point of care

noun

variants or less commonly point-of-care

plural points of care also points-of-care

: a site where medical care is received

Antigen testing … is cheaper and faster than standard testing, and it can happen at points of care—long-term-care facilities, prisons, schools, and doctors' offices.

—Whet Moser

… truly universal [health insurance] systems offer healthcare free (or nearly free) at the point of care.

—A. W. Gaffney

… this ongoing trend is also changing the way that patient testing is viewed—and especially the way that healthcare providers view testing performed at the point-of-care …

—Kim Futrell

—often used especially in hyphenated form before another noun

point-of-care testing

Shifts toward point-of-care coronavirus tests, which are fast and simple enough to perform without the need for specialized equipment, could ease some of the burden on laboratories.

—Katherine J. Wu

… patients with prolonged out-of-hospital times may benefit most from point-of-care thrombolysis.

—Laurie J. Morrison et al.

Examples of point of care in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Within the point of care diagnostics segment, which was up nearly 8% organic, management called out the growing adoption of two first-of-a-kind tests: the point of care concussion test and the high-sensitivity troponin test used for earlier and more accurate heart attack detection. —Zev Fima, CNBC, 15 Oct. 2025

As outlined in leading medical informatics research, automating Electronic Clinical Quality Measurement (eCQMs)—by leveraging structured data from clinical documentation—integrates quality measurement into the point of care rather than adding separate reporting workflows. —Zameer Rizvi, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025

The teenager has tested the app at various points of care in both the United States and India. —Ramsha Waseem, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1988, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for point of care

• aftercare
• anywhere
• billionaire
• chinaware
• debonair
• dinnerware
• disrepair
• doctrinaire
• earthenware
• everywhere
• frigidaire
• kitchenware

Medical Definition

point of care

noun

variants also point-of-care

plural points of care also points-of-care

: a site where medical care is received

tests for use at the point of care

Antigen testing … is cheaper and faster than standard testing, and it can happen at points of care—long-term-care facilities, prisons, schools, and doctors' offices.

—Whet Moser, The Atlantic

—often used before another noun

Quidel's rapid immunodiagnostics are used in the point-of-care detection of human medical conditions and illness.

—Medical Industry Today

The key objective of point of care testing is to generate a result quickly so that appropriate treatment can be implemented …

—Christopher P. Price, British Medical Journal