ORPHAN PATIENT

(OR.fun pay.shunt)

n.

A hospital patient who doesn't have a family doctor. Also known as anunattached patient.

Dr. Tom Dickson, chief of staff at the William Osler Health Centre in Brampton, Ont., said the FP [family physician] shortage is so severe in the ring of suburbs surrounding Toronto — the '905 belt' — that dozens oforphan patientsare 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

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

bed blocker

hospitalist

ICU psychosis

intensivist

on-call-ogist

orphan cancer

sundowning

surgicalist

wallet biopsy

Medicine

People