Below listed are some definitions and explanations of terms that you may come across when browsing through the health category.
Abuse
Abuse is defined as any action that intentionally harms or injures another person.
Accident and Emergency (AE)
A section of an institution that is staffed and equipped to provide rapid and varied emergency care, especially for those who are stricken with sudden and acute illness or who are the victims of severe trauma.
Admission
An episode of in-hospital health care.
Age Discrimination
Discrimination based on age, especially prejudice against the elderly.
Allied Health Professionals
Professions that provide ancillary medical services and have patient contact which, include clinical psychology, podiatry, dietetics, occupational therapy, orthoptics, physiotherapy, radiography (diagnostic and radiotherapy), speech and language therapy.
Ambulatory care
The services rendered by members of the health professions for the benefit of a patient.
Caregiver
One who contributes the benefits of medical, social, economic, or environmental resources to a dependent or partially dependent individual, such as a critically ill person.
Chronic condition / disease
Is a human health condition or disease that is persistent or otherwise long-lasting in its effects or a disease that comes with time. The term chronic is often applied when the course of the disease lasts for more than three months.
Clinic
An institution, building, or part of a building where ambulatory patients receive health care.
Community health centre
A center with a network of clinics staffed by a group of general practitioners and nurses providing healthcare services to people in a certain area.
Community Health Worker
Are members of a community who are chosen by community members or organizations to provide basic health and medical care to their community capable of providing preventive, promotional and rehabilitation care to these communities.
Community-based care / community-based services / programmes
Is a social program design method that enables social service providers, organizers, designers and evaluators to serve specific communities in their own environment.
Contraindication
A factor that prohibits the administration of a drug or the performance of an act or procedure in the care of a specific patient.
Elderly
Individuals over 60 years old
ENT
Is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with conditions of the ear, nose, and throat (ENT) and related structures of the head and neck.
Environmental Health
Is that branch of public health that is concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect human health.
Family Practice
The medical specialty of a family physician, concerned with the planning and provision of comprehensive primary health care, regardless of age or sex, on a continuing basis.
First Aid
Emergency care and treatment of an injured or ill person before complete medical and surgical treatment can be secured.
General Practice
The professional activities of (usually) non-specialty-certified physicians who care for a broad range of medical problems.
Handicap
Any physical or mental defect, congenital or acquired, preventing or restricting a person from participating in normal life or limiting their capacity to work.
Hazard (health)
A danger to health resulting from exposure to environmental pollutants, such as asbestos or ionizing radiation, or to a life-style choice, such as cigarette smoking or chemical abuse.
Health Centers
A facility that provides primary care and community based medical services.
Immunisation
To make immune to a disease, especially by an injection of a weak form of the disease.
Infectious disease
Due to organisms ranging in size from viruses to parasitic worms; it may be contagious in origin, result from nosocomial organisms, or be due to endogenous microflora from the nose and throat, skin, or bowel.
Inpatient
A patient who comes to a hospital or other health care facility for diagnosis or treatment that requires an overnight stay.
Insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.
Intensive Care Unit
Is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive treatment medicine.
Maternity
A hospital unit dedicated to the care of pregnant women at the end of gestation, including labour and delivery, and early postnatal care for the mother and infant.
Medical Records
A chronologically written account that includes a patient’s initial complaint(s) and medical history, physical findings, results of diagnostic tests and procedures, any therapeutic medicines or procedures, and subsequent developments during the course of the illness.
Mental Health
A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life.
Ministry of Health
The Ministry of Health (MoH) runs a broad system of hospitals, clinics and specialized centers in Bahrain.
Mobile Units
An easily transportable unit designed for use outside a medical department.
NHRA
The National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA) is a separate body that is responsible for implementing and developing health regulations in both governmental and private sectors in Bahrain.
Pharmacy
A place where medical drugs are prepared, dispensed, or sold
Physician
An authorized practitioner of medicine, as one graduated from a college of medicine and licensed by the appropriate board
Preventive Care
The care that is concerned with the prevention of disease and methods for increasing the power of the patient and community to resist disease and prolong life.
Primary healthcare
Is the term for the health care services which play a role in the local community. It refers to the work of health care professionals who act as a first point of consultation for all patients within the health care system
Psychiatric Hospital
A health care facility providing inpatient and outpatient therapeutic services to clients with behavioral or emotional illnesses.
Rehabilitation
Is a treatment or treatments designed to facilitate the process of recovery from injury, illness, or disease to as normal a condition as possible.
School Health
An integrated set of planned, sequential, school-affiliated strategies, activities, and services designed to promote the optimal physical, emotional, social, and educational development of students.
Screening
A strategy used in a population to identify an unrecognised disease in individuals without signs or symptoms
Secondary healthcare
Is the health care services provided by medical specialists and other health professionals who generally do not have first contact with patients, for example, cardiologists, urologists and dermatologists.
Social Worker
A professional trained in the treatment of psychosocial problems of patients and their families.
Supreme Council of Health
The council creates the appropriate ground and builds the necessary strategies to develop the health and medical sector in Bahrain.
Tertiary healthcare
Is specialized consultative health care, usually for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional