Introduction to Workflow Analysis
The communication and information technology can be implemented in the primary healthcare sector in order to improve the process of the existing workflow. This is turn will help to increase the patient satisfaction and thus will help to elevate the health service quality provided to the patients through the healthcare organizations. Workflow can be defined as the set of tasks that are grouped in and chronological manner into various processes. There is a need of people and resources required in order to achieve the goals (Jones et al., 2014).
The term workflow reflects a set of task that are performed in a chronological process. There are a defined set of people or resources who are required for the task in order to accomplish a give goal (Cresswell, Bates & Sheikh, 2013). Although there are challenges in the process of designing the workflows in healthcare organizations, there is a need for the workflow design because of the following factors which includes: introducing new technologies into healthcare, participation of a growing unit of medical professionals in the patientccare team, provision of initiatives for patient safety, increase efficacy in pressures to make patient flow efficient and finally implement changes to make the care team patient-centred (Bardhan & Thouin, 2013).
This paper aims to generate a workflow diagrams that describes the new and improved system of workflow. The objective was to remove the current system and improve it by implementing the electronic health record systems.
One of the most common problems that is faced in the healthcare organizations include the complaints of the patients regarding the inefficient appointment procedures. Most of the processes that exists include filling out and updating a registration form that is related to their health history. After this is done, the patients have to wait in the waiting rooms for their appointments with the respective doctors.
When the patient arrives, the receptionist follows the predetermined steps and conducts a query of the social security number and the name of the patient. The patient is then provided with a paper encounter form which requests past medical history information, health concerns experienced currently and the reason for hospital visit. This is needed to be completed during the patient is waiting to be placed in an examination room. The workflow then continues with the second part which involves the physician’s physical exam along with the laboratory testing, radiologic and other testing followed by discharge of the patient (Badgett et al., 2013).
Common Workflow Problems in Healthcare Organizations
In the hospital setting, the general workflow related to the above mentioned problem begins with the patient visiting the hospitals which involves request for appointment, followed by patient registration, a formality including history taking and then the clinical examination begins. The existing workflow involves the patient contacting the hospitals through phone call or walk-in appointments can also be made by contacting in person (Lindberg et al., 2013). Both the processes involves the receptionists taking down the personal information of the patient which includes the date of birth, patient age, home address along with social security number. The emergency contacts and information about the insurance provider are also needed to be mentioned. The information that is collected is then entered in the component of demographics and insurance of the electronic registration system. After these formalities are conducted, the new patients receive a schedule for forty-five minute appointment. Later the patient is provided with a patient identification number. The patient is then scheduled for another appointment of 20 minutes after which the registration is completed (Przybylo et al., 2014). New paper chart is then made by the file clerk who registers the information which is printed and later placed in the chart.
The healthcare workflow system that is recently finding importance in the healthcare organizations is different from the existing workflow. This new workflow system implements information technology that enables the patients to make appointments through the online systems. This system provides more flexibility in the process. The need to speak up with the patient is also eliminated in the new system. The use of the electronic health record (EHR) provides opportunity for storage of patient information in one place where it can be viewed together with all the existing information on the patient. It can accesses the central database (Abrahams & Crane, 2013).
One of the problems which the patients complain about is the need to wait in the lobby for hours to complete the formalities of filling out the forms which includes the past medical histories of the patients. However is more reasonable to have a personable experience of the patients with the nurses in order to review this information. This enables the immediate clarification of questions the patient or nurse may have regarding PMH (Przybylo et al., 2014).
Application of efficient metrics enable the patients to receive elevated quality of care. Several metrics like the operational and the informational technology metrics can be implemented in the organizations in order to analyse the performance metrics on a daily basis. The metrics that can be implemented for improving the workflow related to the discussed problem, it includes the registration or the admission error rate improvements. The data errors should be determined related to the registrations and the admissions. The error prone data that are present at the front end disrupts care and revenue cycle processes downstream. The ticket resolution speed can also be increased (McGonigle & Mastrian,).
Proposed Workflow Improvements through Electronic Health Records
This step is conducted mainly by the clerk of provider and the scheduler, in association with the nurses who are responsible for taking in the past medical history of the patients. The online method of appointments with the help of the electronic health record (EHR) system is used. In order to execute this step, information of the patient’s details is required like the name, age, address, the social security number and the insurance number along with the preferred time of appointment. The information required also includes the past medical histories of the patient along with the current health status and the reason of appointment.
The metrics that can be currently used for the improvement of the workflow includes the operation and the information metrics. Improvements can be conducted in terms of improving the registration or the admission error rate along with the increase in the ticket resolution speed (Koppelc& Kreda, 2010). Improvements can be brought about by addressing the complaints of the patients related to the fact that they have to wait for long hours in the lobby in order fill out the formalities. This can be avoided if the online system can address these formalities prior to the arrival of the patient in the hospitals. It is required to understand the flow so that work can be progressed in a chronological method.
References
Abrahams, J. M., & Crane, D. (2013). U.S. Patent Application No. 13/530,572.
Ananian, J. A., & Bryan, J. D. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,386,288. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Arndt, B. G., Beasley, J. W., Watkinson, M. D., Temte, J. L., Tuan, W. J., Sinsky, C. A., & Gilchrist, V. J. (2017). Tethered to the EHR: primary care physician workload assessment using EHR event log data and time-motion observations. The Annals of Family Medicine, 15(5), 419-426.
Badgett, B., Rodgers, J., Smith, L., & Freemyer, C. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,571,884. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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Cresswell, K. M., Bates, D. W., & Sheikh, A. (2013). Ten key considerations for the successful implementation and adoption of large-scale health information technology. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 20(e1), e9-e13.
Jones, S. S., Rudin, R. S., Perry, T., & Shekelle, P. G. (2014). Health information technology: an updated systematic review with a focus on meaningful use. Annals of internal medicine, 160(1), 48-54.
Koppel, R., & Kreda, D. A. (2010). Healthcare IT usability and suitability for clinical needs: challenges of design, workflow, and contractual relations. Stud Health Technol Inform, 157, 7-14.
Lindberg, B., Nilsson, C., Zotterman, D., Söderberg, S., & Skär, L. (2013). Using information and communication technology in home care for communication between patients, family members, and healthcare professionals: a systematic review. International journal of telemedicine and applications, 2013.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. (Eds.). (2014). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Przybylo, J. A., Wang, A., Loftus, P., Evans, K. H., Chu, I., & Shieh, L. (2014). Smarter hospital communication: secure smartphone text messaging improves provider satisfaction and perception of efficacy, workflow. Journal of hospital medicine, 9(9), 573-578.
Spahn, M. (2013). U.S. Patent No. 8,355,928. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
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