Week 3

Things are going slowly, but the methods in which I'll be conducting data analysis are slowly being outlined. On Monday I attended a meeting in which I was given a task in updating patient information. On Wednesday I worked on updating said information and also began to conduct research at the medical center library concerning federal and state regulations on record retention.

Week Two: Getting Started

            The task I was given during my first week working at the hospital was to update insurance information for several doctors who worked at different clinics around Arizona. The information was kept on a paper document and it was last updated in 2011. For each doctor, I had to call the number listed and verify the address, phone number, and fax number. I would then ask what insurance they accepted. I made a new Excel Spreadsheet and kept all the information on this electronic file.

Week One: Project Description and Goals

Welcome to my blog! Each week I will give details about the progress I am making on my project that I am conducting at a medical center. In this post, I will describe what my project is and what I hope to accomplish. However, the nature of this project can change as the weeks go by.

Due to many state regulations, some healthcare documents are kept in an electronic format. However, the current process involves keeping them in paper format and storing them for many years, sometimes longer than necessary, which results in unnecessary filing fees and costs. My project will require me to research the potential cost savings to a healthcare organization to migrate to the new electronic record keeping from the old filing method. I must examine existing documents and records to determine the types of documents. I will conduct research on the legislature and regulators’ requirement of record keeping to determine which can be filed electronically, for how long, and which can be destroyed. Finally, I will perform a cost analysis based on my determination.

Not only does keeping records and documents in a paper format and filing them manually incur unnecessary filing fees and costs, but it is also more time consuming to look through and find records manually. Storing documents electronically allows for a more efficient method of searching for records. It is also cheaper to keep documents in this manner because normally they do not stay in the system for a long period of time and thus do not incur extra filing fees. Switching to electronic record keeping would impact the hospital by increasing productivity and decreasing costs. Fewer mistakes are also made through electronic record keeping.

            I will conduct mostly internet research to complete this project, but I will make use of interviews with employees at the hospital who work in this field, specifically workers in the department responsible for keeping medical records. One obstacle that I have already encountered is that I do not know what problems I should expect when I am conducting research. Thus, I have no contingency plans in place at the moment in case something goes wrong. However, I hope to offset this unknown by doing more research in this field ahead of time so I can avoid any problems before they come up.

            The goal I have set in place is to use my analysis of the record keeping system to help the medical center completely transfer all paper records to the computer system.