Terms used to describe a medical patient’s condition
Hospitals are always having to handle the task of conveying their patient’s current health condition to that patient’s family members. When you have patients that are accident victims, or that of celebrities, then they often have to deal with a very inquisitive news media also. In 1996 the US Federal Government passed what is called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This act forbids any hospital from it disclosing any medical information about it’s patient’s medical condition without a patient’s prior consent. This helps to protect patient privacy. However, most people that are inquiring about a patient only want to know if the patient is getting better or not getting better, rather than wanting to know any kind of complex medical details about the patient’s medical condition. For this exact reason, the American Hospital Association has advised physicians to use only general terminology when describing their patient’sREAD MORE!
