U.S. Health Care Systems for Small Populations, Part 6

Running head: U.S HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS 1

U.S HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS 8

U.S. Health Care Systems for Small Populations 3

Kianna James
University of Phoenix
MHA/599
04/26//2021
Professor Jackie Lucas

U.S. Health Care Systems for Small Populations

Various factors such as the target population, size of the healthcare facility, and the target department are considered when designing the health care system. In this case, the target population is small, and the systems for every process should be simple, flexible, and more efficient than those intended to target high populations. The workflow diagram presents logical steps that users can use to navigate the system and interact with it when seeking different services. This activity focuses on the three processes, including patient check-in-out, billing, and patients’ visit in healthcare facilities targeting small populations.

A workflow diagram explaining Patient check-in and check-out process

Patients visits the healthcare facility and expect to be checked in before receiving services and checked out upon clearance from the facility. This steps involved in this process are as follows:
A. Check in- at this step, patients’ details are keyed into the system to authenticate them before validating their treatment.
B. Before authentication, the patients’ details are unlocked to allow the database administrator to verify them from their databases and the state government’s site.
C. When checking out, the same details are presented to the database admin who then integrates them to other healthcare facility’s systems to check whether the patient is approved for checking out or not. One key aspect that is checked at this point is clearance from the billing department and completion of treatment process from the office discharge department.
D. The last step of checking out allows the patient to be discharged from the facility.
Some key features that make this system appropriate for small facilities include its simplicity, integration and coordination, and innovations (Mühlbacher et al., 2013). The patients do not have to spend much time queuing to be checked out upon clearance from the healthcare facility.

Figure 1: Patients check-in-out workflow diagram

A workflow diagram explaining Patient visits process

Patients must not seek healthcare facility’s physical admission especially if they are seeking routine checks. Figure 2 presents the processes that a patient and the facility can use for such admissions as follows:
A. Checking documents
B. Waiting for approval from the physician
C. Conducting additional examination
D. Checking the details with the admitting department
E. Coordinating with the house department
F. Leaving the ED
This system is simple and serves universal coverage as it does not limit its service to patients from one region. The integration of this system to others also indicates the patients’ visit process system (Hicks, 2020). Despite limitations such as delays in the waiting process, particularly when the patients’ details are keyed for the first time, this systems’ advantages outdo the limitations.

Figure 2: Workflow diagram for patients’ visit process

A workflow diagram explaining Billing process

The billing process is one of the challenging ones in any organization. Therefore, the system below is sophisticated in the following ways: Firstly, the system is integrated with all other departments as patients should prove that they are cleared in each of them to be allowed to leave. Secondly, some patients may be allowed to undergo treatment before paying for services, implying that there would be a need to backtrack the entire system before discharging them. The patients’ payment should also be recorded in the database for future references, especially when linking them with the insurance companies (Berg et al., 2019). However, despite being sophisticated, the system serves all purposes in a small facility. Its data may not be an issue to the facility as it would process and retrieve the details efficiently.

Figure 3: Workflow diagram for Billing Process

Conclusion

In conclusion, these workflow diagrams present logical steps that users can use to navigate the system and interact with it when seeking different services. The systems showcase simplicity, universal coverage, and resilience enough to serve a small facility. Despite some limitations, the three systems prove to be efficient for both patients and the facility. For instance, they address the queuing issue that would take much time and lead to ineffective service delivery.

References
Berg, K., Doktorchik, C., Quan, H., & Saini, V. (2019). Meaningful information in the age of big data: A scoping review on social determinants of health data collection for electronic health records. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.2.16433/v1

Hicks, L. (2020). Economics of health and medical care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Mühlbacher, A. C., Bethge, S., & Schulman, K. A. (2013). Patient-centered health care delivery systems: A framework. International Journal of Integrated Care, 13(5). https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.1274