E&M coding
Evaluation & Management. According to an article “HIPAA's Impact on Healthcare” in the April 99 issue of Health Management TechnologyExternal Page Policy (click to see policy and instructions)“physician coding assigns an E&M level to physician services … [which] determines physician payments.” In contrast with DRGs (which apply to hospitals), E&M coding “has been surrounded by controversy.”
EAP
Employee Assistance Program.
EBM
1. Employee Benefits Manager. Refers to the people within a corporation who oversees the specifics of health benefits provided to employees. They are generally responsible for managing costs and providing coverage options for their employees.
2. Evidence-based medicine. See Evidence-Based Medicine
EBP
Evidence-based practice. See Evidence-Based Medicine.
EBT
The Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system uses electronic funds transfer, point-of-sale, and card access technologies for the delivery of benefits.
ECF
Extended Care Facility. See SNF and LTCF.
Economic Order Quantity (EOQ)
A calculated order quantity which determines the amount of product to be purchased in order to minimize the total cost involved (e.g., order costs and carrying costs). Any item’s economic order quantity may be calculated from the equation,
EOQ Formula
Also known as Dynamic Order Quantity.
EDI
Electronic Data Interchange. A generic name for domain-specific, data exchange protocols (e.g., purchase orders, confirmations, product and pricing updates, invoices, payments, ship notices, etc.).
EFMP
Exceptional Family Member ProgramExternal Page Policy (click to see policy and instructions) is a mandatory enrollment program that identifies long term medical (includes physical and emotional) and/or special educational needs of military families.
EIN
The (US) National Standard Employer IdentifierExternal Page Policy (click to see policy and instructions).
Employee Assistance Program
Counseling service. Typically these services include, among others, psychological counseling, family counseling, and lifestyle counseling, as well as group counseling (e.g., following the unexpected death of a fellow employee).
Employee Benefits Manager
See EBM.
EMR
Electronic Medical Record. An alternative name for EPR. See CPR.
EMS
Emergency Medical Services.
EMT
Emergency Medical Technician. Just the person you need when you get a neck injury in a white water rafting trip (a guy with a first-aid kit and First Aid training). As I discovered from personal experience, white water rafting guides are trained as EMTs.
EMTALA
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor ActExternal Page Policy (click to see policy and instructions) of 1986, also known as COBRA or the Patient Anti-Dumping Law. Prohibits patient dumping or denying of basic medical screenings to emergency patients because they are unable to pay. The law also prohibits transferring medically unstable patients for economic reasons.
Encounter
See patient case.
End-Stage Renal Disease
See ESRD.
ENG
The Electronystagmogram is actually not a hearing test but rather a special test of the balance mechanism of the inner ear. The test involves running a cool liquid and then a warm liquid through the ear canal (it is usually done through a small tube so the ear itself remains dry). This change in temperature stimulates the inner ear which in turn causes rapid reflex movements of the eyes. This movements are recorded, and from these we can get information about how well this balance mechanism is functioning.
[Source: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Washington School of MedicineExternal Page Policy (click to see policy and instructions)]
EOQ
Economic Order Quantity is a mathematical method to determined the optimum product quantity to order. Its objective is to minimize the inventory costs associated with the product. The EOQ is defined as the level at which total inventory costs (carrying costs and ordering costs) is the lowest.
Episode
See patient history.
EPR
Electronic Patient Recod. An alternative name for EMR. See CPR.
ES
End-Stage. As in End-Stage Renal Disease.
ESRD
End-Stage Renal Disease, a very serious kidney disease where a person’s kidneys have permanently stopped working. It can be treated with dialysis or kidney transplants.
A Medicare patient with ESRD may not join a managed care health plan. However, Medicare managed care patients that develop ESRD while they are members of a plan may stay in the plan.
ETG
Episode Treat Groups. A new tool for measuring physician productivity and profiling physicians’ performance.&
According to Modern Healthcare, September 28, 1998, “ETGs link patient visits to form an episode and can be used to compare the treatments of the same health problems by different physicians and even different medical groups. Managed care organizations (cf., MCOs) can see how each physician manages each ETG — for example, urinary tract infections — as well as average treatment costs, tests administered and drugs prescribed.”
Ethical Drugs
Drugs protected by patent.
Evidence-Based Medicine
Evidence-based medicine was developed in Canada to teach medical students. Since then it has been expanded to solving clinical problems.
At the First Annual Nordic Workshop on how to critically appraise and use evidence in decisions about healthcare (National Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway, 1996), it was defined as follows,

Evidence-based healthcare is the conscientious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients or the delivery of health services. Current best evidence is up-to-date information from relevant, valid research about the effects of different forms of health care, the potential for harm from exposure to particular agents, the accuracy of diagnostic tests, and the predictive power of prognostic factors.”

The University of Sheffield’s WISDOM ProjectExternal Page Policy (click to see policy and instructions) offers a course on it (look under “Seminars”).

Exchange Cart
A cart of supplies is kept on a department and a backup or exchange cart is kept in the Materiel department. Periodically (generally each day) the backup cart is taken to the department and exchanged for the one in use. The depleted cart is replenished back in general stores; it then becomes the backup or exchange cart.
Exclusions
Medical services not covered by an insurance plan.
Expiration Date
The date an implant will become unusable.