Health Care Work Flow
The purpose of this paper is to explain the workflow of the health record systems in the physicians’ offices in my health organization. As noted, much of the health records systems in this facility are featured by extensive paperwork and lack of computerization. This has been the source of time wasting and delay in health care delivery. The workflow in primary care is depicted in this diagram.
The diagram below indicates how information flows in the health setting. The following are depicted as the main sources of information delay and subsequent poor health service in this health care facility.
Basic Sources of Delay in Primary Care Office Workflow
Scheduling: In this facility, there are two paper-based planners allocated for the two physicians in each office. Because of oversight, there is a probability of entering the appointments in the wrong planner of the physicians. The use of particular entries that are physician based, the rescheduling and search for appointments results into time wastage in the scheduling process. For instance, if a patient fails to remember his or her appointment date, the secretary has to extensively search the planner in trying to find such an appointment.
Repeat patient registration/ new patient information
In this phase, the validity of the information, which the physician receives from a patient, is made limited unless he or she obtains the full record. This subsequently leads to potential patient diagnosis, which may not be correct, or other issues related to poor health service delivery. In addition, the process involving information collection from previous health practitioners who had evaluated the patient may lead to wastage of precious time. This is because, it in most cases necessitates follow ups through telephone calls, mails or other means.
For regular patients, creating copies of a prior chart for updating upholds the consistency in the patient’s record. Nonetheless, this results into wastage of both paper and time. Keeping large number of record over time may lead to either misplacement or loss of vital documents.
For tasks related to registration, the basic issue is also related with the management and organization of that information. Much of the information obtained by a doctor is presented on paper work, which must be collated and organized. Also new information from a client has to be obtained and be entered into the records. The secretaries in the front office, wastes a lot of precious time in organizing and presenting the information in the paper. In other words, there is a lot of paper work resulting into loss of time. The much paper work also results into propensity for incomplete information or information, which is not correct. According to my observation, there are some occasions when demographics details of the clients are not updated. For instance, some letters that are supposed to be sent to clients are not sent, and some of the tests prescribed by the physicians are not undertaken at all.
Insurance verification: The availability of numerous insurance firms plus the variability in participation and coverage by the physicians in specific insurance programs adds to the complication of the insurance verification processes (Bock et al, 2009). The front secretaries have to uphold and search numerous insurance records that may either, be updated or not at the registration time. This results to an error prone and time-consuming procedure. Additionally, the doctor may waste another time in approving tests and involving himself or herself with consultations with other physicians attached to the insurance firms, even after performing tests on the client. The interaction between the physicians and the insurance firms is a major huddle, which usually results into conflicts and confusion in the offices that are mainly small.
Referrals: The referral procedure in this facility is not smooth either; rather they are error prone and time wasting. This is mainly due to various factors, which plays apart in the determination of the workflow not only in this organization but also in many other ones. Not only has the secretary has to identify the physician or the laboratory that is required but they are also mandated with the obligation of determining whether a particular insurance firm certifies the physician or laboratory as an identified supplier of the required service.
Collation and Organization of the received report: Prioritizing and organization of reports in this facility is noted for consuming a lot of time. This is because the front office secretaries and the physician must put a lot of attention to the general process. Though the secretaries are quite capable of prioritizing and organizing information to some level, most of them do not harbor the required competency in making sound judgments on how to prioritize patient appointments. After the doctor reviews the information presented to him, there is a necessity of generating various workflow items depending on the received information from a particular patient. Apparently, delays in the review of the information and reports results into not only healthcare delays but also unnecessary errors.
Reference
Bock, C., L. Carnahan, S. Fenves, M. Gruninger, V. Kashyap, B. Lide, J. Nell, R. Raman, and R. D. Sriram.
(2005). “Healthcare Strategic Focus Area: Clinical Informatics” Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute for Standards and Technology,
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