Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Text stored in digital form, containing electronic links to other digitized text, sounds, and still or moving pictures. There is no limit to how many links a “hypertext document” may contain, nor any limit to how far this link may take the reader. The link in the hypertext document is usually identified by certain text…

An amendment to the Appropriations Act in 1976, revised in 1980, which forbids federal funds to reimburse the cost of non-therapeutic abortions under the Medicaid program. The 1980 revisions allowed federal funds to be used if a woman was raped or abused by incest and she promptly reported the incident to the police or a…

To admit a patient to a hospital in which that patient will be lodged. The patient, once admitted, becomes an “inpatient.”  

A hospital television network, to which several hundred hospitals subscribe. Some of its broadcasts are “in the clear,” that is, without charge, while others require a registration or fee.  

A nonprofit research arm of the American Hospital Association (AHA), which supports activities to improve hospitals and health services.  

A corporation in Minnesota which assists communities, their hospitals, and their physicians in establishing Hospital Health Plans (HHPs), and provides startup assistance, continuing support for its transactional and analytical management information system, and liaison with other HHPs.  

A term sometimes used to designate the person responsible for the operation and maintenance of the equipment and the physical plant.  

A system in which a number of hospitals submit coded, computer-ready summaries (discharge abstracts) of clinical records to a central shared computer service. The summaries may be submitted on paper or via computer media. In return, the hospitals receive reports and analyses of their own data, which they need for their internal operations. In addition,…

A voluntary certification program for hospitals, created at New York University by Robert Sigmond and Anthony Kovner, under grant support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The purpose of the program is to stimulate hospitals to provide community benefits, and to reward them with special certification when they do.  

A total quality management (TQM) system to work toward breakthrough improvement. Used by industry for a number of years, Hoshin planning is now being tried by some hospitals as part of their TQM programs. The system was developed in Japan after World War II to plan new processes. It uses seven tools, which are used…