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Learning Activities: The Northern Health Operations

Executive Summary

This report aims to briefly analyze three learning objectives. These objectives are the ability to process medical records of patients rapidly, register patients and track the necessary information quickly with the use of the facility’s system, and complete tasks concerning elective admission with the use of the facility’s system. Observation and investigation are the most effective learning strategies as they enable novice employees to acquire new skills and see how everything works. Observation enabled me to reach my learning objectives at Northern Health. At the same time, learning by doing was the next stage of learning and it is possible to use it when there are no questions as to how to perform this or that task.

Introduction

Northern Health is the leading provider of healthcare services in the north of Melbourne and includes several healthcare facilities. Northern Health provides primary, secondary, and tertiary services to more than 580,000 people (Northern Health 2013-17 strategic plan, 2013). The average attendance is more than 241,000 people each year and the Emergency Department is one of the areas’ busiest with over “180 patient and 50 ambulance arrivals every day of the year” (Northern Health 2013-17 strategic plan, 2013, p. 5).

Northern Health employs more than 3,500 people and invests in the development of the staff to ensure the high quality of services provided. The report aims to consider three learning objectives: the ability to process medical records of patients rapidly, register patients and track the necessary information quickly with the use of the facility’s system, and complete tasks concerning elective admission with the use of the facility’s system.

The Use of Clinical Information for Patient Care

Clinical Information for Patient Care

It is necessary to identify the major purpose of clinical information and the professionals who use it to choose the most appropriate learning activities and evaluate them effectively. Hence, clinical information serves for communication, statistical, medico-legal and historical purposes, research and education, continuity of patient care (Education module for health record practice, 2012). The information is used by healthcare professionals (such as doctors, nurses, and so on), administrative staff, other health service providers and agencies as well as hospital volunteers (Green & Bowie, 2010). Proper management of clinical information is essential for the provision of high-quality healthcare services.

Discussion of the Clinical Information System

Northern Health like any other healthcare facility has several standardized forms that have to be completed by the staff (Northern Health 2013-17 strategic plan, 2013). Standards enable healthcare professionals to improve the quality of services provided and ensure comprehensive patient care (Nelson, 2011). Clinical information for patient care is presented via several forms. Novice employees often learn by observing and then doing how to handle the documentation. However, these could be the second and the third stages of learning and the primary activity should be based on the investigation.

All healthcare facilities in a country comply with major state regulations but each of the facilities is often located in areas that have additional standards. More so, any facility tends to have quite specific forms and manage information quite differently (Abdelhak, Grostick & Hanken, 2011). Therefore, a novice employee has to invest certain time to examine clinical information records before starting to complete forms or even observing others doing that. It is noteworthy that the process of investigation can be supervised and guided by human resources professionals. This will minimize the distraction of healthcare professionals from completing their daily tasks and will be more effective as novice employees may have several questions. Thus, human resources professionals may answer the questions (based on other healthcare professionals’ experiences).

More so, employees of the Northern Health who have been working for a while can also benefit from re-examining the forms they have to complete or use on daily basis. It can be effective to have monthly workshops on the matter. The Northern Health staff will be able to acquire new skills (to handle clinical information more effectively), share experiences and concerns. This can help improve the system which can have some flaws.

Evaluation of the Learning Activity

I understood that I had to quickly process medical records to be able to adequately respond to the patient’s needs. I am quite good in ICD and procedures codes but while working in Northern Health I understood that it was not enough to know some codes. I noticed (and I expected) that some codes appeared more often. I tried to learn all the codes by heart and observe the way other staff coped with that. I believe that observation is not the most effective way to achieve this learning objective as though I saw others handling codes it was quite challenging for me to process the records as quickly as others did it. Some of my colleagues tried to help me by explaining some codes and sharing their strategies to decode information. These strategies helped me more than simple observation.

Record Management Systems

Importance of Record Management Systems

Skurka (2012, p. 46) argues that the record management system “is not yet a reality in the health care arena”. However, more and more healthcare facilities are using effective systems to manage records. Northern Health has its record management system as well. Thus, all patients are electronically registered in i. Patient Manager (with the use of the Patient Master Index). This registration and encoding is an effective way to ensure that patients get the necessary (optimal) treatment. It is noteworthy that administrative staff verify patient information.

Discussion of the Clinical Information System in the Health Information Service Northern Health

Healthcare professionals at Northern Health are very busy as they have to provide high-quality services to dozens of patients each day. This makes the period of learning rather short. Therefore, it is crucial to make sure that a qualified employee explains the ways to handle the record management system of the facility. It also pays specific attention to security issues (Hovenga & Grain, 2013). This can be held in a form of a workshop for several employees. After this, novice employees can observe other healthcare professionals working in the system. In this way, employees will be able to observe the work with the system in a calm environment and when certain knowledge has been acquired, novice employees will be able to observe the way the system is handled in a high-pace (and quite stressful) environment.

Evaluation of the Learning Activity

My learning objective was to learn how to register patients quickly and how to track the necessary records using the system of Northern Health. I achieved the objective by observation. I believe this is quite a challenging task as it is necessary to register patients quickly. There were periods when lots of patients were to be registered. I observed my colleagues doing that and I found this learning activity quite effective. The system used was user-friendly and it was quite easy to handle. I noticed the specific way the information was inserted and I found the strategies used very efficient as they saved time. After observing the process, I can say that I will be able to register the patients at Northern Health quickly and correctly. Therefore, this objective was reachable through observation.

Patient Admission Systems

Brief Description of Major Points in the Process

McWay (2013) notes that the admission process requires meticulous attention and proper handling. Healthcare professionals have to accept and process the patient’s referral. The patient has to confirm certain booking details and the healthcare professional has to make sure that the booking is viable and all standard procedures have been carried out. The patient is then guided by the nurse to the surgery room and after the surgery, the patient is also assisted to go home or to the ward. It is noteworthy that the process involves communication with other healthcare professionals through the use of the admission system.

Discussion of the Clinical Information System in the Health Information Service Northern Health

The process is quite comprehensive but it is also quite easy to implement at Northern Health where all procedures are standardized. Observation is the learning activity most commonly used to train novice employees. As a rule, a novice employee observes nurses and other healthcare professionals completing the tasks involved in the process. The next stage is learning by doing as the trainee starts completing certain tasks on his/her own. It is necessary to stress that learning by doing should be used when certain knowledge is acquired and there are no questions. Supervision is provided at the initial stage of learning.

Evaluation of the Learning Activity

I believe that observation is the most effective learning activity to achieve the mentioned learning objective especially when it is accompanied by learning by doing. I observed my colleagues calling patients and checking some details. I found that the process was quite standardized and it was easy to handle. My colleague introduced me to the system and explained the major points. After that, I observed others doing specific tasks, and then, when I was ready, I completed certain tasks by myself.

I made several phone calls and checked some information. While I was doing that, I was supervised by one of my colleagues and she helped me when I needed her assistance (these cases were quite few). I believe this was a very effective learning activity as I learned to do these tasks quite quickly. I achieved the learning objective through observations with some elements of learning by doing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is possible to note that I reached the learning objectives as I learned how to process medical records of patients rapidly, register patients and track the necessary information quickly with the use of the facility’s system, and complete tasks concerning elective admission with the use of the facility’s system. I believe these are some of the most important processes any employee at Northern Health has to understand and be able to implement. These are the initial steps in collecting information about the patient. This information is the basis of the patient’s treatment and health care professionals make their choices based on the data given in the forms and systems mentioned above.

Reference List

Abdelhak, M., Grostic, S., & Hanken, M.A. (2011). Health information: Management of a strategic resource. St. Louis, MO: Saunders.

Education module for health record practice. (2012). Web.

Green, M.A., & Bowie, M.J. (2010). Essentials of health information management: Principles and practices. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar.

Hovenga, E.J.S., & Grain, H. (2013). Health information governance in a digital environment. Fairfax, VA: IOS Press.

McWay, D. (2013). Today’s health information management: An integrated approach. Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning.

Nelson, T. (2011). Health information management association of Australia. Web.

Northern Health 2013-17 strategic plan. (2013). Web.

Skurka, M.A. (2012). Health information management: Principles and organization for health information services. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

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StudyKraken. (2022, April 4). Learning Activities: The Northern Health Operations. Retrieved from https://studykraken.com/learning-activities-the-northern-health-operations/

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