Dictionary

C

Care BundleTermEvidence-Based Bundle, Bundle of Care

A small, defined set of evidence-based practices that, performed together reliably for every eligible patient, significantly improve outcomes for a specific condition.

Care ConferenceTermCase Conference, Multidisciplinary Meeting

A structured meeting bringing together providers, and often the patient and family, to discuss condition, treatment, and goals of care.

Care CoordinationTermCoordinated Care, Care Orchestration

The deliberate organisation of patient care activities among multiple participants involved in a patient's care, facilitating appropriate service delivery.

Care GapTermGuideline Gap, Unmet Care Need

A discrepancy between the care a patient is recommended to receive based on guidelines and the care they actually receive.

Care ManagementTermCare Navigation, Patient Navigation Support

Activities helping patients, particularly those with complex conditions, navigate the healthcare system and receive appropriate, coordinated care.

Care Needs AssessmentTermCare Assessment, Support Needs Assessment

An evaluation of an individual's specific healthcare and support needs, used to determine the appropriate level of services required.

Care PathwayTermPatient Pathway, Managed Clinical Pathway

A structured, multidisciplinary outline of the anticipated sequence of clinical steps a patient with a condition typically experiences.

Care PlanTermTreatment Plan, Individual Care Record

A formal document outlining the specific healthcare services, goals, and interventions planned for an individual patient's treatment.

Care StandardizationTermCare Standardisation, Clinical Standardization

The process of establishing and consistently applying a defined, evidence-based approach to a clinical condition or process across an organisation.

Care TransitionTermTransition of Care, Care Handover

The movement of a patient between different healthcare settings or levels of care, a period of particular vulnerability to communication breakdown.

Caregiver BurdenTermCarer Burden, Caregiving Strain

The physical, emotional, social, and financial strain experienced by someone providing ongoing informal care to a family member or friend.

Caregiver OutcomeTermCarer Outcome, Carer Health Outcome

A measure capturing a health condition's impact on an informal carer, such as caregiving time, burden, or the carer's own quality of life.

Caregiver Quality of LifeTermCarer Quality of Life, Caregiver Wellbeing

A measure of the overall wellbeing of an informal carer, capturing caregiving's impact on their own physical health, emotions, and social functioning.

Caregiver ValueTermCarer Value, Caregiver Benefit

A component of a technology's value reflecting the benefit to informal carers, such as reduced burden, distinct from the patient's direct clinical benefit.

Carryover EffectTermCarry-Over Effect, Residual Treatment Effect

A crossover trial phenomenon where a treatment's effect from an earlier period persists into a later period, potentially contaminating assessment of the next treatment.

Carve-OutTermBenefit Segmentation, Separated Benefit Management

An arrangement where a specific service category, such as pharmacy or behavioural health, is managed and paid for separately from general medical coverage.

Case ComplexityTermClinical Complexity, Case Difficulty

A measure of how clinically complicated and resource-intensive a case is, incorporating diagnosis number, severity, and intervention intensity.

Case Fatality RateConceptCFR, Case Fatality Ratio

Case fatality rate (CFR) is the proportion of people diagnosed with a disease who die of it within a defined period, a measure of severity.

Case ManagementTermCase Coordination, Patient Case Coordination

A collaborative process of assessing, planning, coordinating, and monitoring services required to meet an individual patient's specific healthcare needs.

Case Management HospitalTermHospital Case Management, Inpatient Case Management

A collaborative hospital process assessing, planning, coordinating, and monitoring a hospitalised patient's care needs, often including discharge planning.

Case Management ReviewTermCase Review, Care Management Review

An evaluation of case management services' effectiveness for a specific patient or population, assessing whether coordination and outcome goals are met.

Case MixTermCasemix, Patient Population Mix

The overall composition of a provider's patient population in terms of diagnosis severity and complexity, typically summarised using diagnosis-related groups.

Case Mix IndexConceptCMI, Case-Mix Index

Case mix index is the mean diagnosis-related group relative weight of a defined set of inpatient discharges under a specified classification and weight schedule.

Case Series DesignTermCase Series Study, Descriptive Case Series

An observational design describing the characteristics and outcomes of patients sharing a common exposure or condition, without a comparison group.

Case WeightConceptDRG Weight, Cost Weight

Case weight is a relative value for a diagnosis-related group showing its expected cost against the average case, used to scale payment from a base rate.

Case-Based PaymentTermCase Rate, Per-Case Payment

A methodology reimbursing a provider a predetermined amount based on a patient's diagnosis category, rather than the specific services delivered.

Case-Control DesignConceptCase-Control Method, Case-Referent Design

A case-control design selects people according to whether they have an outcome and compares their prior exposure histories with those of appropriately sampled controls from the population that produced the cases.

Case-Control StudyTermCase-Referent Study, Retrospective Case Study

An observational study comparing individuals with a specific outcome against similar individuals without it, examining differences in their prior exposure.

Case-Mix Adjusted MeasureTermCase-Mix Adjusted Metric, Casemix-Adjusted Indicator

A performance metric statistically adjusted to account for differences in patient population complexity, ensuring fair comparison across providers.

Case-Mix AdjustmentTermCasemix Adjustment, Case-Mix Correction

A statistical method accounting for differences in patient population complexity when comparing cost or outcome measures across different providers.

Cash BudgetTermCash-Flow Budget, Liquidity Budget

A budget projecting expected cash inflows and outflows over a specified period, used to ensure an organisation stays liquid.

Cash FlowTermCashflow, Net Cash Movement

The movement of money into and out of an organisation over a given period, distinct from accounting profit.

Cash Flow ProjectionTermCash-Flow Forecast, Cash Projection

An estimate of future cash inflows and outflows over a specified period, used to anticipate potential shortfalls before they occur.

Cataract EconomicsTermCataract Surgery Economics, Lens Replacement Economics

The application of health economic evaluation to cataract surgery, one of the world's most commonly performed procedures, comparing techniques and lens choices.

Catastrophic Expenditure MeasureTermCHE Measure, Catastrophic-Spending Indicator

A quantitative indicator assessing whether household out-of-pocket healthcare spending exceeds a defined threshold share of income or consumption capacity.

Catastrophic Health ExpenditureConceptCHE, Catastrophic Spending

Catastrophic health expenditure occurs when a household's out-of-pocket health spending exceeds a specified share of its available resources.

Catastrophic PlanTermCatastrophic Coverage, Minimum Coverage Plan

A US Affordable Care Act marketplace plan offering very low premiums with very high deductibles, generally limited to under-thirties or hardship cases.

Categorical TargetingTermCategorical Eligibility, Group-Based Targeting

A method of directing benefits toward population groups defined by an easily observable characteristic, such as age, rather than direct assessment of need.

Category RatingTermCategory Scaling, Categorical Rating Scale

A health state valuation method in which respondents assign states to a fixed number of ordered categories, or rate them on a numerical scale.

Causal InferenceConceptCausal Inference Methods, Causal Analysis

Causal inference uses data, study design, and explicit assumptions to estimate what would happen to an outcome if an exposure, intervention, or policy were changed.

Causal Loop DiagramTermCLD, Systems Feedback Diagram

A systems thinking diagram showing feedback relationships between variables, tracing how changes propagate through causal links and loop back on themselves.

Cause and Effect DiagramTermFishbone Diagram, Ishikawa Diagram

A visual quality improvement tool, also called a fishbone diagram, systematically identifying potential root causes of a specific problem.

Cause-Specific MortalityTermDisease-Specific Mortality, Cause-of-Death Rate

The rate of death attributable to a particular disease within a defined population, calculated separately from deaths due to other causes.

Cause-Specific SurvivalTermDisease-Specific Survival, Net Survival

The probability of surviving without dying from a specific cause of interest, treating deaths from other causes as censoring rather than a competing risk.

CAUTI RateTermCatheter-Associated UTI Rate, CAUTI Incidence

A measure of the frequency of catheter-associated urinary tract infections within a facility, tracking infection prevention performance for catheter care.

Ceiling EffectTermCeiling Limitation, Score Ceiling

A measurement limitation in which many respondents score at or near the best possible value, leaving an instrument unable to detect further improvement.

Cell TherapyTermCellular Therapy, Cell-Based Therapy

A treatment involving the administration of living cells, such as genetically modified immune cells or stem cells, to treat or potentially cure a disease.

CensoringConceptCensored Data, Censored Observation

Censoring occurs in time-to-event data when an individual's event time is not observed exactly but is known only to lie beyond, before, or within a recorded time boundary.

Census DataTermPopulation Census, Census Records

Comprehensive demographic data from a periodic, complete population enumeration, providing the population totals and age structure used in health economic models.

Central Limit TheoremConceptCLT, Central Limit Law

The central limit theorem states that, under suitable independence and finite-variance conditions, a properly standardised sample mean approaches a normal distribution as the number of observations increases.