Problem
Central Community Hospital hired Susan Davis as the new manager to work in the health information management (HIM) department. One of the first items Susan reviewed was the workflow process for how documents were handled between the intake department and HIM. The intake department is responsible for assuring all documentation needed for a new admission to the hospital is received from the clinic that is admitting the patient. She noticed that the two departments were managing a lot of the same work, which created duplicate documents in the health record. The intake would scan documents and then send them to HIM. HIM would receive the documents and scan them as well. HIM would also copy the documents to send them to the utilization review nurse who is responsible for ensuring that reimbursement authorizations are in place and managed. When Susan asked Intake why they sent the documents to HIM, the answer was "because that's how it has always been done." When thinking about other ways the situation could be handled, Susan came up with the following ideas:
Have Intake scan the documents into the electronic health record (EHR), and then hand the copy to the utilization review nurse, leaving HIM out of the process; or Once Intake is done with the document, instead of scanning it into the EHR, hand it directly to HIM, and continue with the rest of the process.
A. What is the process Susan is examining?
B. What is the step called when Susan introduces the formal process of implementing a new change?
C. What type of analysis would Susan conduct before implementing the change?