Evaluation of the use of hospital services, including the appropriateness of the admission, length of stay and ancillary services. Review may be conducted concurrently, retrospectively, or in combination. The process uses objective clinical criteria to ensure that the services are medically necessary and provided at the appropriate level of care. UR is conducted by the hospital for its own quality assurance and risk management system, using norms, criteria and standards adopted by its medical staff. Reports summarizing the findings and action taken as a result of the process are regularly provided to the hospital board.
Hospitals conduct their own internally accountability system and comply with multiple delegated and non-delegated UR systems simultaneously. This occurs because of the hospital's legal responsibilities as well as each payer requiring its covered population to comply with its unique system as a condition of claims payment.

This definition is in context to Health Care. See more contextual defintions for Utilization Review (Ur).