STAT (immediately)
STAT means immediately. It is short for the Latin statim, “at once”.
How to read it
The American Heritage Dictionary defines stat as “with no delay; at once” and notes that it is used especially in medicine; the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy lists stat, statim, “immediately”. STAT is not on the Joint Commission’s “Do Not Use” list or ISMP’s list of error-prone abbreviations. Where STAT asks for something at once, PRN marks a medicine used as needed.
Also searched as: stat, statim, stat meaning, stat medical abbreviation.
These pages explain what medical abbreviations and symbols stand for. They are not medical advice and give no doses: a pharmacist or prescriber can explain what any label means for you.
Statim in an 18th-century prescription
The full Latin word turns up in the prescriptions of William Smellie (1697–1763), the Scottish man-midwife. In one, printed in his case notes and transcribed by the historian Robert Woods in Medical History (2008), the directions end “Statim, et repet. omni semihorá”, which Woods translates as taken immediately and repeated every half hour.
Stat as a statistic
Outside medicine, stat is also short for statistic, a separate sense the American Heritage Dictionary lists under the same spelling.
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Sources
- stat (American Heritage Dictionary entry), The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, HarperCollins Publishers, stat, adv. & adj.; n.
- Partial list of prescription abbreviations, Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, Partial list of prescription abbreviations, Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, stat
- Dr Smellie’s prescriptions for pregnant women, Robert Woods, Medical History 2008;52(2):257–276, Cambridge University Press, Case 319 (Smellie’s prescription)
Last reviewed September 30, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research