Glossary of Healthcare Terms: S

Safety Stock

A quantity of stock planned to be in inventory to protect against fluctuations in demand and/or supply.

San José Medical Group

Part of the UniHealth IHS. The San José Medical Group is made up of about 800 physicians; they cover about 125,000 lives (ca., late 1996).

Santa Clara County IPA

This IPA is made up of about 450 physicians, covering about 63,000 lives (circa late 1996).

Script

Prescription. See Rx.

SCU

Special Care Unit.

Self-Assesments Tools

This refers to a corporate entity or individual who acts on its own behalf and in its own interest and to carry out a purpose other than that for which the individual accessed the consumer health web site.

[Source: Hi-Ethics Coalition

]

Self-funded Employers

Employers (usually large businesses) that choose to manage their own healthcare plans rather than signing up with an insurance carrier. These sefl-insured corporations carry the risk, although they usually contract with a third-party to administer the plan(s).

Self-insured

An individual or organization that assumes all or some of the financial risk of paying healthcare. A self-insured organization usually contracts the administration tasks to a TPA.

Service Agreement

Also called the Evidence of Coverage and Health Service Agreement, this is the official plan contract. It explains in full all the terms of plan coverage, including benefits, copayments, how to access coverage, and the plan’s exclusions and limitations.

Service Path

A clinical assessment and treatment which models what happened to a patient during a specific course of treatment and why.

SESAM-Vitale™

SESAM-Vitale is a smart card-based system (in France) to link patients, healthcare providers and insurance carriers. The system is made up of two components,


	SESAM		Système Electronique de Saisie de l’Assurance Maladie — the French system for electronic capture of health claim data.
	Vitale		The smart card itself

The Vitale smart card replaces paper health insurance cards. Each of the parties involved gains from the use of the card,

•	Healthcare providers get automatically updated charts, and electronic prescriptions,
•	Payors get all the information necessary for reimbursement (i.e., immediate adjudication),
•	Patients get all their medical information stored in their card.

The combination of health and insurance information produces significant benefits, among them,

•	the simplification and automation of administrative support,
•	more rapid and guaranteed reimbursement for healthcare providers.

The card holds several pieces of information,


Patient Identification		the card provides trusted demographic information
Insurance Plan Information		the card certifies the insurance plan benefits (e.g., allowed procedures, prescriptions)
Medical Record Information		the card lists a patient's chart information (to authorized healthcare providers)

The Vitale card is not used for payment. Rather, it facilitates the secure electronic exchange of medical data, specifically chart information and prescription data.

Surprisingly, similar efforts in the US have been piloted by banks. For example, Imperial Bank has announced a dental insurance card that includes credit/debit co-pay, eligibility and benefits on one card.

SHA

A chart notation reserved for the less endearing inpatients. Stands for “Ship His Ass” outta here.

Short-Term Disability

An injury or illness that keeps a person from working for a short time. The terms of short-term disability, including the length of time covered, differs among insurance companies and employers.

Seriously ill. See VSI

SIDP

Society for Infectious Diseases Pharmacists

SIG

In a prescription, the SIG is the instructions to the patient on how to take the prescription. The SIG usually specifies frequency, route of administration, and any special instructions. For example, “1 PO Q4H PC” is interpreted as,

SIG		Meaning
1 …		Take one dose …
PO …		By mouth …
Q4H …		Every four hours …
PC …		After meals.

Usually, it is the job of the pharmacist to translate these codes to a human-readable description that is then printed on the label that goes on the prescription.

Not coincidentally, “SIG” is the abbreviation of the latin word signa, meaning “label”.

Many of these SIG codes come from the initials of the equivalent Latin (e.g., ‘AS’ from Auris Sinestro or left ear). The table below is only a small sampling of SIG codes,

SIG	Meaning	SIG	Meaning	SIG	Meaning
A	Applicatorful	GT	Drop	QH	Every hour
AAA	Apply to affected area	GTT	Drop(s)	Q(#)H	Every (#) hours
AC	Before meals	H	Hour	QHS	At every bedtime
AD	Right ear	H2O	Water	QID	Four times a day
AGIT	Shake	HS	At bedtime	QOD	Every other day
AM	In the morning	Hx	History	QS	Quantity sufficient
AMT	Amount	IM	Intramuscular	REC	Rectally
ANTE	Before	IV	Intravenous	R/O	Rule out
AS	Left ear	LIQ	Liquid	Rx	Prescription
ASA	Aspirin	MDI	Meter dose inhaler	S	Without
AU	Both ears	MG	Milligram	S	Suppository
AQ	Water	ML	Milliliter	SL	Sublingual
BID	Twice a day	MOM	Milk of magnesia	SOB	Shortness of breath
BP	Blood Pressure	NAUS	Nausea	SOL	Solution
C	With	NEG	Negative	SP	Spray
CBC	Complete	NKA	No known allergies	SPS	Sprays
C/O	Complaint of	NKDA	No known drug allergies	SQ	Subcutaneous
D	Day(s)	NOW	Now, then	SS	One-half
D/C	Discontinue	NPO	Nothing per mouth (oral)	Stat	Immediately
DIAG	Diagnosis	OD	Right eye	T	Tablet(s)
Dx	Diagnosis	OINT	Ointment	TABS	Tablets
DIL	Dilute	OS	Left eye	TBSP	Tablespoon
DISCH	Discharge	OL	Left eye	TEMP	Temperature
DR	Draim	OU	Both eyes (Each eye)	TID	Three times a day
EN	Each nostril	P	Puff	TSP	Teaspoon(s)ful
ET	And	PAIN	Pain	UD	As directed
ETOH	Alcohol	PC	After meals	UG	Until gone
Exp	Expired	PM	Afternoon	UNG	Ointment
FBS	Fasting Blood Sugar	PO	By mouth (orally)	VAG	Vaginally
FL	Fluid	PRN	As needed	VOL	Volume
GM	Gram	Q	Every	VS	Vital signs
GR	Grain	QD	Every day	WF	With food

SKU

A Stock Keeping Unit is a shipping unit which (usually) includes multiple NDC packages. Same as Wholesaler Unit.

Smart Card

Smart cards are credit card-size cards with a computer and memory in them. Their primary value is in secure identification of its carrier. The cards are defined by the ISO

7816 standard, made up of the following components,

•	ISO/IEC DIS 7816-1 Physical characteristics (Revision of ISO 7816-1:1987)
•	ISO/IEC DIS 7816-2 Part 2: Dimensions and location of the contacts (Revision of ISO 7816-2:1988)
•	ISO/IEC DIS 7816-3 Part 3: Electronic signals and transmission protocols (Revision of ISO 7816-3:1989)
•	ISO/IEC 7816-4:1995 Part 4: Interindustry commands for interchange
•	ISO/IEC 7816-5:1994 Part 5: Numbering system and registration procedure for application identifiers
•	ISO/IEC 7816-6:1996 Part 6: Interindustry data elements
•	ISO/IEC DIS 7816-7 Part 7: Interindustry commands for Structured Card Query Language (SCQL)

SMO

Site Management Organization

. This type of business specializes in organizing and managing clinical investigations for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries.

SMS

Shared Medical Systems

. This company gets its name from the fact that it started life as a "time-shared" system (remember those?), in the days of big, slow iron. These days they offer “clinical products to improve the quality of care, financial systems to increase productivity, management solutions to more fully understand business issues, or a special application from a third party to fill a more specific need.”

SNF

Skilled Nursing Facility. See ECF and LTCF.

SOAP Notes

The universal format for medical progress notes. An acronym for Subjective Objective Assesment Plan. For further detail see www.medicalstudent.net

Social Security Number

The Social Security Number (SSN) “078-05-1120” was printed on “sample” cards during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Most clerks probably don’t recognize it as fake, but it won’t interfere with other social security numbers; the IRS and the SSA (Social Security Administration) do recognize it as a fake.

Another source of fake SSN numbers is advertisements. Ads use numbers in the range 987-65-4320 through 4329.

SSN

See Social Security Number.

Staff Model HMO

The Staff Model HMO consists of one of the following,

•	a group of physicians salaried as employees of a specially formed professional group practice which is an integral part of the HMO plan
•	physicians who are salaried employees of the HMO

Medical services in staff models are delivered at HMO-owned health centers, and only to HMO members. The physicians in either form of staff model usually are limited in their fee-for-services activities.

See Group Model HMO.

State Risk Pools

Individual insurance coverage programs established and funded by the states to provide healthcare coverage for high-risk individuals who, due to a pre-existing health condition or conditions, cannot obtain health insurance coverage through traditional means.

Statistical Inventory Control

The use of statistical techniques to determine inventory levels, establish reordering procedures, etc.

Stock Items

Items that are used by many hospital departments and controlled centrally by the hospitals materials management department. These items are evaluated more on traditional purchasing criteria.

Stock Out

The lack of inventory items which are needed for surgery.

Stocking Location

The physical location where each item in inventory is stored within a site.

Sunquest

A brand name for a hospital lab system.

Supply Requisitions

The surgery department’s document used to formalize a purchase transaction with a vendor. It contains items to be purchased, quantities and prices. Also known as a Purchase Order.

Sorry, not what you thought. This really is a short hand for “symptoms.” See also, Dx, Fx, Hx, Mx, Px, Rx, Tx.