1. Person who is the recipient of a professional service. 2. Recipient of health care. 3. Patient. 4. System (software running on a piece of hardware) that initiates the process or requests services in a client/server computing arrangement.

Computer configuration that allows several local area network–based workstations (clients) to share access to a more powerful server computer, as might be used in a health care management plan. Processes are divided between two systems (client and server) that work together to perform a task such as obtaining information from a database.

Outpatient facility that provides medical services by a group of physicians practicing medicine together and assumes health care responsibility for ambulatory patients (e.g., physical therapy for rehabilitative purposes, diagnostic x-rays, laboratory tests, educational services).

Corporation formed by several medical practices with administrative and contracting functions centralized. Physicians’ offices have different locations, but all patient revenue is shared by the group. Sometimes called group practice without walls. See group without walls (GWW).

1. Pertaining to a clinic. 2. Pertaining to direct bedside medical or nursing care. 3. Pertaining to materials or equipment used in the care of a sick person. 4. Experience of students in training. 5. Pertaining to tasks connected with medical practice.

Examination of a patient by a physician to check for breast cancer by feeling and inspection. It is not the same as a mammogram and is performed in a doctor’s office during a Papanicolaou test and pelvic examination.

Computer-based patient record (CPR) that contains a collection of clinical key data from several sources. These data may be monitored and analyzed and are retrievable. The data can be assembled into reports or used for help in decision making. They can also be part of an institutional information warehouse or community or state health information system. Sometimes referred to as a data warehouse or clinical data warehouse (CDW).

Method used to provide clinical data to health care providers and clinicians with the use of embedded flags (e.g., alert to a case manager that a patient’s eligibility for a specific medical service is almost used up). CDSS is a major functional requirement to support a clinical or critical pathway.

In a workers’ compensation case, collection of data by a physician for assessing the health of an individual for the purpose of creating a medical management plan and beginning a course of treatment.