Patient Clinic Appointment Flow Chart
Introduction
A flow chart is a diagrammatic representation of a process. The process steps are indicated in boxes of various shapes connected with arrows showing the direction of flow (Hebb, 2006). Different shapes of the chart boxes have different meanings. Oval boxes indicates start or end of a process, rectangular box represents normal process flow, diamond shape represent a decision or a branch in the process, a circle representing a jump in the step and parallelogram represents data input or output (Hebb, 2012). Flow charts are applicable to various fields. Below is an example of a flow chart for scheduling a patient clinic appointment using paper records.
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The work flow …show more content…
For the nurse to recommend clinic appointment, the medical history of the patient is considered. The history can be seen from the prescription notes. If the nurse is satisfied that the patient should visit the facility for further attention, the patient is referred to the records clerk. The records clerk then opens the schedule and states the reason for appointment in the schedule. Then the patient is assigned an appointment date before being issued with an appointment note or card to be used for reference in the next visit. For the records clerk to be able to schedule the appointment, the records of patients must be available to retrieve the patient’s details from or enter the patient’s details. The clerk must also have where to state the reason for the appointment and record the appointment date. This can be records book or computer software. The clerk must also be in possession of a card to issue the patient with for use during the next …show more content…
Records clerk spend considerable amount of time flipping through the records to pull out the patients’ details. The use of computer software would make this retrieval faster and help save time. A computerized database would also the receptionist when handling returning patients since their details already exist in the system but would be hard to trace in the paper records. Additionally, patients often lose their clinic cards making it hard to trace their medical history and clinic appointment information faster. Efficiency can be improved by digitalization, most preferably taking the patients’ biometric
Introduction
A flow chart is a diagrammatic representation of a process. The process steps are indicated in boxes of various shapes connected with arrows showing the direction of flow (Hebb, 2006). Different shapes of the chart boxes have different meanings. Oval boxes indicates start or end of a process, rectangular box represents normal process flow, diamond shape represent a decision or a branch in the process, a circle representing a jump in the step and parallelogram represents data input or output (Hebb, 2012). Flow charts are applicable to various fields. Below is an example of a flow chart for scheduling a patient clinic appointment using paper records.
No
The work flow …show more content…
For the nurse to recommend clinic appointment, the medical history of the patient is considered. The history can be seen from the prescription notes. If the nurse is satisfied that the patient should visit the facility for further attention, the patient is referred to the records clerk. The records clerk then opens the schedule and states the reason for appointment in the schedule. Then the patient is assigned an appointment date before being issued with an appointment note or card to be used for reference in the next visit. For the records clerk to be able to schedule the appointment, the records of patients must be available to retrieve the patient’s details from or enter the patient’s details. The clerk must also have where to state the reason for the appointment and record the appointment date. This can be records book or computer software. The clerk must also be in possession of a card to issue the patient with for use during the next …show more content…
Records clerk spend considerable amount of time flipping through the records to pull out the patients’ details. The use of computer software would make this retrieval faster and help save time. A computerized database would also the receptionist when handling returning patients since their details already exist in the system but would be hard to trace in the paper records. Additionally, patients often lose their clinic cards making it hard to trace their medical history and clinic appointment information faster. Efficiency can be improved by digitalization, most preferably taking the patients’ biometric