Patients

A patient is any one who receives medical attention, concern, or treatment. The person is most frequently ill and in require of treatment by a physician or medical specialized. Health care customer or clients are other names for patient, generally used by governmental agency, insurance companies or patient groups.

The word patient is resulting from the Latin word patients, the current participle of the deponent verb pati, sense one who suffers.

The active patient is a challenge in terms, and it is the statement underlying the passivity that is the most risky. Unfortunately not any of the different terms seem to offer a better definition.

In itself the definition of patient doesn't involve suffering but the function it describes is often connected with the definitions of the adjective form: enduring trying situation with even temper. Some have argued recently that the expression should be dropped, because it underlines the substandard status of recipients of health care.