Today we’re bringing another edition of Advantage Career Institute’s medical abbreviations blog series. Whether students are training to be a Medical Assistant in NJ or taking medical billing and coding programs, ACI is committed to making sure all of our students are prepared for real life situations in the industry. In order to better prepare our students, here are 5 commonly used medical abbreviations.
EHR: EHR stands for an electronic health record. With an electronic health record, a patient’s health information can be easily accessible to different medical professionals across health networks. An EHR can contain detailed information about a patient’s well-being including their list of medications, billing information, medical history, immunizations, and much more. The usage of EHRs has been instrumental in making sure that patient information is consistently updated, accurate, and easy to maintain. Students of our medical billing and coding program will often have to work with EHRs, and will come to be comfortable managing them effectively.
HR (heart rate): Heart rate refers to how often your heart beats per minute, expressed as bpm (beats per minute). A patient’s heart rate is essential for understanding a patient’s health and is a vital measurement in many physician offices. As our Medical Assistant program students know, normal heart rates range from 60-100bpm and heart rates outside of this range are considered abnormalities in heart rate. Heart rates can be indicative of a number of different medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, hypothyroidism, and anemia.
EMT: An EMT is an emergency medical technician, who is educated and trained in order to address critical, time-sensitive medical situations. There are 4 different levels of EMTs who are all able to best address different emergency situations. EMTs can respond to a wide variety of situations, which makes them sought after by a number of different organizations including the police department, fire department, and more. The swift attention from EMTs has saved countless lives over the years, and continues to play an important role in the medical community.
IV: IV stands for intravenous therapy, which is the practice of introducing fluids directly into a patient’s veins. Often conducted by nurses, intravenous therapy is one of the most efficient ways of inserting important liquids into a patient. There are a number of uses for IVs, including chemotherapy, and blood transfusion.
Hgb: Hgb stands for hemoglobin, which is one of the carriers of oxygen in the blood stream. Hemoglobin is essential for transporting oxygen and other gases, and provides the body with the energy it needs for a wide variety of purposes. Hemoglobin makes up the majority of red blood cells, and abnormal levels of hemoglobin are indicative of patient health and can often be consulted for diagnosis. Low levels of hemoglobin have been associated with conditions such as kidney failure, sickle-cell disease, and nutritional deficiencies. High hemoglobin levels on the other hand can be connected to lung disease, dehydration, and polycythemia rubra vera.
Check in again next week for our next installment of some of the most common medical terms in the industry. Let us know how many of these abbreviations you already knew on our Facebook page!
