Reference no: EM132211714

The act of decision making and problem-solving is a required ability and strength of a HIM leader/manager. Whether it is the decision regarding staff members, departmental productivity, financial logistics, departmental issues to short-term and long-term projects, the call of action of the HIM leader has the potential to impact the department and organization.

Complaints have come to the department manager regarding timeliness of requests for patient information and a decision must be made.

Three months ago, Community Hospital opened a 24-hour urgent care center 10 miles away in a rapidly growing community. Kent Jones, the health information services manager, took part in the planning that included the use of a combined record and one patient identification number. The decision was made to use electronic sharing of patient records between the facilities; however, at present, it is necessary to fax some portions of the record upon request. In the past month, Kent has received four complaints from the urgent care center that records were not faxed in a timely manner.

There are 26 employees in health information services. Three full-time employees care for record activity during the day, with one employee devoted to record activity during the evening shift, when a team leader and four other employees are usually in the department. During the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, one employee cares for the department and picks up the discharged records from the patient care units. This time away from the department averages 1 hour. Adding additional employees is not an option, since there is a hiring freeze in place.

Kent envisions an increase in the requests for record information as the patient load at the urgent care center increases and realizes the assumption of his management team that this activity could be absorbed without adjusting work schedules was in error.

Prepare to assist Kent in solving this problem.

I. Decision-making process

A. Define the real problem, after awareness of the symptoms

B. Set criteria for making the decision while analyzing available information

C. Generate relevant alternative solutions to the problem

D. Analyze and evaluate these alternatives

E. Select the best alternative for a solution

F. Implement the chosen alternative

G. Monitor and evaluate the decision’s effectiveness