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A typical hospital collects hundreds, if not thousands, of data points for reporting to state, federal, and accreditation agencies. It's so much information that trying to determine what is most important to share with a hospital board could become a tedious chore.
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If you say it out loud, people will agree intuitively: You can learn more from your failures than from your successes. But that doesn't mean people want to trumpet what doesn't work.
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Almost everyone who has been in healthcare for long enough can tell a story about a tired physician or worn-out nurse who has either made a mistake or come this close to it due to fatigue.
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The most important consideration is to figure out what story you are trying to tell, says Lisa Snyder, MD MD, MPH, senior vice president and chief quality officer at Select Medical of Mechanicsburg, PA.
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As technology continues to evolve, so does its usage in the healthcare setting. Quality professionals are becoming more IT savvy as electronic health records become the new industry norm. Instead of flipping through paper charts and files, health information is searchable through electronic databases.
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The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in December that was critical of efforts made thus far to ensure medical errors associated with the use of health IT are minimized.
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If a self-pay or underinsured patient presents to you for services, how quickly can you determine if he or she is eligible for Medicaid or another public program?
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Compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a major area of concern for patient registration areas, according to Nancy Dean, vice president of compliance, privacy and internal audit at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.
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Registrars at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis field five or six calls every day from patients asking detailed questions about what services will cost them, says Laura Florine, manager of patient financial care services. "Patients may postpone care if they are not sure about the cost of the service," she adds.
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Members of your patient access staff might act as customer service clerks, financial counselors, and patient advocates all within an hour, and they also are tasked with providing accurate directions within the medical center, according to Chris Hatcher, registration manager for Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch, CA.
