...Case Study: Keep Patients Waiting, Not in My Office Questions: 1) The key to successful scheduling is to allot the proper amount of time for each visit, depending on the services required, and then stick to it. This means that the physician must pace himself carefully, receptionists must be corrected if they stray from the plan, and patients must be taught to respect their appointment times. By actually timing a number of patient visits, I found that they break down into several categories. We allow half an hour for any new patient, 15 minutes for a well-baby checkup or an important illness, and either 5 or 10 minutes for a recheck on an illness or injury, an immunization, or a minor problem like warts. You can, of course, work out your own time allocations, geared to the way you practice. When appointments are made, every patient is given a specific time, such as 10:30 or 2:40. It's an absolute no-no for anyone in my office to say to a patient, "Come in 10 minutes" or "Come in a halfhour." People often interpret such instructions differently, and nobody knows just when they'll arrive. There are three examining rooms that I use routinely, a fourth that I reserve for teenagers, and a fifth for emergencies. With that many rooms, I don't waste time waiting for patients, and they rarely have to sit in the reception area. In fact, some of the younger children complain that they don't get time to play with the toys and puzzles in the waiting room before being examined, and their...
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...physician client relayed this story to me: "The patient barged into my office as I was on the phone and threatened to sue me because he had been waiting four hours. I said politely that the hospital called because one of my patients was in critical condition and I have to deal with the critical ones first." Lee J. Johnson, JD When I expressed dismay, the client told me that his patients are used to such situations. Four hours? Unless the patient lives 3.5 hours away and has no cell phone, there is no excuse—in the office or in the courtroom—for making a patient wait that amount of time. The doctor in this example defended his actions by saying that medicine is a business. No business can flourish without positive word-of-mouth promotion, however, and your medical office will not realize good productivity if you are in court instead of the office. PATIENTS HATE TO WAIT In most patient satisfaction surveys related to the medical practice setting, patients' main complaint is long wait times. In one survey, patients waiting 10 or fewer minutes rated their satisfaction as "good" to "very good." Another survey concluded that punctual patients are annoyed if they have to wait 37 minutes to see the physician. If you make a patient wait a long time to see you, you are telling the patient that you do not value his or her time. The good news is that wait time is not likely to show up as the major complaint in a lawsuit. Some cases exist, however, in which plaintiff attorneys...
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...Business Process: 1 Patient Arrival 1 Check in Process: 1 Wait in waiting room 2 Urine Sample 2 Wait in waiting room for nurse 2 Nurse takes/records vitals on paper 2 Wait to see Doctor 2 See Doctor 2 Check Out: 2 Data Collection and Analysis: 3 Type of data collected: 3 Recommendation for collecting proper data using information technology: 3 Recommendation: 3 Digitized Form 4 Data and System Security 4 Ethical Issues: 5 Guidelines: 5 System Requirement’s: 6 System: 6 Other Requirments: 6 Conversion 7 Direct Data Entry 7 Idea: 7 References 8 introduction: I have been called to one of the Atlantic Urological Associates offices to provide recommendations for an efficient information system that will help with the following: * Minimize patient waiting time * Decrease paper work between the office and other healthcare entities * Increase quality of patient care * Optimize the billing and coding process Upon arriving at the doctor’s office I notice the waiting room is full and there is a line of people waiting to check in. Behind the desk is an overstressed receptionist who is trying to manage checking everyone in, answering the phones, and filing/completing paper work. When it is finally my turn she hands me paper work that I would have to fill out if I was a new patient. I find a chair sit down and start filling them out, and 10 minutes later I am called back to the front desk to verify my insurance information...
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... b. Overall Conclusion Proposal/ Problem Statement Going to the doctor’s office for an appointment can turn into a very long and tiresome affair. Upon arriving, you have to check in, only to wait in a very long line to put your name down. Next, comes the seemingly endless process of waiting to get your name called which often takes up to an hour on a busy day. Finally, after being taken to the examination room, there is yet another half hour wait. So, what ends up taking only about five minutes of the actual doctors time, leaves you with half the day gone. These issues of several different waiting periods are what many patients deal with and often lead to hesitation in actually making an appointment. The lackluster communications involved in this structure is what makes this a bad business to operate. Essentially, a doctor’s office is a business, and like any other business, customers are vital. However, in a fast moving society where the economy is struggling, time is money and many people do not have the luxury to sit and wait. These inefficient processes seem to slow their business down a great deal as well as the lack of profitability that could otherwise be turned into a profit. For example, a man by the name is Beatrice Vance died in the waiting room while the receptionist told him to wait for the doctor to be seen: “Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack. The coroner says waiting in the emergency room helped kill her. The...
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...in my research is the issue of confidentiality and privacy of the patients. Even more today than there has been before keeping patients records private has become more and more difficult. There are different levels of information that can be affected. According to nursingworld.org the administrator protects information that is private, secret or privileged. This means that not all information is medical information about the patient but also information about the payroll or other contact information about the patient and the staff. This also would include information the patient does want their doctor to know about them which would be more privileged information and things they do not want their doctors to share with others. One of the main issues with keeping such information confidential according to the article Administrative Ethics and Confidentiality/Privacy Issues on nursingworld.org is that most often younger people are working in offices that do not respect or have accurate knowledge of the privacy laws such as HIPPA. Hippa is a government list of regulation and rules to abide by in any medical practice put into place to protect the patients. According to hippa-101.com any office using electronic software must have the appropriate blocks to operate for example a password to get in and out of files, also virus protection and firewalls to prevent the system from being hacked into. There are new hippa laws added each year as technology grows and unless the office constantly...
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... Table of contents page Case Study: Peace Memorial Hospital: Downtown health Clinic …….………………. 3 Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………….. 3 Environmental Aspects …………………………………………………………….. 5 Demographics …………………………………………………………………….. 5 Politics …………………………………………………………………….. 7 Competition …………………………………………………………………….. 8 Marketing …………………………………………………………………………….. 9 Objectives …………………………………………………………………….. 9 Strategies …………………………………………………………………….. 10 Tactics …………………………………………………………………………….. 10 Four Ps …………………….…………………………………………….. 11 Product …………………………………………………………… 11 Price …………………………………………………………………… 11 Place …………………………………………………………………… 11 Promotion …………………………………………………………… 12 Marketing Information Systems ……………………………………………. 12 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………….. 13 References …………………………………………………………………………….. 14 Marketing Audit Case Study: Peace Memorial Hospital: Downtown health Clinic Peace Memorial Hospital (PMH) is one of six independent, nonprofit, general...
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...Danielle Babb CIS500 November 21, 2012 Abstract Mobile computing has allowed great strides in the care and monitoring of patients. Medical personnel are able to obtain real-time data on patient vital signs via mobile networks. Network integrity and data assurance are important factors in the delivery of vital statistics for patient care. Social network support forums provide a source of interaction with those with similar health concerns. Mobile Computing and Social Networking The use of mobile computing technology to monitor patient vital signs is a critical step forward to help keep people healthy and to improve healthcare outcomes. This technology has transformed the lives of patients by cutting down the amount of time one spends in a doctor’s office for basic monitoring services. Mobile devices, when loaded with the appropriate applications, are useful in transmitting information such as blood pressure, glucose readings or even temperature back to medical offices. Medical personnel can then track a patient’s condition and if need be, have them come in if their vital signs are not positive. This could avert a trip to the hospital in some cases. In a survey of American consumers, 61% said they would like self-monitoring devices that remotely sends information to their doctors. (Mobile Technology Allows for Remote Patient Monitoring, 2012) Network Management Mobile technology has made great strides. From the early days of networking to the present...
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...July 21, 2014 Health Care Experiences (Option B) Health care technology today is far more advanced than it was 30 years ago. With a variety of technology available to medical agencies, patients can now be diagnosed and treated quicker than they could 30 years ago. One piece of technology that I have always wanted to know more about is the dialysis machine. Though I work in a hospital, my job is medical administration so I never have see for my own eyes how this type of technology works. A couple of years ago my mother went in for a routine checkup. A few days after her checkup, she was notified that both her kidneys were deteriorating and that she had about a year to live, if she did not have a kidney transplant. The entire family was in shock, disbelief, how could this happen to us. We did not sit around long feeling sorry for ourselves. Once the dust cleared my two sisters and I began doing research on what we could do to help our mother. It did not matter that I was in Korea, or my older sister was in Oregon and the other in California. We all pulled together and did our homework and shared what each had found. To make a long story short, my mother did have a transplant; the donor was my younger sister. Today both my mother and sister are leading healthy lives. Though my mother needed dialysis it was something that we all looked into before the transplant. Dialysis is a treatment that mimics some of the functions that healthy kidneys perform. This process...
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...Telenursing: Is It in my Future? Devry University Telenursing: Is it in My Future I remember the first time I heard of telenursing. It was about 4 years ago and I was still new to home health nursing. My director informed the office that we would be having an in-service on a new telehealth monitoring device we would be using for our high risk patients. We were shown how to operate the monitors and was demonstrated all of its capabilities. The telephone based devices had an interactive voice response system that could remotely monitor a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, O2 saturation, weight and blood sugar via a telephone connection. The devices were recommended for all cardiac and respiratory patients who were at high risk for re-hospitalization since the devices would be able to recognize early symptoms and help the nurses to make quick decisions about the patients’ plan of care. So what is telenursing and telehealth? Hebda & Czar (2013), states that “telenursing is the use of telecommunications and information technology (IT) for the delivery of nursing care”. Telehealth is “the use of telecommunications technologies and electronic information to exchange healthcare information and to provide and support services such as long-distance clinical healthcare to clients”. Although, telenursing is still a fairly new concept to me, there is documentation of telenursing in the 1970’s. The first published telenursing article was written by Mary Quinn, RN in 1974...
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...Healthcare Ecosystems Barnes Jewish Hospital is the combination of The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis built in 1902 and Barnes Hospital built in 1914. The two hospitals were combined in a merger in 1996 becoming Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Barnes-Jewish Hospital is located in St. Louis, Missouri in the Central West End neighborhood. What started off as a small Jewish hospital in 1902 is now one of the best hospitals in Missouri. It is also the largest private employer of St. Louis with 9,215 employees (http://barnesjewish.org/about/fact-sheet). Barnes Jewish is a teaching hospital that has been associated with Washington University College of Medicine since before 1914. This association guaranteed that the hospital would be staffed with university professors and be a learning environment for cutting edge medicine. Impact on Growth Immigration had a large impact on the growth of The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis. The hospital was built with money from the Jewish community and the board of directors consisted of the city’s Jewish leaders but they wanted the hospital to help everyone. The board promised that the hospital would “afford medical and surgical care and nursing to sick or disabled persons of any creed or nationality” (http://barnesjewish.org/about/history). Over 3 million Jews immigrated to the United States from Europe from 1881 to 1920. The immigration was caused by economic conditions and discrimination that radiated throughout Europe (http://en.wikipedia...
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...Carolyn Parker Jul 23, 2006 HIPPA is Being Violated on a Daily Basis On June 14, 2006 I went to the doctor’s office to pick up a friend and while I was sitting in the waiting area a woman came in and went to the front desk to check in. After a few minutes she was called to the back and when the ladies behind the desk seen that she was no longer in the waiting area they began to discuss her personal business. Need-less to say by the time I was ready to leave I knew the ladies name, what type of insurance she had that she owed them some money, what she was being seen for and I also knew just by how they discussed her that she was a regular there and not very liked. The whole time that I was there no-one bothered to close the privacy window and they discussed this patient’s information openly not caring if someone over heard them or not, which brings me to my point. HIPPA is being violated on a daily basis. One may be asking what is HIPPA and how does it work? HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPPA was signed into law by President Clinton on August 21, 1996 and went into effect on April 14, 2001. Prior to HIPPA there was no uniformity; rules and regulations varied from state to state and even from one healthcare organization to another. HIPPA requires that medical providers take steps to keep our health information private. It also requires that you are informed how the information that is gathered, how it is used...
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...the consumer. They have so much information available. In the “Links” section they have Texas, Federal, and Other Stakeholder options for the user to click on. Under the Texas one there are options to take you to websites such as the Governor’s Office, Sec. of State’s Office, a Texas Health Compare link, and many others. Under Federal you can link to offices such as Social Security Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and others. Under the Other Stakeholders option you can link to Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes, Texas Medicaid Healthcare Partnership, and Texas Home Quality Improvement Coalition. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. In a narrower or more personal search you can find out with a click of the mouse what the definition of a medical or physical disability is, whether or not you would qualify for services, who you can call for help, and how to find a provider. There is even a phone number listed, 211, and it can be dialed from any phone and puts you in touch with many public services such as food pantries, Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP food benefits. I also noticed many of these sources have been updated as of September 2014, so they keep this website...
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...that examines patient medical records and finds any diagnoses, treatments/medicines given, diagnostic testing, and so forth and gives each of these incidences a numerical (sometimes alphanumeric) value that is universal across insurance companies to collect payment for services rendered. Inpatient Coder- An inpatient coder is an individual that initiates requests for payments and reimbursement for procedures performed on a patient during a hospital stay on behalf of the medical facility. Inpatient Coders will deal more with ICD-9(10) or Diagnosis Codes than with CPT Procedure Codes. Inpatient coding could be considered to be more complex than outpatient coding because of the vast possibilities of different diseases, encounters and procedures. Outpatient Coder- An outpatient coder is an indiviual that initiates requests for payments for procedures performed either in a doctor's office or hospital outpatient department. Any procedure performed that does not require for the patient to stay more than 24 hours is considered outpatient. Outpatient coders typically deal more with CPT Procedure codes versus ICD 9(10) Diagnosis Codes. Outpatient coders that operate within doctor's offices are usually exposed to the same codes on a regular basis which is why many inpatient coders start off in an outpatient setting. Front Office Clerk The front office clerk is a job title that can differ in many different office settings. In this particular scenario, the front office clerk is responsible...
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...a section of my schedule for the visit, to the long waiting times in the lobby, it has always been an inconvenience. These inconveniences are soon to become a thing of the past with the emergence of mobile computing technologies. Mobile computing is user to computer interaction by which device is can be used on the move and is not bound to a stationary location by wires. Mobile computing involves mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software (Sweet, 2010). This rising technology’s biggest impact can be seen in today’s healthcare infrastructure. This technology allows a user to track and retrieve their health stats on demand. Doctors now have the ability to retrieve these same stats from medical databases created to store their patients’ records. In today’s fast paced world, everything is accessible on demand usually through mobile devices. This trend is also very prevalent in health care. People can now track their vitals, such as blood pressure, blood glucose levels, oxygen levels, and heart rate all from the convenience of their wireless or mobile devices. When comparing mobile computing and in patient visits, the most obvious difference between the two is how convenient mobile computing has made monitoring patient vitals. No longer have patients had to be on-site for doctors to view how well they are doing. In the past it could take hours for doctors to complete and document the vitals from test needed to determine the wellbeing of their patients. Now, these same...
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...significant number of women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer. 12,042 women in the United States were diagnosed, and my sister Amber unfortunately, fell under that statistic. At the time she did not have medical insurance and Amber had not been in for a routine check up in over three years. It was not until she had to go to the hospital for severe pain in her abdomen, when doctors discovered a cyst on one of her ovaries, her lack of urgency eventually cost her health. Amber was diagnosed with stage zero Cervical cancer in early August, This being one of the earliest forms, cancer cells are found on the surface of the cervix. During this time there was a lot of waiting and anxiety my sister and our family went through. Amber had many doctor appointments and went through some very painful procedures such as, a Colposcopy biopsy and an Endometrial biopsy. Being the supporting, loving, and helpful family we are, everyone was by her side every step of the way and helping care for her son while she had Doctor appointments. Since then it has greatly impacted her and our family on the way we live life, It brought everyone together, from taking her to appointments, to helping with her child, it showed how quickly everything can change. Your cells are giving a life span, when they die new cells are developed to replace the ones that have died, but that is not always the case. Cells sometimes do not die and may start dividing, these cells are known to be abnormal also known as cancer cells...
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