Glosario de Términos Médicos Esenciales y Hospitalarios en Inglés

Glosario de Términos Médicos y Hospitalarios

A - C

• Patient: A person who is under medical care or treatment.
• Malpractice: Law. Failure of a professional person, as a physician or lawyer, to render proper services through reprehensible ignorance or negligence or through criminal intent, especially when injury or loss follows. Any improper, negligent practice; misconduct or misuse.
• Shift: To transfer from one place, position, person, etc., to another.
• Ward: A division, floor, or room of a hospital for a particular class or group of patients.
• Recovery room: A room near the operating or delivery room of a hospital, equipped with specific apparatus and staffed by specially trained personnel for emergencies, used for the recovery from anesthesia of a postoperative or obstetrical patient before being brought to a hospital room or ward.
• Visiting hours: A designated time when visitors may come to see a person in a hospital or other institution.
• Prescription: A direction, usually written, by the physician to the pharmacist for the preparation and use of a medicine or remedy.
• Communicable diseases: Illnesses that result from the infection, presence, and growth of pathogenic biologic agents in an individual human or other animal host.
• Chart: A confidential document that contains detailed and comprehensive information on an individual and the care experience related to that person.
• Bedsore: Damage to an area of the skin caused by constant pressure on the area for a long time.
• CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation): An emergency life-saving procedure that is done when someone's breathing or heartbeat has stopped.
• Cast: A protective shell of fiberglass, plastic, and bandage that is molded to protect a broken or fractured limb as it heals.
• Blood pressure: The force of circulating blood on the walls of the arteries.
• Breathing rate: The respiration rate is the number of breaths a person takes per minute. The rate is usually measured when a person is at rest and simply involves counting the number of breaths for one minute by counting how many times the chest rises.

D - M

• Fee: A charge or payment for professional services.
• Operation room (Operating room): A specially equipped room where surgical procedures are performed.
• Drugstore: A retail store where medicines and miscellaneous articles are sold.
• Diagnosis: The process of determining by examination the nature and circumstances of a diseased condition.
• ICU (Intensive Care Unit): Intensive care refers to the specialized treatment given to patients who are acutely unwell and require critical medical care.
• Medical record: The document that explains all detail about the patient's history, clinical findings, diagnostic test results, pre- and postoperative care, patient's progress, and medication.
• Maternity floor: A room or area in a hospital which provides care for pregnant women, women who have recently given birth, and newborn infants.

N - S

• Necropsy: The examination of an animal or person after death. The purpose of a necropsy is typically to determine the cause of death or extent of disease.
• Physician: A person who is legally qualified to practice medicine; a doctor of medicine. A person engaged in general medical practice, as distinguished from one specializing in surgery.
• Negligence: A failure to take reasonable care or steps to prevent loss or injury to another person. In healthcare, negligence occurs when a healthcare professional fails to take reasonable care or steps to prevent loss or injury to a client.
• To page: (Noun: Med talk) A beep or 'detonation' of a pager/beeper. (Verb) To contact a person by voice over a public address system.
• Vital signs: Measurements of the body's most basic functions.
• Surgery: Treatment, as an operation, performed by a surgeon.
• Wheelchair: A manually operated or power-driven device designed primarily for use by an individual with a mobility disability for the main purpose of indoor mobility.
• Hospital gurney: A flat, padded table or stretcher with legs and wheels, for transporting patients or bodies.

T - V

• Vaccine: A substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.