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Healthcare Management vocabulary · Health Systems and Governance

Tertiary care

Meaning in healthcare management, with examples

nounCommon term

In healthcare management, tertiary care means: Highly specialised care, such as heart surgery, transplants or complex cancer treatment, given in large hospitals with expert staff and advanced equipment.

In Turkish: üçüncü basamak sağlık hizmetleri, üçüncü basamak

How it is used

Tertiary hospitals usually receive referrals from secondary care and often teach and do research. Managers in these centres deal with complex cases, long stays and high costs per patient.

Example sentences

  1. As a tertiary care centre, we receive patients from five neighbouring provinces.

  2. Tertiary care treats a small number of patients but takes a large share of the costs.

Common collocations

  • tertiary care centre
  • tertiary care hospital
  • tertiary referral
  • secondary careSpecialist medical care, usually given in a general hospital, that patients receive after a referral or in an emergency.
  • primary careThe first point of contact with the health system, such as family doctors and local health centres, which deals with common problems, prevention and referrals.
  • referralThe act of sending a patient to another doctor, specialist, service or hospital for further assessment or treatment, or the letter or request that does this.
  • DRGShort for diagnosis-related group: a category of hospital cases with similar diagnoses and procedures, used to pay hospitals a fixed amount per case.

More terms: Health Systems and Governance

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not medical advice.