Method of assuring that only those patients who need hospital care are admitted. Certification can be granted before admission (preadmission) or shortly after (concurrent). Length of stay for the patient’s diagnosed problem is usually assigned on admission under a certification program.

The month, day, and year the patient is admitted to the hospital as an inpatient or as an outpatient for services or tests. Admission date is inserted in Field 12 of the Uniform Bill (UB-04) inpatient hospital billing claim form. The electronic version requires an eight-character date listing year, month, and day: 20XX0328. For an admission notice for hospice care for a Medicare patient, enter the effective date of election of hospice benefits.

Computer software program used by hospitals to keep track of patients from the time of admission to time of discharge or transfer to another facility.

Registration of a patient either as an inpatient or outpatient for receiving medical services in a health care facility. Admissions staff give the patient a registration number and obtain demographic, insurance, and medical information, which is entered into the computer system.

Review a patient’s medical case for appropriateness and necessity of admissions.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield phrase; a formal notice sent by a host plan to the home plan that one of their members has been admitted into a plan hospital in the host plan’s area and a request for membership information. See also approval wire.

Method used to compare the number of hospital admissions for defined populations for a specific period of time, usually 1 year. APT is commonly used by managed care plans to evaluate utilization management performance. Admissions per 1000 formula: number of hospital admissions for a population divided (÷) by the number of persons in that population, and the result multiplied (×) by 1000.

Initial identification of the condition for which the patient is admitted to the hospital as an inpatient.

Three- to five-digit numeric diagnostic code number that indicates the patient’s diagnosis at the time of inpatient hospital admission.

Patient’s provider of medical services who arranges for the patient’s admission to a hospital or facility.