Care Coordination - Carrier Screening, Carrier Identification

care coordination

Any effort that links separate care providers and services with each other.

PATIENT CARE: Many patients have complicated health care needs: they may have recently been hospitalized, or recently spent time in a short- or long-term care facility. They may have a primary care provider as well as several specialists or subspecialists involved in their regular health care. Care coordination attempts to notify each member of a patient's health care team about his or her current health status, medication regimen, upcoming appointments, and diagnostic studies. The goals of care coordination include preventing health care errors, integrating care, and limiting duplication or overlap of services. Registered nurses (among other health care professionals) often assume the management of care coordination as professional care coordinators.

caregiver

One who provides care to a dependent or partially dependent patient. In an acute care setting, the caregiver is most often a professional; however, in the home care situation, this person is often a family member. Care of caregivers is a focus of nurses, social workers, and other health care providers who manage chronically ill patients. Generally, caregivers need emotional support and comfort owing to the extreme stress of their lives. SYN: carer. SEE: caregiver burden.

caregiver burden

The stress and fatigue caused by the effort of caring for people with chronic illness or other conditions calling for special care.

caregiver role strain

A caregiver's felt or exhibited difficulty in taking care of others.

caregiver role strain, risk for

Vulnerable to difficulty in performing the family/significant other caregiver role, which may compromise health. SEE: Nursing Diagnoses Appendix.

carer

Caregiver.

care transition

Transition (2).

CARF

Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

caries

(kar′ēz, ker′ēz) pl. caries [L. caries, rottenness] Gradual decay and disintegration of soft or bony tissue or of a tooth. If the decay progresses, the surrounding tissue becomes inflamed and an abscess forms, e.g., chronic abscess, tuberculosis, and bacterial invasion of teeth. In caries, the bone disintegrates by pieces, whereas in necrosis, large masses of bone are involved. SYN: dental cavity. carious (kar′ē-ŭs, ker′ē-ŭs), adj.

 arrested c. Apparent lack of progress in a carious lesion as a result of remineralization.

 cervical c. Caries involving the neck of the tooth, slightly above or below the junction between the root cementum and the enamel crown.

 dental c. Progressive decalcification of the enamel and dentin of a tooth; tooth decay. The condition is caused by dental infection, and the erosion of teeth by the ...