Dictionary
The Dictionary provides concise definitions of health economics terms, arranged alphabetically for quick reference. Use it to understand unfamiliar terminology or confirm the meaning of a specific term.
A
- Accreditation Standards
- The specific criteria a healthcare organisation must meet to achieve and maintain accreditation, covering patient safety, quality, and governance.
- AHRQ SOPS
- A US standardised survey assessing staff perceptions of an organisation's patient safety culture, covering teamwork and communication openness.
C
- Communication Openness
- A patient safety culture dimension measuring how comfortable staff feel speaking up about safety concerns without fear of repercussion.
D
- Diagnostic Safety
- A patient safety dimension concerned specifically with preventing errors in diagnosis, such as missed, delayed, or incorrect diagnoses.
F
- Falls Rate
- A measure of how frequently hospitalised patients experience a fall within a facility, a key patient safety and prevention indicator.
P
- Patient Safety
- The absence of preventable harm to a patient during healthcare, and reduction of unnecessary harm risk to an acceptable minimum.
- Patient Safety Indicator
- A standardised measure identifying potentially preventable complications during hospital care, using administrative claims data to flag cases for review.
S
- Safety Analytics
- The application of data analysis to patient safety data, such as near misses, to proactively identify system vulnerabilities.
- Safety Climate
- A patient safety culture dimension reflecting staff perceptions of how genuinely an organisation prioritises safety, beyond stated policy alone.
- Safety Culture Survey
- A standardised instrument assessing staff perceptions of patient safety culture, covering teamwork, communication openness, and organisational learning.
- Safety Management Hospital
- The overall system of processes a hospital uses to monitor, maintain, and improve patient safety, covering reporting and root cause analysis.
- Serious Safety Event
- A patient safety event causing significant harm, one of the more severe categories within a broader safety event hierarchy.
- Surgical Safety
- A patient safety dimension focused on preventing harm during surgery, covering structured checklists, antibiotic timing, and surgical team communication.
T
- Teamwork Climate
- A patient safety culture dimension reflecting the quality of collaboration and communication among staff working together to provide care.