In health care, an orphan patient is a patient who has been "lost" within the system or has no primary provider overseeing their care.
Usually, the primary provider is a general practitioner who takes care of some of the basic health needs and then refers to a specialist for complicated medical problems. Thus, orphan patients are sometimes referred to as "no-family-doctor" patients. The view from insiders and health care providers is that orphan patients tend to receive inferior care compared to those who have a "gatekeeper" coordinating the medicine.
The Wordspy entry for this phrase is as follows :
| “ | A hospital patient who doesn't have a family doctor. Also known as an unattached patient.
Example Citation: Dr. Tom Dickson, chief of staff at the William Osler Health Centre in Brampton, Ont., said the FP shortage is so severe in the ring of suburbs surrounding Toronto — the '905 belt' — that dozens of orphan patients are arriving at local community hospitals every day. —Patrick Sullivan, "Enter the hospitalist: new type of patient creating a new type of specialist," Canadian Medical Association Journal, May 2, 2000 Earliest Citation: Recent media reports have pointed to a growing problem in Ontario's health care system — the care of "orphan patients." These are patients who rely on walk-in clinics and emergency departments because they do not have their own family doctor. —Jan Kasperski, "Orphan patients," The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo), October 13, 1999 |
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Read more about Orphan Patient: Contributing Factors, Solutions
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