Workflow Analysis In Healthcare Settings: Issues And Solutions

Types of Workflow in Healthcare Settings

Workflow analysis is the application is the different techniques that identify as well addresses the issues that arise in a healthcare setting. there are three types of workflow in the healthcare setting like the inter-organizational and the intra-organizational workflow and individual workflow (Ozkaynak et al., 2016). The inter-organizational workflow includes the processes which occur in the ambulatory clinics and the hospitals. The intra-organizational workflow involves the flow of the information, patients and workers across time and space in a healthcare department. The individual workflow includes the flow of thoughts of a person with respect to a task (Ozkaynak et., 2016). This study emphasizes on a recurring issue in a healthcare setting and the presentation of the same through a flowchart. One of the major highlighting issues that occur in a healthcare setting is that the patients frequently complain about the filling of the forms related to the registration and health history after they first arrive for the health check-up or an appointment.

A typical workflow analysis with respect to a patient visit to the hospital or a clinic initiates with the intake of a patient and this process includes the appointment request by the patient, registration of the patient, recording the history of a patient and at the end is the initiation of the clinical examination. There is an option for the patient to book an appointment via a phone call or by personally coming to the clinic and make an appointment. Considering both the procedure of appointment, the receptionist that accepts the call or that is communicating the patient during a face to face conversation takes the demographic information from the patient. The receptionist asks for the information like insurance provider, emergency contacts, social security number, address, age and date of birth. This information is entered into the insurance and the demographic component of the electronic system present in the clinic. A 45 minutes’ appointment is scheduled for the new patients and the patients receive a unique patient identification number. This identification number remains unique for a single patient throughout his life. The information of a returning patient is also retrieved from the unique patient identification number and the patient is scheduled for a 20 minutes’ appointment.

 The details in the above paragraph are only restricted to the receptionist and the clerks. The second part of the flowchart is exclusively and entirely handled by the nurses. This stage has several sections and an assigned nurse looks into the electronic health records schedule of the patient that has an arrived status. The nurse greets the patient and takes the patient to the clinic area, where the patient’s temperature, blood pressure, height and weight are obtained. In the next stage, the nurse takes the patient into the exam room where the data are logged in to the electronic health records. The electronic records are selected depending on the unique identification number of the patient. the nurse then documents the vital and the chief complaints. In the next stage, the nurse then verifies and takes record of any allergies of the patient and the present medications that the patient is having. Recording the history of the patient and the which includes the past medical history, social history, family history and addiction towards substances like tobacco (smoking history). The last stage involves the securing the workstation and leaving the room (Sheehan & Bakken, 2012).

Patient Registration Workflow

There are several metric systems that can be used for the purpose of measuring the soundness of the workflow. However, the best measuring tool can be the checklist. The checklist is the best way to keep a track of the all the necessary task that is left to be done and the tasks that have already been completed. The checklists are a self-motivator for the nurses that want to perform tasks without forgetting the tasks. Prioritizing the tasks is one of the important parts of the checklist and it helps the keeping the track of how much is completed and how much remains to be done. Attainment of the goal and level of which it is achieved is one of the prime reason due to which it is used as a metric for measuring the soundness of the workflow. The soundness of a work can be only judged from its performance and this can be done only through the keeping a track of all the important activities (Thongprayoon et al., 2016).

The different stages and the steps of the flowchart provides a right way through which the workflow must proceed, however, there are certain areas which unnecessarily make the process a bit lengthy. The first part where the patients interact with the receptionist face to face or via phone call can be provided with an alternative step through which the process can be made fast. Instead of making the receptionist talk with the patient, the patient can enter the demographic details via a touch screen input device. This interface of the demographic detail logging system must be made user-friendly which can make the entry of the details fast and smooth. Another important part is the when too many phone callers try a single number, it can lead to frustration among the patients that have less time to wait for the receptionist to pick up the call. Thus this step can be effectively minimized through a phone app or application that can effectively take in the demographic details through an easy interface. The app design will be intuitive enough considering the wide range of the person that will be using it. The design will be made considering it usability and effective integration with the electronic health records (EHR) (Healthit.gov., 2018). The app will have the provision of including the insurance details and the demographic details. The app will be able to differentiate the data between the two (Mavaluru, Mohamed & Bakhamis, 2018). The next stage where the improvements can be brought is the section where the nurse carries out the process of obtaining the data of body temperature, blood pressure, height and weight of the patient. in this stage, measuring of all the information manually can be very consuming when the case is emergency. If the inflow of the patients is also in huge number, then the process can be very tiring for the nurse who is attending the patients. Thus, it is better to integrate the electronic and the automated systems that can effectively measure the blood pressure, body temperature, height and weight (Baig & Gholamhosseini, 2013).

It is important to be aware of the flow of the activity because it is an important aspect of the healthcare organization. The major tasks and the targets were undertaken by the healthcare institutions are time driven and involve careful investigation of the work progress. Thus it is important to note that knowledge of the activity and its progress can lead to effective utilization of the resources and minimization of waste.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that there is a large number of issues that occur regularly in a healthcare organization and it has led to the effective integration and framing of the workflow analysis. Workflow analysis helps in the effectively identifying and address the loopholes in the operation of the delicate tasks. This has enhanced the reduction of the time that previously used to take due to the lengthy procedure of data archiving and receiving information related to medical records.

Reference

Baig, M. M., & Gholamhosseini, H. (2013). Smart health monitoring systems: an overview of design and modelling. Journal of medical systems, 37(2), 9898.

Healthit.gov. (2018). What is an electronic health record (EHR)? | HealthIT.gov. Healthit.gov. Retrieved 21 April 2018, from https://www.healthit.gov/faq/what-electronic-health-record-ehr

Mavaluru, D., Mohamed, M. A., & Bakhamis, A. A. (2018). Acceptance of Doctor Appointment App: An Empirical Study In Saudi Arabia. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 10(6S), 2003-2017.

Ozkaynak, M., Jones, J., Weiss, J., Klem, P., & Reeder, B. (2016). A Workflow Framework for Health Management in Daily Living Settings. In Nursing Informatics (pp. 392-396).

Ozkaynak, M., Unertl, K. M., Johnson, S. A., Brixey, J. J., & Haque, S. N. (2016). Clinical workflow analysis, process redesign, and quality improvement. In Clinical Informatics Study Guide (pp. 135-161). Springer, Cham.

Sheehan, B., & Bakken, S. (2012). Approaches to Workflow Analysis in Healthcare Settings. In NI 2012: Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Nursing Informatics (Vol. 2012). American Medical Informatics Association.

Thongprayoon, C., Harrison, A. M., O’Horo, J. C., Berrios, R. A. S., Pickering, B. W., & Herasevich, V. (2016). The effect of an electronic checklist on critical care provider workload, errors, and performance. Journal of intensive care medicine, 31(3), 205-212.