Question

Part 1:

The clinic's receptionists who are your internal customers respond to you defensively. They tell you that the HIM staff won't answer the phone and that they want some backup when they are busy with patients. You talk to the HIM staff and find their stories are just as negative. They say they are being charged with more responsibilities but have no additional help. They also complain that the receptionists transfer the calls that they should be handling. Your HIM staff indicate that the receptionists know when patients schedule their appointments which is usually days in advance and there should be fewer STAT requests for patient records on the same day.   The clinic's nurses are also upset with the HIM staff; they claim that the department does not help them locate patient charts, causing long wait times for patients. The clinic's physicians say they cannot assume additional tasks to alleviate the situation because their days are already chaotic. They further indicate that they incur the wrath of the patients due to long waiting times.  The physicians cannot complete their routines on time because of backlog due to delays in acquiring patient records. As a clinician stated " without test results or patient data, our hands are tied and there is only so much we can do"......

1. What improvement tool(s) would you use to identify all possible reasons for the increase in complaints about the HIM department? Provide your rationale.

2. What tool(s) would you use to gather data to confirm the reasons for the complaints about the HIM department? Why?

3. You believe that complaints spike on certain days of the week. What tool(s) would you use to analyze/determine this theory?

4. You have gathered data about the causes of complaints. What tool(s) would you use to prioritize the problems?

5. You need to define and understand the current process for retrieving patient records. What tool would you use to visually define the process?

Note - Each question carries equal points (10 points for this part) . Submit your answers ALONG with questions as a word document. In case you believe there is a tie in the tool options, pick one that you believe fits the best (most appropriate for the situation - if you have a good rationale to support, some points will be given even if not ideal).   review the slides on QI tools and read chapter 6 prior to attempting this question.

Answer 1

There are many tools for measuring the quality improvement in the department . Some are

• Flow charts
• Hstograms
• Bar graphs
• Pareto charts
• Cause & effect analysis
• Evaluation &decision making tools
• Process analysis
• Brainstorming
• Stratification
• Scatter diagram
• Force field analysis

To identify the possible reasons for the increase in complaints about the HIM department is FISH BONE CHART along with brain storming and creative problem solving .

FISH BONE CHART : It helps in identifying the possible causes for the increase in complaints and by using brainstorming ideas can be formulated how to improve the performance by discussing with the staffs . The datas also can be gathered about the staffs .

The fish bone chart can clearly explain about the problems in any department and creative problem solving tool can also be included..

SCATTER DIAGRAM is used to analyse the cause of complaints spike on certain days of the week. It can help in seperating the performances of any two staffs ( receptionist and HIM department staff ) and help us to find solution quickly.

Problems can be prioritized using FLOW CHARTS . It helps in deciding and highlighting the important factors in finding the problem which is to be solved primarily.