Category: M

A term applied to a variety of organizations which contract to provide management services for the reduction and control of health care costs to corporations, insurers, and third party administrators. MCOs employ such methods as making decisions as to what care is to be given individual patients and where it will be provided, negotiating contracts…

A term used in the prospective payment system (PPS). All patients are ultimately classified into one of the 468 Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) (categories). On the way to that classification, each patient first falls into one of 23 MDCs on the basis of his principal diagnosis; the patient is then further classified according to age,…

An electronic system similar to that used in clothing stores to detect removal of a magnetically tagged garment past a sensor at the exit. Similar magnetic “sitters” are used to keep track of patients who, because of confusion, may wander away or enter a dangerous area. Such patients, who would otherwise have to be restrained,…

The economic theory which pertains to forces which determine the decisions and actions of populations, rather than of individuals. The latter theory is called microeconomics. The economic theory which pertains to forces which determine the decisions and actions of individuals, rather than of entire populations. The latter theory is called macroeconomics.  

In health care, refers to steps taken to improve the health care system at the community level (for example, local, state, or national) with respect to such problems as insurance, financing, tort reform, access, and the like, rather than care to individual patients.  

The maximum response a drug can produce; the point at which the response does not increase even if dosage continues to increase.  

A type of vaccine that is normally given in a combination as measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.  

Employing all or most of the senses, including auditory (hearing), visual (seeing), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), and kinesthetic (body motion). Some approaches for teaching children with learning disabilities or others kinds of learning difficulties employ various of the senses to enhance success at learning, as in the VAKT approach to teaching reading.  

The presence of more than one kind of handicap in a child, such as deafness and blindness, or mental retardation and orthopedic handicaps.  

A type of family in which adults living in a collective household or commune share the rearing of children in the house.