Question

How workflow assessment is used to develop Functional need assessment?in Electronic health records

Answer 1

Workflow assessment is used to develop Functional need assessment are:-
*It is important to design an EHR which smoothly fits into the workflow pattern of the medical establishment.

*Healthcare workflow analysis techniques come in useful in designing the best EHR system for the medical facility.

*It's help in mapping of process.
1.Scheduling: When a person first approaches a medical center, an appointment is fixed. The medical center receives multiple appointment requests every day and all these appointments need to be properly recorded in schedule calendars. Fact sheets are prepared to record the number of patients that the medical center receives during a particular time period. The scheduling process also includes alerts. Both the patient and the doctor should receive alerts about the upcoming appointment in order to be ready for it.
2.Patient visit: When the patient comes to the appointment, the doctor conducts a medical evaluation. The general checkup is followed by a psych evaluation. After the evaluation process is over, the doctor carries out the diagnosis process. Every step needs to be recorded so that progress notes can be made and the doctor can charge the patient accordingly.

3.Patient admission: After the diagnosis process is over; the patient gets admitted into the medical facility on the recommendation of the doctor. The enrollment process requires the signing of various forms so that the medical facility gets all the details about the patient.
4.Treatment process: Once the patient is admitted into the facility, the doctor makes a treatment plan. Either individual therapy or group therapy is provided along with medication management so that the patient can recover as soon as possible.
5.Discharge from the hospital: When the treatment process comes to an end, the patient is discharged on the date suggested by the doctor. A discharge plan is made and lots of reports are generated in order to record the treatment process of the patient in detail.

The mapping process is a very important part of the healthcare workflow analysis. Without knowing all the processes that go into handling a patient from the moment he books an appointment till the day he is discharged, the medical facility cannot design an EHR system effectively. Mapping of processes helps in identifying those areas which can function more efficiently with the help of EHR.

*Direct observation

Just taking note of the various processes of functioning does not help in getting a true picture of the real pattern of the workflow. Direct observation is a must to find out which areas require more attention and how EHR can be implemented to make those areas more functional.

Focusing on time and resource consuming tasks.
Healthcare workflow analysis is meant to find out problem areas where health IT can make things easier. Those tasks which are time and resource consuming, especially, require the help of such technology to become less tedious and more efficient. The medical facilities should focus on such tasks first and work on them.

These above points  of workflow assessment is used to develop Functional need assessment through Electronic health records