Glossary
AADE – American Association of Diabetes Educators
AAH - American Association of Homecare
AAHSA – American Association of Homes & Services for the Aging
AARP – American Association for Retired Persons
ACHCA – American College of Healthcare Administrators
acute care - health care where the need for medical attention is immediate, urgent, and generally brief in duration. Usually enough caregiver presence here that fall risk monitoring is not necessary.
AGS – American Geriatrics Society
AHCA – American Health Care Association
AHIMS – American Health Information Management Society
AJIC – American Journal of Infection Control
AL – Assisted Living (see definition for same)
ALFA – Assisted Living Federation of America
alpha testing - an engineering term for prototype product testing, primarily in-house. Prototypes are typically not “production” models. i.e. they may have been built by Engineering, and subsequent changes before beta testing are not unexpected. (Also see beta testing.)
AMA – The American Medical Association
assessment tool – a procedure, usually with accompanying forms, to evaluate a patient or resident for any of a variety of reasons. In our case, we are specifically addressing the fall risk likelihood, using factors such as physical ability/impairment, mental ability and attitude, fall history, and medications.
AMDA – American Medical Directors’ Association
ANA – American Nurses’ Association
AOTA – American Occupational Therapy Association
APTA – American Physical Therapy Association
ARN – Association of Rehabilitation Nurses
assisted fall – sounding almost like an oxymoron, this means that the patient/resident was being assisted when the fall took place. While any fall is bad, assisted falls generally result in less injury than do unassisted falls. Also see “fall” and “unassisted fall.”
assisted living – a stage of long term care sometimes utilized between independent living and a nursing home. A minimal amount of care is provided on site, but the resident is in many ways still mostly independent.
beta testing - an engineering term for field testing of what is hoped to be the final version of a product about to be marketed for sale. Beta test units must be built using the same production process that will be utilized for saleable units, and must be built exactly to the specs intended for same. Field testing is to be accomplished in intended use applications at intended facility customers. In short, real world conditions. Unless unanticipated results or user input are encountered, the final product will be the same as beta test units. (Note that beta test units must be returned to the manufacturer.) Also see “alpha testing.”
biomed (biomedical dept) – Think of this as on site maintenance and repair of medical and healthcare equipment. While the Maintenance Dept is repairing a light switch or HVAC, Biomed may be repairing some fall risk monitors or the nurse call system.
caregiver - A person directly responsible for providing personal care to a patient or resident.
CARF – The Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission (We don’t know why the acronym doesn’t match the name.)
case manager – a healthcare professional who manages a patient’s care through multiple stages, coordinating doctors, nurses, medications, facilities, and so on. In business parlance, this person is a project manager.
CCRC – Continuing Care Retirement Community
chemical restraint - those drugs given to control behavior, i.e. yelling or striking out. Chemical restraints include sedatives and anti-psychotic drugs unless prescribed by a physician to specifically treat mental illness.
CMMS – Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
CMSA – Case Management Society of America
control unit – (see monitor)
decubitus ulcer (bed sore, or pressure sore) – an irritation and resultant skin break caused by continuous pressure and reduced blood flow. Slow to heal. Frequent patient movement (self or by caregiver) is essential for prevention or healing of bedsores.
delay – the feature on some control units that allows a short time from when the system senses pressure off the mat until the alarm begins. Caregiver settable on some monitors. Generally, delays for bed systems are set longer than for chair/wheelchair/toilet systems, since patient exit from a seated position is faster.
DHQP – Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion
ETL (Edison Testing Laboratory) – The independent equipment testing laboratory utilized by Bed-Check. ETL tests our product to UL standards (see UL). Thus we can say “meets UL standards,” but not “UL Listed.”
fall – "…a sudden, unintentional change in position causing an individual to land at a lower level, on an object, floor, or the ground, other than as a consequence of sudden paralysis, epileptic seizure, or overwhelming external force." (Tinetti ME, Baker DI, Dutcher J, Vincent JE, Rozett RT. Reducing the risk of falls among older adults in the community. Berkley, CA: Peaceable Kingdom Press, 1997.)
FDA (Food & Drug Adminstration) – The federal government organization that is responsible for public safety with regard to foods and beverages, pharmaceuticals, and to some extent medical and healthcare devices.
GPO (Group Purchasing Organization) – A company whose business is to contractually buy larger quantities of healthcare and medical products than a single facility would, thereby attaining better pricing. Some of the savings should be passed along to the facilities participating with that GPO. GPO contracts, both with vendors and facilities, are usually quite restrictive.
HCFA – Health Care Financing Administration
heat seal – the proprietary and patented process used by Bed-Check to laminate the two sides of a Sensormat together. The result is a bond able to withstand the same chemical exposure as the mat material itself.
HFMA – Healthcare Financial Management Association
HIDA – Health Industry Distributors’ Association
HIMSS – Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
hold – the feature on most control units that allows the caregiver to manually keep the system from alarming while shifting the patient or assisting the patient in getting up/exiting.
in-service - The term commonly used in healthcare for how-to-use product training for caregivers. Can be used as a noun or verb.
JCAHO (Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) - a non-profit standard writing and inspection authority for hospitals and LTC facilities. Participation is voluntary, and accreditation is very beneficial for patient safety and care, business, and insurance reasons.
JONA – Journal of Nursing Administration
LTC (long term care) - facilities where, due to the duration of stay, there is as much emphasis on daily living as on healthcare. A long term care facility is a place of residence.
mat – sometimes referred to as a pad. The pressure sensing portion of the fall risk monitoring system, providing a signal to the monitor, dependent on weight on or off the mat.
monitor – another name for a control unit, the electronic “brains” of our type of fall risk system. Generally about the size of a small portable radio, and receives its signal from the mat or pad.
N.O. or N.C. (normally open or normally closed) – Electrical terminology, generally referring to electrical contacts. In this business, we are usually talking about nurse call systems compatibility. We can accommodate either N.O or N.C., but need to know which when the monitor is set-up before shipment.
NADONA – National Association of Directors of Nursing
NADONA/LTC - National Association of Directors of Nursing in Long Term Care
NAHC – National Association of Home Care
NASL – National Association for the Support of Long Term Care
NIOSH – National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health
NMHCC – National Managed Health Care Congress
nurse call system – There are many variations and manufacturers, but the basic purpose of all of them is to allow the patient/resident to summon caregiver assistance by pushing a button. By tying a fall risk monitoring system into a nurse call system, the caregiver may be thus alerted to a pending bed or chair exit in progress.
nursing home – A long term care facility whose primary clientele is the elderly, generally unable to live independently or in an assisted living environment.
OBRA (Omnibus Reconciliation Act) - The Nursing Home Reform Amendments of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OBRA) detail the rights of residents to be free of physical and chemical restraints that are used by facilities for discipline and convenience.
outcome based data – the ability of a monitoring system to keep historical records of events. In our case, the Model Vr keeps in its memory the data of the last 24 alarms, including time, date, and response times.
pad – (see mat)
patient - a person receiving care in a medical facility other than long term care. If the facility is not the person’s address, the person is a patient (vs resident).
physical restraint - Anything placed on or next to the body of a patient that limits the movement of the patient. Physical restraints include but are not limited to leg or arm restraints, hand mitts, vests, lap buddies, cloth ties, safety bars, attached trays, tightly tucked in sheets, bed rails, chairs positioned in a manner that does not allow the patient movement.
post acute - recovery from acute care. Less caregiver presence than in acute, and fall risk monitoring may be needed due to post anesthesia, medications, and/or physical condition.
protocol – Though this word usually implies formal ceremony, in the healthcare field it refers to proper procedures. e.g. – What is facility protocol for the delay setting on the control unit?
PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) – In a word, glue. The conventional means of adhering the two sides of a mat or pad together around the perimeter. Adhesives are typically subject to attack by the very same common cleaning agents recommended by some manufacturers for repeated cleaning of their mats. (Also see “heat seal”)
rehab (rehabilitation) – the process of returning someone to normal health status after disease or injury. May involve physical, massage or electro therapy. Someone in rehab status may be a fall risk due to an over-zealousness to return to normal activity.
reset – a setting available on some control units, it may provide a variety of “reset” functions. For Bed-Check monitors, if the system is monitoring, pushing reset will put the system into hold. If already on hold, and weight is on the mat, pushing reset starts monitoring immediately.
resident - People living in a nursing home or other long term care (referred to as patients in shorter term settings). If the facility is the person’s address, that person is a resident. If not, the person is a patient.
restraints – any means used to prevent patient movement against his/her will. May be chemical or physical. Very strict laws are in place that greatly limit when, how, and even if restraints may be used.
SENIC - Study of the Efficacy of Infection Control Programs
Sensormat® - Although sometimes incorrectly used generically, this is the trademarked name for Bed-Check’s pressure sensing mat that is placed on bed, chair, wheelchair or toilet to sense patient presence.
“Tabs” – This is the brand name of a competitor’s product, but has been used generically in conversation to describe this type of monitor by any manufacturer. Characterized by use of a pull string clipped to the patient so that a tab or magnet pulls loose from the monitor when the monitored patient gets up.
UL (Underwriters’ Laboratory) - An equipment testing organization who writes standards for devices (often electrical) and on request, for a fee, will test such devices to see if they meet their published standards. UL does not “approve” or endorse; they only test to see if the unit will fail catastrophically (e.g. burn etc.). If they are the testing laboratory, the product is “UL Listed” if it passes. A product may be tested by another organization to meet UL standards. See “ETL.”
unassisted fall – a fall that takes place when no caregiver is present to render assistance.
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