BHPC Registration Exam flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Standard of Care

The degree of skill, care, and judgment a reasonably prudent practitioner with comparable training would provide in similar circumstances; the benchmark for negligence claims.

Five Rights of Delegation

Right task, right circumstance, right person, right direction and communication, and right supervision and evaluation. The licensed clinician retains accountability for the delegated outcome.

Sentinel Event

An unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof. It requires immediate investigation and a root cause analysis.

Scope of Practice

The legally authorized activities a clinician may perform, defined by state statute, rules, certification, and employer policy. The most restrictive applicable limit governs practice.

Informed Consent Elements

Capacity, voluntariness, disclosure of the procedure's nature and purpose, material risks, benefits, alternatives, and the right to refuse. The performing provider obtains consent.

EMTALA

Federal law requiring a medical screening examination and stabilizing treatment for anyone presenting to an emergency department, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.

HIPAA Minimum Necessary

A Privacy Rule standard requiring covered entities to limit uses, disclosures, and requests for protected health information to the least amount reasonably needed for the purpose.

Breach Notification Rule

Requires covered entities to notify affected individuals, HHS, and sometimes media after a breach of unsecured protected health information, generally within 60 days of discovery.

Four Ethical Principles

Autonomy respects self-determination, beneficence promotes good, nonmaleficence avoids harm, and justice distributes benefits and burdens fairly across patients.

Just Culture

A framework that consoles human error, coaches at-risk behavior, and sanctions reckless behavior, focusing on system fixes rather than individual blame.

PDSA Cycle

Plan-Do-Study-Act: a small-scale test of change followed by data review and adaptation. Cycles repeat and expand as the change proves effective.

Root Cause Analysis

A retrospective, system-focused investigation of a sentinel event that identifies contributing factors and produces corrective actions with assigned owners and timelines.

Six Aims for Improvement

Care should be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable, according to the Institute of Medicine's quality framework.

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

A prospective risk tool that identifies how a process could fail and scores each failure by severity, occurrence, and detectability to prioritize prevention.

SBAR Handoff

A structured communication format covering Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation, used to standardize handoffs and escalation between clinicians.

Early Warning Score

A composite score aggregating respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, systolic blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and consciousness to trigger timely clinical escalation.

Oriented Times Four

Assessment of orientation to person, place, time, and situation. A change in level of consciousness is often the earliest indicator of clinical deterioration.

Pitting Edema Grading

Edema is graded 1+ to 4+ based on depth and duration of the indentation, roughly 2 mm to 8 mm, with higher grades indicating more severe fluid accumulation.

Late Entry Documentation

A chart entry made after the fact must be labeled as a late entry, include the actual date and time of writing, and never alter or backdate prior documentation.

Chain of Infection

Six linked elements: infectious agent, reservoir, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry, and susceptible host. Breaking any link prevents transmission.

Airborne Precautions

Used for tuberculosis, measles, and varicella; requires an N95 or higher respirator and a negative-pressure airborne infection isolation room with monitored air exchanges.

When Soap and Water

Alcohol-based hand rub is preferred except after C. difficile or norovirus exposure and when hands are visibly soiled, when soap and water are required.

PPE Doffing Order

Remove gloves first, then goggles or face shield, then gown, then mask or respirator; perform hand hygiene immediately after removing all equipment.

Closed-Loop Communication

The sender delivers a message, the receiver repeats it back, and the sender confirms accuracy, reducing errors in high-stakes verbal orders.

Teach-Back Method

The clinician asks the patient to explain information in their own words, confirming understanding and revealing gaps rather than asking yes-or-no questions.

CUS Assertion Tool

A graded escalation phrase stating that the clinician is Concerned, Uncomfortable, or that this is a Safety issue, used to stop unsafe actions across hierarchy.

Qualified Medical Interpreter

A trained interpreter, not a family member, used for clinical communication; interpreter use and language preference should be documented in the record.

Valid HIPAA Authorization

Must include patient identifier, description of information, purpose, expiration date, signature, and statement of the right to revoke.

Legal Health Record

The organization's designated record set used for legal and clinical purposes. The facility generally owns the physical record while patients retain access rights.

Upcoding and Unbundling

Billing practices that assign a higher-paying code than documented or bill components separately that belong in one code; both create compliance and fraud exposure.

Incident Report Handling

Incident reports are internal quality-improvement documents, generally not part of the medical record, and should not be referenced or copied into the patient chart.

Hospital Incident Command System

An all-hazards structure with an incident commander and operations, planning, logistics, and finance sections, used to coordinate hospital disaster response.

RACE Fire Response

Rescue anyone in danger, Alarm the alarm, Confine the fire by closing doors, and Extinguish or Evacuate. Extinguisher use follows PASS.