Introduction
The process of attending to patients in healthcare facilities has already changed over time. It could be realized that the concept of development in technology and how it is used in modern ways of keeping up with the demands in healthcare specifically point out the condition by which patient care is improved and the competence of providing services to the people is further put into a progressive state. In the case that is to be treated and discussed herein, a distinct attention to detail on how modern health operations ought to accommodate patient care demands shall be given focus. Relatively ,such consideration is expected to estimate whether an existing EHR or [a networked] Electronic Health Record system is able to improve the process of providing healthcare assistance to the public or not. In relation to this examination, testing the capacity of the program to accommodate the growing demand for accurate recording and distribution of information in a particular healthcare facility shall be given specific attention to.
Background of the Case
A local clinic in West Midlands is providing public healthcare service during Saturdays and Sundays to residents of surrounding communities in their area. The said service comprises of walk-in checkup appointments, diabetes testing, no smoking advice and cholesterol testing. The focus on these services has been considered by the clinic administrators since these are the primary problems around the communities surrounding their area. Relatively, the administration believes that with the pursuance of this particular program, serving the people’s needs and lowering the cost of healthcare among residents in the area would be possible.
The clinic currently uses a networked EHR system that connects the receptionists to the specialists as they receive patients and direct them to the right medical assistants they need to get advice from. The EHR system goes as far as towards the emergency area where critical cases are being handled. This system is expected to create a more positive engagement between workers in the area; whereas through such contemplative way of determining the direction of the patients, people coming into the clinic are served better and faster thus allowing for more individuals to get benefit from what the program offers.
Background of the Program
The program is designed to accommodate data-entry and data distribution within the networked systems. In this case, doctors and/or attending healthcare advisers are given their own connective gadgets [tablets or other forms of communication gadgets provided by the clinic] for them to get connection to the network and access data from the database. Relatively, this allows the receptionists to put in cues that are easily available for the healthcare advisers to check when the patients come in for check up [may it be an emergency or not]. The connection that the program serves between the primary workers in the clinic specifically allows for a better flow of information that further improves the work path that the healthcare advisers take as they tend to attend to each need of the patients coming in for appointment.
Based from this operational flowchart, the information recorded in the database of the clinic is expected to have historical and healthcare particulars about the patient being attended to. It is through these links that the receptionist will be able to know whether or not the patient is within the area of responsibility that the clinic wants to serve. The attainment of some of the information is gained through relative community survey operations that directly correlate the names of the patients with their historical data.
When the case involves emergency situations, it is expected that the attention would be given in a first come first serve basis, except for instances
when some patients need immediate care because of the critical status of the person’s medical needs. Unlike in regular cases where the receptionists usually take 5 minutes to get data from the patient, record it down and save it in the database, emergency receptionists are required to attend to the situation in at least 2 minutes maximum. For those who come in the clinic with regular conditions [nothing critical to consider], their waiting time usually lengthens to 20 to 25 minutes depending on the density of population that occupies the clinic during busy hours. To support the incoming flow of patients effectively, the medical attendees and receptionists are scheduled to be in their post following this schedule:
Considering the schedule of the personnel working in the program, it is essential that the EHR system would be able to allocate operative scheduling that would make it easier for the patients to finish their appointments in the clinic thus allowing for a higher number of individuals to be served accordingly. Receptionists and medical practitioners set within the duty must be given log in and log out details hence making it easier for the system to determine whether or not there are still attendees who are available to give attention to the needs of the incoming patients.
Determining Scenarios for Simulation
The following scenarios are designed to help out in determining whether or not the program is able to accommodate patients even within specific situations that might cause relative hindrance on the continuance of a program within a particular day of operation.
Scenario A: Input of Patient Information for Record Keeping
- Successful input of information
- Situation
Whenever a patient comes in, the receptionist is expected to collect data from the person and encode it into the data base. This is especially true if it is the patient’s first time to enter into the clinic. Finding the name of the patient from the database where the name and addresses of the surveyed members and residents of the areas of responsibility of the clinic is located is the primary operation to take in this phase. Once the information is locate and confirmed, sending the information to the right doctor or adviser within the network follows. Once such process is done, the patients are then directed to the specialists who could help them in their case.
- Recommendation
It is important that the receptionists confirm residence and encode data within an shorter scale of time allowing them to accommodate more individuals into the clinic before the operation of the day ends. The more the patients accommodated, the lesser dilemma the clinic may have to deal with during regular days of operation.
- Information placed in the wrong path
- Situation
In cases when receptionists pass on patient-data to the wrong adviser, the waiting cue might be further jeopardized thus confusing the process of attending to each patient accordingly.
- Recommendation
Instances like this cannot be fully avoided; it should be realized that the attendees or the receptionists are but human and that they are not free from making mistakes every now and then. Hence, when such things happen, the advisers or the doctors to whom the data has been passed on to should immediately send in a checking data which would send out red warning to the data entry system the receptionists use; this will send out a call of attention to the receptionists thus allowing them to fix the situation accordingly.
Scenario B: New Comer versus Old Time Patient Records
- Receptionist receipt of data about check-up and determining record path through database
- Situation
Sometimes, there are old time patients whose records are still in written records. In this case, getting current information about the patient and immediately encoding them into the system is expected to create a distinct impact on how the patients [new or old] are given proper assistance within a specific time length limit. The entry of older medical records of old time patients could be considered at a much open schedule when not so many individuals are in need of being attended to.
- Recommendation
Time management is essential in dealing with cases such as this. Receptionists should know better than spending their time tracking through the paper trail of old patients. Setting the most important operations first in line should be able to create a distinct impact on how the receptionists consider the importance of the function that they serve in the clinic especially during times when such programs are being pursued.
Scenario C: Technical Difficulties and Data Recovery
- Power outage
- Situation
Power outages should be given attention to by the administrator efficiently so as to know when to set the emergency power source even before the power outage happens thus protecting the data that is saved in the database. Relatively, with this process, the information of each patient is well protected. Although there is likely an immediate auto-recovery system that the EHR operations itself serves with, it is important to have an immediate emergency power source when such problems occur as the auto save and auto recovery systems might not work when the whole system crashes because of the power outage.
Considerably, when power outages have not been perceived accordingly, there should be a standby source of emergency power that identifies well with the need to support the system immediate as power fails. This will lessen the chances of losing data as they are being encoded in.
- Recommendation
Saving information into the data base every time they are encoded in should be a determined culture among the receptionist. This will allow them to reduce chances of losing data due to power outages. This will also help in lessening the possibility of confusion on the waiting cues that the patients are following in relation to their appointment with the doctors or the specialists in the clinic.
- System Crash Down
- Situation
Technical systems are expected to crash down every now and then. This means that at some point, the main server might not function as expected due to some technical difficulties. On times like this, remote receptions should be established. These remote receptions should be constantly available as they are the portals where the data entered into the system are to be saved accordingly. With such remote receptions, system crash downs should not make it hard or the receptionist to retrieve data when the systems are back into operation.
- Recommendation
When such difficulties occur during the operation of the clinic dedicated to the public program they are dedicated to complete, the receptionists should be able to utilize alternative tools that they can use to encode in data such as tablets and other handheld gadgets from where they could retrieve the same data from later on when the system is back for proper operation.
Implications of Evaluation Simulations
Based on these particular simulations, it could be understood that particular difficulties ought to be expected to happen especially in instances when technical and human errors become involved in the situation. Training of the receptionist who are to deal with the situation in a first-hand manner should be improved accordingly. During such times of training, these individuals should be given the chance to deal with hands-on experience on the expected difficulties and emergencies that may occur during operation. To make sure that the process of serving the needs of the patients come in first hand concern for the administrators and the personnel who are assigned to handle the situations accordingly.
The network where the EHR systems operate in should be well protected as well. It should be realized that the information shared by each individual seeking medical attention or assistance from the clinic and its working force expect their data to be well protected and directed towards the proper portals only. When instances of technical issues occurs especially involving external elements such as the outage of power source, it is important to make sure that developing proper attitude towards the situation be the base source of competence among those who are expected to respond to the situation accordingly.
Being prepared for such situations would not only protect the operation within a current occurrence but would also determine well with what the organization hopes to serve the community with through the use of updated data determining the current health status of each patient being attended to. People who are expected to develop particular ailments that are related to irregular cholesterol and sugar rate should be given attention to accordingly along with those who seek specific healthcare assistance regarding smoking-related symptoms of healthcare problems. With the information gathered from the patients during the special program operations that the clinic engages with, the emergence of special care directed to these individuals should be able to determine the path of healthcare operations that the clinic might need to campaign in relation to keeping the health integrity in the community as high as possible.
Debugging issues with the program that is used to assist the healthcare personnel in determining the care and attention needed by each individual asking for medical assistance from the clinic’s program-application would help so much in keeping the operations of the clinic at bay and particularly dedicated to developing better health options for the people. What makes this program effective is the way it is able to serve the best values of healthcare for the people that the clinic personnel wish to serve.
Being prepared for the emergence of particular difficulties and irregularities in the function of the program best serves the purpose of the clinic in serving the healthcare needs of the people in the communities where the clinic dedicates its service. Within the simulations presented, it is largely shown that even though some difficulties might be hard to contend with, proper management of operations and being prepared to face such matters accordingly would help well in determining the proper path of assistance that the clinic ought to serve the public with amidst all the difficulties concerned.
Conclusion
Technology in healthcare is often expected to take a larger toll in the process of improving the way the people’s needs are served. In relation to the case presented herein, the proper management of such programs that are designed to improve patient care would account for the proper implementation of operations that are specifically determined to make sure that the public receives the assistance they need especially in improving their health. With full preparation and training of those who are involved in the process, the assumption of good and determinable goal to serve the public with their healthcare needs is considered an essential tool and attitude for healthcare progress.
