Glossary
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Click one of the letters above to be taken to a page of all terms beginning with that letter.
- Lean Manufacturing (Toyota/Lean)
- Management philosophy and practices developed as part of the Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean manufacturing focuses on eliminating all waste in manufacturing processes by emphasizing the value-added for customers. Health care organizations have adapted Toyota/Lean methods to improve patient safety and quality within hospitals.
- Length of Stay
- The number of days between a patient's admission and discharge from the hospital.
- Licensed Practical Nurse
- A nurse who has graduated from an accredited school of practical (vocational) nursing, passed the state examination for licensure, and been licensed to practice by a state authority.
- Life expectancy
- The statistically expected remaining years of life for a representative person at a given age. (See also HALE at birth).
- Local Coverage Determination
- In the Medicare program, in the absence of a national coverage policy by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an item or service may be covered at the discretion of local Medicare contractors (See also national coverage determination).
- Long-term care
- Preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic, maintenance, custodial, and supportive services provided over long periods of time for patients, regardless of age, who have chronic diseases or disabilities. Such services may be provided on an inpatient basis (rehabilitation facility, nursing home, mental hospital), an outpatient basis, or at home.
- Long-term care hospital
- A facility, such as a rehabilitation hospital, that treats patients who are not in an acute phase of illness but who require an intensity of medical and nursing services not available in nursing homes.
- Long-term care insurance
- A private insurance policy to help pay for extended medical and nonmedical care, such as help with activities of daily living (ADL), usually for the elderly. Because Medicare generally does not pay for long-term care, this type of insurance policy may help provide coverage for such care when it is needed in the future.
- Long-term health outcomes
- The results of a disease process, such as the progression of cardiovascular disease, that are not expected to appear until an individual is mature - in contrast to more-immediate (i.e., short-term) health outcomes.
- Longitudinal data / study
- A study in which the same individual or groups of individuals are examined on a number of occasions over a long time (often years or decades).
- Longitudinal patient record
- A patient document, either paper or electronic, that details a patient's lifetime medical history, including diagnoses, treatments, pharmacologic interventions, and other health care services, from all past sites of care - in contrast to keeping separate records at each primary care site or hospitalization location with no ability for centralized access of the medical information.
- Low-density lipoprotein
- A molecule (a combination of fat and protein) that transports cholesterol from the liver to body tissues. A high level of this so-called "bad cholesterol" can signal cardiovascular disease and is treated with a class of drugs called statins.