Patient Check out Flow Chart
The first step in the flowchart is that the patient completes clinic visit and appears at the checkout desk. This is the time when the patient is ready to be discharged and has already completed the necessary requirements for the release (“Patient Check Out,” n.d). The people involved in this step are the patient, the main concern of the process; the personal doctor, to verify if the patient truly satisfies the requirements; and the personnel in-charge of the checkout desk, to hold the patient before release is granted. No technology is involved, as the patient only waits for the confirmation. To execute the step, patient health information must be checked thoroughly, and other patient documents should also be provided.
Assuming that the patient completes all the laboratory requirements, he/she is now ready to be checked out. To do this, the checkout personnel must look through the database and confirm the checking-out of the patient. Database management is highly needed for this step, as there are other patients that are recorded within the database, and basic knowledge about computerized work must be required. To execute the step, the patient documents such as the laboratory results, prescriptions, and medical certificate, must be checked and verified again, and if the patient needed to obtain medications from their doctors, then the patient must get the medications first before the checkout confirmation (“Patient Check Out,” n.d).
The next thing to do is to check if there were messages left by the physician or other providers. The message must be related to the condition of the patients and the patient has the right to access the message (“Patient Check Out,” n.d). Again, the checkout personnel will be in charge of this process, and if communication must be established between the patient and the physician, then the personnel will be held responsible. If the message is obtained through the database, then computer processes should be applied to view the message. Since the patient has the right to know the contents of the message, then the policy regarding privacy and accessibility must govern. The only information needed for it to be executed is the message provided by the physician. If the physician does not have any message, especially the future appointments, then it is required that the personnel must provide the patient with information to maintain communication with the physician for future appointments. Also, it is possible that the personnel will provide the appointment schedule, given that the personnel is authorized by the physician in-charge.
The next procedure pertains to the payments of the fees. However, this procedure can be skipped if there is no amount to be paid. Otherwise, the patient will pay the necessary fees. In collecting fees, the cashier will be the ones involved in the procedure. The technology involved will be the counting machines in order to have an accurate and faster rate of exchanging bills, as well as the database to note that the patient has already paid for the bills (“Patient Check Out,” n.d). In most clinics, the policy states that it is a must to pay all the fees, otherwise, the patient cannot checkout. The information needed to complete the procedure is the hospital bill, which summarizes all of the fees incurred.
After all of this, then the patient completely checks out of the clinic, and will only come back if emergencies arise or in the scheduled appointment. It is important to note that all the steps adhere to the optimum patient policy to ensure that the whole process is made quickly.
Metric
The measurement of the efficiency and the performance of processes is important with regards to health as it ensures that all operations are operational by revealing processes which needs to be improved, eliminated, or added. The current metric used to measure the soundness of the workflow is based on the measurement against standards. This means that there are benchmarks from external sources such as health organizations that are used as a basis whether or not the processes in the checkout of patients are efficient. Likewise, this metric may be considered effective since it is an attainable metric. Aside from this, its use is also realistic and timely. Not much work is required from this metric. However, it is no doubt that improvements with this metric may be done. For example, the effectiveness and performance of the checkout of patients may be done in relation to specific milestones (Oak Ridge Associated Universities, 2015).
Moreover, to improve the processes involved in the checkout of patients, bottlenecks must be avoided. The usual bottleneck in this case is that many transactions happen in a single counter. If the attendants provided for the counter are not able to process everything simultaneously, then there will be a lag. To address this, it is a must to determine the flow of patients and from there make the necessary adjustments. Furthermore, the traffic within the system should always be considered and this may be improved by the increased efficiency of the equipment used (Manley, 2014).
Summary
The checkout of patients is among the concerns of health care institutions. Without its efficiency, the whole system may be affected. The resources that could have been channeled into other more pressing issues could have been saved. As such, in the provided workflow, it was emphasized that its further improvement should be done along with the metric used to measure the soundness of the workflow.
References
Manley, M. (2014). 5 Ways to Improve Patient Flow. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com/medical-economics/news/5-ways-improve-patient-flow?page=0,2
Oak Ridge Associated Universities. (2015). University of California Approach. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.orau.gov/pbm/documents/overview/uc.html
Patient Check Out. (n.d.). Retrieved April 21, 2016, from https://healthit.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/workflowtoolkit/PatientCheckOut.pdf
