Information AboutPatient |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PATIENT | |
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A patient is any person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment. The person is most often Ill or Injured and in need of treatment by a Physician or other medical professional. '''Health consumer''', '''health care consumer''' or '''client''' are other names for patient, usually used by governmental agencies, insurance companies, and/or patient groups (who may object to some implications of the word 'patient'). ETYMOLOGY The word ''patient'' is derived from the Latin word ''patiens'', the Present Participle of the Deponent Verb ''pati'', meaning "one who endures" or "one who suffers". Patient is also the Adjective form of Patience . Both senses of the word share a common origin. In itself the definition of patient doesn't imply suffering or passivity but the role it describes is often associated with the definitions of the adjective form: ''enduring trying circumstances with even temper''. Some have argued recently that the term should be dropped, because it underlines the inferior status of recipients of health care. Polysomnography patient at the Children's Hospital In Saint Louis , USA .]] For them, "the active patient is a contradiction in terms, and it is the assumption underlying the passivity that is the most dangerous". Unfortunately none of the alternative terms seem to offer a better definition.
OUTPATIENT VS INPATIENT An outpatient is a patient who only comes to a Hospital or Doctor for diagnosis and/or therapy and then leaves again. 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 patients, have stayed in hospitals for decades). SEE ALSO
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