A patient having his blood pressure taken by a doctor.

A patient is any person who receives medical attention, care, or treatment. The person is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician or other health care professional, although one who is visiting a physician for a routine check-up may also be viewed as a patient.

The word patient originally meant 'one who suffers'. This English noun comes from the Latin word patiens, the present participle of the deponent verb, patior, meaning 'I am suffering,' and akin to the Greek verb πάσχειν (= paskhein, to suffer) and its cognate noun πάθος (= pathos).

[edit] Outpatients and inpatients

An outpatient is a patient who is not hospitalized overnight but who visits a hospital, clinic, or associated facility for diagnosis or treatment. Treatment provided in this fashion is called ambulatory care. Outpatient surgery eliminates inpatient hospital admission, reduces the amount of medication prescribed, and uses a doctor's time more efficiently. More procedures are now being performed in a surgeon's office, termed office-based surgery, rather than in an operating room. Outpatient surgery is suited best for healthy people undergoing minor or intermediate procedures (limited urologic, ophthalmologic, or ear, nose, and throat procedures and procedures involving the extremities).

An inpatient on the other hand is "admitted" to the hospital and stays overnight or for an indeterminate time, usually several days or weeks (though some cases, like coma patients, have been in hospitals for years).

[edit] Alternative terminology

Due to concerns such as dignity, human rights and political correctness, the term "patient" is not always used to refer to a person receiving health care. Other terms that are sometimes used include health consumer, health care consumer or client. These may be used by governmental agencies, insurance companies, patient groups, or health care facilities. Individuals who use or have used psychiatric services may alternatively refer to themselves as consumers, users, or survivors.

In nursing homes and assisted living facilities, the term resident is generally used in lieu of patient,^[1], but it is not uncommon for staff members at such a facility to use the term patient in reference to residents. Similarly, those receiving home health care are called clients.

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Patients

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Jadad AR, Rizo CA, Enkin MW (June 2003). "I am a good patient, believe it or not". BMJ 326 (7402): 1293–5. doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7402.1293. PMID 12805157. 
  a peer-reviewed article published in the British Medical Journal's (BMJ) first issue dedicated to patients in its 160 year history
• Sokol DK (21 February 2004). "How (not) to be a good patient]". BMJ 328 (7437): 471. doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7437.471. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7437/471. 
  review article with views on the meaning of the words "good doctor" vs. "good patient"
• Mary Shomons respone to the Time Magazine article "When the Patient is a Googler"