Health-Care Organizations Key Terms

Learn key health-care organization terms to help your business succeed

When working with health-care organizations, there are many terms that can be confusing. To make sure you join health-care organizations that will best serve your business, you must learn the language. Learn the difference between accreditation and board certified and understand the differences between organizations that deal with informational management and long-term care. It is also important to understand the significance of memberships and medical journals to various health-care organizations.

 

Accreditation

Accreditation describes a health-care organization that has been reviewed by outside sources and been found to meet certain standards to become a legitimate and appropriate health-care organization. Accreditation is used to assert status and usually lasts a limited amount of time before an organization must undergo re-accreditation procedures.
Try: Success Factors explains what health-care organizations must do to get accreditation and what it means.

Board-certified

Board-certified means that a health-care professional has gone above the minimum requirement by becoming a specialist in his or her field. There are organizations that are designed to help health-care workers become board-certified.
Try: The American Board of Medical Specialties is an organization that helps health-care professionals get board-certified.

Membership guidelines

Membership guidelines and the benefits of membership in different health-care organizations vary according to the organization.
Try: AAHAM, which stands for the American Association of Healthcare Administrative Management, explains the costs and benefits of membership.

Long-term care organizations

Long-term care organizations are associations that work specifically with administrators in the long-term care field of health care to make sure they are licensed properly, have all the credentials they need and remain regulated.
Try: NAB, which is the National Association of Long- Term Care Administrator Board, describes what a long-term care organization is and how it can help long-term care administrators get licensed and accredited. It also explains how it works to regulate administrators in long-term care facilities.

Health-information management

Health-information management describes the way in which important health-care information about clients is processed, and kept confidential and accurate.
Try: The American Health Information Management Association explains what health-information management is and how it is set up to help you. 

Medical journal

A medical journal is a publication in which the articles are written by people in the medical profession to exchange valuable information about their areas of expertise.
Try: The American Cancer Society provides a medical journal called "CA A Career Journal for Clinicians." Check it out to learn how medical journals are used to exchange valuable information among professionals.

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