department (HOPD): An outpatient department or outpatient clinic is the part of a hospital designed for the treatment of outpatients, people with health problems who visit the hospital for diagnosis or treatment, but do not at this time require a bed or to be admitted for overnight care.
Hospital System: System is defined by AHA as either a multihospital or a diversified single hospital system. A multihospital system is two or more hospitals owned, leased, sponsored, or contract managed by a central organization. Single, freestanding hospitals may be categorized as a system by bringing into membership three or more, and at least 25 percent, of their owned or leased non-hospital pre-acute or post-acute health care organizations. System affiliation does not preclude network participation.
Hot Aisle: An aisle where rack backs face into the aisle. Heated exhaust air from the equipment in the racks enters this aisle and is then directed to the CRAC return vents.
Hot Aisle Containment (HAC): System that directs heated air from the outlet side of the racks to the air conditioning equipment return ducts in a highly efficient manner.
I
In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD): Tests done on samples such as blood or tissue that have been taken from the human body that can detect diseases or other conditions, and can be used to monitor a person’s overall health to help cure, treat, or prevent diseases.
Indefinite Duration Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ): A U.S. federal government contracting acronym describing a type of contract that provides for an indefinite quantity of supplies or services during a fixed period of time.
Information Technology Equipment (ITE): A group or "family" of product, which include devices that have a primary function related to the collection, transfer, storage or processing of data. Such devices predominantly generate a multiplicity of periodic pulsed (binary) electrical waveforms.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL): Set of detailed practices for IT service management (ITSM) that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
Institutional Cost Report (ICR): A uniform report used by New York hospitals to report income, expenses, assets, liabilities and statistics to the Department of Health and various Blue Cross plans.
Integrated Delivery Network (IDN): A formal system of providers and sites of care that provides both healthcare services and a health insurance plan to patients in a defined geographic area. The functionalities included in an IDN vary, but can include acute care, long-term health, specialty clinics, primary care, and home care services—all supporting an owned health plan.
Integrated Delivery System (IDS): An organization or group of affiliated organizations in which hospitals and physicians combine all their activities to deliver comprehensive healthcare services.
Integrated Healthcare System: Healthcare financing and delivery organizations created to provide a "continuum of care," ensuring that patients get the right care at the right time from the right provider.
Intensive Care Unit (ICU): A special department of a hospital or healthcare facility that provides intensive medical treatment.
Intermediate Care Facility (ICF): Long term care facility that provides nursing and supportive care to residents on a non-continuous skilled nursing care basis, under a physician's direction.
Intermediate Distribution Frame (IDF): A distribution frame which cross-connects the user cable media to individual user line circuits and may serve as a distribution point for multi-pair cables from the main distribution frame (MDF) or combined distribution frame (CDF) to individual cables connected to equipment in areas remote from these frames. IDFs are used for telephone exchange central office, customer-premises equipment, wide area network (WAN), and local area network (LAN) environments, among others.
Interoperability: Interoperability is the ability of different information systems, devices or applications to connect, in a coordinated manner, within and across organizational boundaries to access, exchange and cooperatively use data amongst stakeholders, with the goal of optimizing the health of individuals and populations.
International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC): An international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.
Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT): A subset of IoT that refers to all pieces of internet-connected technology that apply to the healthcare industry. It is also referred to as the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).
Internet of Things (IoT): A system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
J
Joint Commission: An independent, not-for-profit organization, The Joint Commission accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
Joint Commission Standards (JC): Joint Commission standards are the basis of an objective evaluation process that can help healthcare organizations measure, assess and improve performance. Standards focus on important patient, individual or resident care, and organization functions that are essential to providing safe, high quality care. Many insurance companies require providers to have this accreditation in order to seek 3rd party payment, although, many small hospitals cannot afford the cost of accreditation.
K
Keyboard, Video, Mouse (KVM): A hardware device that allows a user to control multiple computers from one or more sets of keyboards, video monitors, and mice.
L
Laboratory Information Systems (LIS): Software system that records, manages, and stores data for clinical laboratories. Traditionally most adept at sending laboratory test orders to lab instruments, tracking those orders, and then recording the results, typically to a searchable database.
Long-Term Care: Services ordinarily provided in a skilled nursing, intermediate care, personal care, supervisory care, or elder care facility.
M
Main Distribution Frame / Facility (MDF): In telephony, a main distribution frame is a signal distribution frame for connecting equipment (inside plant) to cables and subscriber carrier equipment (outside plant). A cable rack that interconnects and manages telecom wiring between itself and any IDFs; connects private or public lines coming into a building with internal network. Usually one MDF per network.
Managed Care Organization (MCO): A managed care organization may be a physician group, health plan, hospital or health system (i.e. any organization that is accountable for the health of an enrolled group of people).
Medical Management Information Systems (MMIS): A data system that allows payers and purchasers to track healthcare expenditure and utilization patterns.
Medicare Dependent Hospital (MDH): A hospital that has at least 60 percent of its inpatient days or discharges attributable to Medicare beneficiaries. The hospital must also be located in a rural area, have 100 or fewer beds, and not be classified as a sole community hospital.
N
National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI): Organization that advances child health through innovation in the quality, cost and delivery of care representing more than 220 children's hospitals.
National Health Information Network (NHIN): A collection of standards, protocols, legal agreements, specifications and services that enables the secure exchange of health information over the internet.
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN): A secure, internet-based surveillance system managed by the CDC and open to a variety of healthcare facilities in the U.S.
Network Attached Storage (NAS): Network-attached storage is a file-level computer data storage server connected to a computer network providing data access to a heterogeneous group of clients. NAS is specialized for serving files either by its hardware, software, or configuration.
Network DLP: Typically a software or hardware solution that is installed at network egress points near the perimeter. It analyzes network traffic to detect sensitive data that is being sent in violation of information security policies.
Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS): A device or software application that monitors a network or systems for malicious activity or policy violations.
O
Office of Management and Budget (OMB): The largest office within the executive office of the president of the U.S. It oversees the performance of federal agencies and administers the federal budget.
Office of Mental Health (OMH): Promoter of mental health with a particular focus on providing hope and recovery for adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances.
Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD): The leader in collecting data and disseminating information about California's healthcare infrastructure. It promotes an equitably distributed healthcare workforce, and publishes valuable information about healthcare outcomes. It also monitors the construction, renovation, and seismic safety of hospitals and skilled nursing facilities and provides loan insurance to assist the capital needs of California's not-for-profit healthcare facilities.
Office of the Medicaid Inspector General (OMIG): The largest inspector general's office in the federal government dedicated to combating fraud, waste, and abuse and to improving the efficiency of Health and Human Services programs.
Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC): At the forefront of the administration's health IT efforts and is a resource to the entire health system to support the adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve healthcare.
Over-current Protection Devices (OCPD): Protects the circuit by opening the device when the current reaches a value that will cause an excessive or dangerous temperature rise in conductors. Most over-current protection devices respond to both, short-circuit or ground-fault current values as well as overload conditions.
P
Personally Identified Information (PII): Any data that could potentially identify a specific individual. Any information that can be used to distinguish one person from another and can be used for de-anonymizing anonymous data.
Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS): A medical imaging technology which provides economical storage and convenient access to images
from multiple modalities.
Population Health Management: The aggregation of patient data across multiple health information technology resources. The analysis of that data into a single, actionable patient record, and the actions which care providers can improve both clinical and financial outcomes.
Power Distribution Unit (PDU): Device fitted with multiple outputs designed to distribute electric power, especially to racks of computers and networking equipment located within a data center.
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE): Is a measure of how efficiently a computer data center uses energy; specifically, how much energy is used by the computing equipment (in contrast to cooling and other overhead).
Preferred Provider Organization (PPO): PPOs are managed care organizations that offer integrated delivery systems (i.e., networks of providers) that are available through a vast array of health plans and are readily accountable to purchasers for cost, quality, access, and services associated with their networks. They use provider selection standards, utilization management, and quality assessment techniques to complement negotiated fee reductions as an effective strategy for long-term cost savings.
Protected Health Information (PHI): The HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, the Privacy Rule is balanced so that it permits the disclosure of personal health information needed for patient care and other important purposes.
R
Rack: A data center rack is a type of physical steel and electronic framework that is designed to house servers, networking devices, cables and other data center computing equipment. This physical structure provides equipment placement and orchestration within a data center facility.
Rack Unit (U): A unit of measure used to describe the height of a server, network switch or other similar device mounted in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack. One rack unit is 44.45 mm (1.75 in) high. A single rack unit is commonly designated as "1U"; similarly, two rack units are "2U" and so on.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): A form of wireless communication that incorporates the use of electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling in the radio frequency portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to uniquely identify an object, animal or person.
Radiology Information Systems (RIS): A networked software system for managing medical imagery and associated data.
Real-time Location Systems (RTLS): In healthcare, it is a system used to provide immediate or real-time tracking and management of medical equipment, staff and patients within all types of patient care environments.
Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO): A group of organizations within a specific area that share healthcare related information electronically according to accepted healthcare information technology standards.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM): A subcategory of home care telehealth that allows patients to use mobile medical devices and technology to gather patient-generated health data and send it to healthcare professionals.
Residential Health Care Facility (RHCF): A family-oriented facility offering warm, state-of-the-art, comfortable care to individuals who need long-term or short-term 24-hour a day care.
Risk Frameworks: Risk framework options for health information management include ISO 27001, NIST SP 800-53 revision 4, SOC2, and HITRUST common security framework (CSF). Leveraging the SOC2 reporting framework alongside the HITRUST CSF is emerging as the gold standard.
Roof Top Units (RTU): A type of HVAC system that contains all the components needed to provide conditioned air in one concise unit. Also referred to as packaged rooftop units, they are commonly found in light and large commercial applications.
Rural Health Clinic (RHC): A public or private hospital, clinic or physician practice designated by the federal government as in compliance with the Rural Health Clinics Act. The practice must be located in a medically under-served area or a health professions shortage area and use a physician assistant and/or nurse practitioners to deliver services.
S
Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP): A popular protocol for network management. It is used for collecting information from, and configuring, network devices, such as servers, printers, hubs, switches, and routers on an Internet Protocol (IP) network.
Single Payer Healthcare System: Single-payer healthcare is a type of universal healthcare financed by taxes that covers the costs of essential healthcare for all residents, with costs covered by a single public system. "Single-payer" describes the mechanism by which healthcare is paid for by a single public authority, not the type of delivery or for whom physicians work, which may be public, private, or a mix of both.
Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF): A special facility or part of a hospital that provides medically necessary specialized services from nurses, physical and occupational therapists, speech pathologists and audiologists.
Software Defined Network (SDN): Allows network administrators to programmatically initialize, control, change, and manage network behavior dynamically via open interfaces.
Static Transfer Switch (STS): An electrical device that allows instantaneous transfer of power sources to the load. This superior switching time means that if one power source fails the STS switches to the back-up power source so quickly that the load never recognizes the transfer was made.
Storage Area Network (SAN): A computer network which provides access to consolidated, block-level data storage.
Storage DLP: Typically a software solution that is installed in data centers to discover confidential data stored in inappropriate and/or unsecured locations (e.g. open file share).
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA): A system of software and hardware elements used to gather and analyze real-time data and comprises remote terminal units, programmable controllers, telemetry and HMI.
T
Telecommunications Closet (TC): A small room that encloses telecommunications network systems and devices. This closet is the central junction point for all wiring equipment and wiring for devices connected in the local area network.
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA): Develops voluntary, consensus-based industry standards for wide variety of information and communication technology products.
TeleMedicine: The provision of consultant services by off-site physicians to healthcare professionals on the scene as by means of closed-circuit television; the ability of healthcare providers to examine patients remotely by means of a computer.
Tertiary Care: Tertiary care is administered at a highly specialized medical center. It is associated with the utilization of high-cost technology resources.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA): The comprehensive healthcare reform law enacted in March 2010 often shortened to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or nicknamed Obamacare. The law has three primary goals:
1) Make affordable health insurance available to more people, 2) Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level, and 3) Support innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of healthcare generally.
U
Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS): An uninterruptible power supply or uninterruptible power source (UPS) is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source or mains power fails. A UPS is typically used to protect hardware such as computers, data centers, telecommunication equipment or other electrical equipment where an unexpected power disruption could cause injuries, fatalities, serious business disruption or data loss.
Universal Management Gateway (UMG): An appliance that provides in-band and out-of-band access to service processors (SP), serial consoles, and digital KVM enabling true, real-time, integrated monitoring, access and control across IT and facilities systems in the data center.
Urgent Care Center: A medical facility where ambulatory patients can be treated on a walk-in basis, without an appointment, and receive immediate, non-emergency care.
V
Virtualization: The creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources. Virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall trend in enterprise IT that includes autonomic computing, a scenario in which the IT environment will be able to manage itself based on perceived activity, and utility computing, in which computer processing power is seen as a utility that clients can pay for only as needed. The usual goal of virtualization is to centralize administrative tasks while improving scalability and workloads.