Term: Acute Care

Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2013-10-04

Definition:

Care provided to patients who are acutely ill and require medical care or surgery for treatment of a disease or severe illness. Acute care patients are typically hospitalized for a short period of time, and discharged or transferred to a secondary care setting (i.e., Personal Care Home (PCH), Chronic Care) as soon as they are deemed stable and have showed enough improvement in their health for transfer or discharge. (Fransoo et al., 2013).

Other definitions of "acute care" in MCHP research include:

• Hospital stays with a length of stay between 1 and 59 days. Also known as Short Stay Inpatient Care or Short Stay Care. (Brownell et al. (1996), Cohen et al. (1994), Frohlich et al. (1994), Roos et al. (1994)).; or
  
• services provided within an acute care hospital. (Bruce et al. (2002), De Coster et al. (1996), Kozyrskyj et al. (2003)).

Related concepts 

• Alternate Level of Care (ALC) Patients - Method of Identification
• Level of Care (LOC) - In Hospital

Related terms 

• Acuity
• Acute Care Hospitals
• Alternate Level of Care (ALC)
• Chronic Care
• Hospital Days for Acute Care
• Hospital Days for Alternate Level of Care (ALC) Stays
• Inappropriate Admissions
• Inpatient Hospital Care
• InterQual Criteria
• Length of Stay (LOS)
• Long Stay (Care)
• Long Term Care (LTC) Hospitals
• Palliative Service Type
• POPULIS
• Stay
• Utilization of Hospital Resources

References 

• Brownell M, Roos NP. Monitoring the Winnipeg Hospital System: The Update Report 1993/1994. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1996. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Bruce S, Black C, Burchill C, De Haney S. Profile of Medical Patients who were Assessed as Requiring Observation-Level Services at Winnipeg Acute Care Hospitals in 1998/99. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2002. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Cohen MM, MacWilliam L. Population Health: Health Status Indicators. Volume I: Key Findings. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy & Evaluation, 1994. [Report] (View)
• De Coster C, Peterson S, Kasian P. Alternatives to Acute Care . Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health and Evaluation, 1996. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Fransoo R, Martens P, The Need to Know Team, Prior H, Burchill C, Koseva I, Rajotte L. Who is in our Hospitals.and why? Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2013. [Report] [Summary] [Additional Materials] (View)
• Frohlich N, Markesteyn T, Roos NP, Carriere KC, Black C, De Coster C, Burchill CA, MacWilliam L. A Report on the Health Status, Socio-Economic Risk and Health Care Use of the Manitoba Population, 1992-93 and Overview of the 1990-91 to 1992-93 Findings. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1994. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Kozyrskyj A, Black C, Dunn E, Steinbach C, Chateau D. Discharge Outcomes for Long-Stay Patients in Winnipeg Acute Care Hospitals. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2003. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Roos NP, Shapiro E. Monitoring the Winnipeg Hospital System: The First Report. 1990-1992 . Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and Evaluation, 1994. [Report] [Summary] (View)

Term used in 

• De Coster C, Bruce S, Kozyrskyj A. Use of acute care hospitals by long-stay patients: Who, how much, and why? Canadian Journal on Aging 2005;24(Suppl 1):97-106. [Abstract] (View)
• Lix L, Smith M, Azimaee M, Dahl M, Nicol P, Burchill C, Burland E, Goh C, Schultz J, Bailly A. A Systematic Investigation of Manitoba's Provincial Laboratory Data. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2012. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Roos NP, Shapiro E. Using the information system to assess change: The impact of downsizing the acute sector. Med Care 1995;33(12 Suppl):D5109-D5126.(View)