Patient Intake Process free essay sample

Understanding the patient intake process and how it works may very well lead to strategies that will improve patient intake efficiency. Basically, the patient intake process is gathering and retrieving information for new and established patients. This process can vary from office to office, but can be time consuming. Updating established patients usually has the patient to look over their information and update. The new patient will have pages of paper work to fill out. This will include their demographic information, medical history, and insurance information. After these established patients update and new patients finish their paper work, someone from this office will need to transfer this information to an electronic medical record. The smaller the practice, the more time consuming. When professional nurses are performing their nursing responsibilities and the clerical responsibilities of the facility, everything in the office will suffer, because this nurse will be doing the job of many. We will write a custom essay sample on Patient Intake Process or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page (Valerius, Bayes, Newby, Seggern, 2008). Many believe that the electronic medical record is the key to, not only to the patient intake process, but also a facilitys ability to give efficient, safe, and quality care. The Christus Santa Rosa Patient Intake Center (PIC) is staffed by nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These nurses are specially trained in admissions criteria. This admitting service, manned by professional nurses, offers high-level clinical expertise. With these nurses on duty around the clock, they are able to quickly take care of inpatient and outpatient admissions and transfers. These nurses handle all admissions to any of the facilities in the Christus Santa Rosa health system. This is all these nurses do day in and day out. This makes their jobs easier in that they are not expected to assist a doctor, or do anything that has nothing to do with the patient intake process. The PIC has proven that the patient intake process is more efficient if this is the sole job of the nurses. In the past, the patient intake process could be the job of whoever was available to do it; there was no one special hired for this job. Recently it has been proven that patients are moved more swiftly through to the primary care giver or even admitted as an inpatient when the patient intake process has been handled by people who were hired for only the patient intake process and have no other responsibilities (Patient intake center operates 24-7, 2009). There is another one of these centers, also in Texas. This patient access intake center (PAIC) is aiming to be Understanding the patient intake process and how it works may very well lead to strategies that will improve patient intake efficiency. Basically, the patient intake process is gathering and retrieving information for new and established patients. This process can vary from office to office, but can be time consuming. Updating established patients usually has the patient to look over their information and update. The new patient will have pages of paper work to fill out. This will include their demographic information, medical history, and insurance information. After these established patients update and new patients finish their paper work, someone from this office will need to transfer this information to an electronic medical record. The smaller the practice, the more time consuming. When professional nurses are performing their nursing responsibilities and the clerical responsibilities of the facility, everything in the office will suffer, because this nurse will be doing the job of many. (Valerius, Bayes, Newby, Seggern, 2008). Many believe that the electronic medical record is the key to, not only to the patient intake process, but also a facility ability to give efficient, safe, and quality care. The Christus Santa Rosaaâ‚ ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Patient Intake Center (PIC) is staffed by nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These nurses are specially trained in admissions criteria. This admitting service, manned by professional nurses, offers high-level clinical expertise. With these nurses on duty around the clock, they are able to quickly take care of inpatient and outpatient admissions and transfers. These nurses handle all admissions to any of the facilities in the Christos Santa Rosa health system. This is all these nurses do day in and day out. This makes their jobs easier in that they are not expected to assist a doctor, or do anything that has nothing to do with the patient intake process. The PIC has proven that the patient intake process is more efficient if this is the sole job of the nurses. In the past, the patient intake process could be the job of whoever was available to do it; there was no one special hired for this job. Recently it has been proven that patients are moved more swiftly through to the primary care giver or even admitted as an inpatient when the patient intake process has been handled by people who were hired for only the patient intake process and have no other responsibilities (Patient intake center operates 24-7, 2009). There is another one of these centers, also in Texas. This patient access intake center (PAIC) is aiming to be a call does it center for the 13 hospitals that are the Texas Health Resources. This center attempts total customer satisfaction and collecting point of service bills has increased. This PAIC also has automated phone calls to patients that will leave a message for the patient to either go online, to a secure site, and enter their information or to call an 800 number. This, in itself, will shorten the wait time that the patient will experience when they come for their appointment at the physician office or the hospital for a specific procedure. The patient will also be able to use these resources to register for an appointment with the physician or the hospital. This center had not quite worked all the kinks out at the time of printing. They were still unsure of what would happen if a patient was unable to pay or if the patient was not reached for preregistration. If the patient is unable to pay or has an outstanding balance they will be able to use an online tool that will help the patient to communicate with the financial staff at the hospital. If a patient is unable to pay an outstanding balance, they will not be registered for any elective procedures. The communication tool will be used to alert those in the hospital, who in turn will suggest to the patient that maybe they should fill out the forms for indigence. If approved for assistance, the patient can have their outstanding balance reduced or even wiped clean (General OneFile Web, 2011). Understanding the patient intake process and how establishments can be better prepared for patients when they arrive for appointments and procedures can only lead to better customer satisfaction. Patients will be more likely to return to a facility if their needs are taken care of in a more timely manner. Hiring people to take care of retrieving and updating patients medical records instead of overwhelming someone with other responsibilities can only improve office moral and patient satisfaction. References General OneFile Web. (2011, February). Patient intake center aims to improve patient satisfaction. Retrieved from http://find. galegroup. com/gtx/infomark. do? contentSet=IAC-Documentstype=retrievetabID=T004prodid=ITOFdocld=A158160474source=galesrcprod=ITOFuserGroupName=appolloversion=1. 0 Patient intake center operates 24-7. (2009, June). Hospital Case Management: The Monthly