An encounter between a patient and a health professional which requires either the patient to travel from his home to the professional’s usual place of practice (an office visit), or vice versa (a housecall or home visit).
A short stay with someone, especially to comfort a patient.
A short stay with a professional person.
In ordinary use a ‘Visit” means, for example, the appearance of a patient in the emergency department or the appearance of a physician at the bedside. In health care, however, very specific definitions of “visit” are employed in calculation of statistics and in payment. Nevertheless, the use of the term “visit” is not uniform: the “visit” of a patient to an outpatient department in which a physician sees the patient, and then the patient goes to the laboratory and X-ray departments, may be considered one visit or three. Such definitions are often unique to the hospital, the departments involved, and the payment system; one must inquire as to exactly what is meant locally.
An encounter between a patient and a health professional that requires either the patient to travel from his or her home to the professional’s usual place of practice (office visit) or vice versa (home visit).