Running head: PATIENT ADMITTANCE AND CARE PROCESS FLOWCHART

Patient Admittance and Care Process Flowchart

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Patient Admittance and Care Process Flowchart

Patient admission and discharge is an everyday practice for nurses and other healthcare

providers and any given moment, a patient will pop in the hospital or brought in by an

ambulance or family member and healthcare providers in the emergency as well as other

departments must prepare to admit the client and address the specific healthcare needs for the

patients. While healthcare providers can delay discharge for various reasons, admissions cannot

be delayed as some are urgent and would result in negative impacts if delayed. Ortiga et al.

(2012) indicate that standardizing the admission process improve the health outcomes of the

patients as a swift procedure is followed when patients visit healthcare facilities. While the

admission process seems a simple event, it frequently occurs in the healthcare setting and has

paramount implications on the health outcomes of a patient. The paper provides a summary of a

patient admission and care process flowchart in an outpatient facility.

Patient Admission Flowchart

The admission process is critical but will in most cases vary from one healthcare facility

to another, but the ultimate goal is to allow patients to receive care in the right time when they

visit a healthcare facility. The figure below presents a patient admission flowchart outlining all

important steps in the process.

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Patient Arrival

Admit Patient by entering

important information on
the computer system
Diagnosis
Patient Examination
Treatment
Complimentary services

Patient Care

Patient education Manage Patient Medical

Counseling Records
Patient Discharge

Discharge Information
Medication dispensation
Health Outcome Evaluation
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Patient Arrival

Patients who seek healthcare services in the facility may self-admit or be admitted by

other people at different capacities. When visiting the facility for a follow-up, the patient or

family may be fully responsible for the admission of the patient. Other than the patients and their

respective family members, the hospital employees and specifically ambulatory nurses and

healthcare providers stationed at the hospital’s ambulances (Handy, 2016). The healthcare

professionals step in in cases of emergencies and when the patient is unable to visit the facility

personally. In this step, there is no specific technology use, but patients or the individual who has

brought in the patient must provide the most basic information to the admitting officer before the

patient is processed for treatment.

Patient Admission

Most healthcare facilities do not deny patients admissions as long as the relevant

information is provided to the admitting officer. Since the admission process is a time-

consuming process as indicated by Spiva and Johnson (2012), many healthcare professionals are

employed to perform the work of patient admission among other functions. Mostly, nurses are

the ones involved in patient admission as they can listen to the patients and make critical

information compilation before admission. The admission and discharge nurse carries out all the

admission process and with computer training knowledge (Handy, 2016). The nurse directly

enters the patient information in a computer system. The information is directly transferred to the

patient electronic record system which allows the attending physician to preview patient

information before the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. The hospital policy on admission is

to receive the patient, family, or caregiver in the system in a welcoming, secure, safe, and

comfortable manner. Additionally, the admitting nurse should obtain all key information to
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process the patient admission and accompany them with the appropriate order called or sent to

the appropriate unit.

Patient Care

While the admission process has been identified as crucial in healthcare, the care process

is the next important step in the process which allows healthcare providers to deliver care that the

patients seek. The patient care step involves multiple healthcare professionals including nurses,

physicians, surgical officers, and doctors. The number and type of healthcare professionals in a

patient care process depend on the current healthcare needs. During the process, several practices

including diagnosis, patient examination, treatment, and other complementary services (Cooley

& Lee, 2018). Depending on the issue identified and the treatment provided, a patient’s

physician will provide the patient with counseling and educate the patient on specific areas of

concern. Many technological tools may be used in this step including X-rays, MRIs, and other

types of imaging. For the execution of this step, patient health information both current and past

and family history are important information that helps in the execution of this step. Mostly, the

whole care process will be executed in specific areas such as the surgical rooms, consultation

rooms, and other areas.

Patient Discharge

After the patient is admitted and care is provided, depending on the status of the patient,

one will be discharged to go home or in another hospital with specialized care for the condition

that the patient has been diagnosed with. A patient’s specific care provider or physician is

primarily responsible for discharging their patients depending on the currents status of the patient

after the patient care step. As pointed out by Handy (2015) and Ortiga et al. (2012), discharge is
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an important stage that streams from admission through treatment, to discharge and outcome

evaluation.

Discharging a patient depends on two factors – the treatment approach has been

successful, and the issue has been addressed, or the issue is too specific and requires specialized

care facilities to be addressed. For either, a patient’s physician is responsible for the management

of patient health records which are stored in an electronic health record system for storage or

sharing with the specialized care provider in another healthcare facility. If the discharge is to the

patient’s home, then the physician provides the patient with discharge information relevant for

complete treatment and dispenses medication through the pharmacist. The medication order is

filled by the physician and sent to the pharmacist who then provides the medications to the

patient with directions of use.

Health Outcome Evaluation

In all care processes, healthcare providers must assess the effectiveness of the treatment

process to ensure the wellbeing of the patients. While this is not part of routine care process, it is

essential and always performed during a follow-up step which requires the patient to present any

information related to the services received including any side effects, ineffectiveness, any

further complaints, and general health status after the process. In this step, the patient’s physician

is the primary healthcare provider involved in the process. During the process, the electronic

health record for the patient is updated and all pertinent information recorded for future

reference.
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Metrics for Measuring Workflow Soundness

Time is an important metric used to measure the soundness of the workflow. Having

worked on most of the problems in the facility, it is always clear on the protocol for admission

and care process which usually, without any distraction result to almost same time consumption.

Average or near average time consumption indicates that the whole process involving the

workflow is effective with longer times, as well as shorter times than usual, being indications of

ineffectiveness. Always, the department manager monitors such to ensure that patient receive

quality care and that healthcare provider are exhaustive in care delivery and do not waste time at

the expense of the patients and hospital resources.

Areas of Improvement

While the organization clearly outlines the list of healthcare professionals who would

admit patients in the hospital, there is always confusion when the hospital is busy or when there

is a low inflow of patients as they are no strict definition of who specifically makes this

admission. Ortiga et al. (2012) indicate that having a clear job description for healthcare

providers and especially those in the admission of patients is critical in eliminating data overlaps

and confusions. This aspect presents a weakness which would be addressed through a policy

changed aimed at clearing the role of the patient admission to specific healthcare professionals

trained to do this job with minimal challenges. The change would eliminate confusion, double

entry of data, and time wastage thereby enhancing healthcare delivery.

Conclusion

Patient admission and care processes are time-consuming yet important in determining

the quality and safety of healthcare services provided to the patients. While there is no

aggregable guideline to patient admission and care process, there is a need to standardize such
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processes to improve performance by eliminating barriers to quality care. Having a clear

understanding of the workflow process is however of great importance is helps guide healthcare

providers on the best approaches to addressing issues of admission and care in the facility.
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References

Cooley, J., & Lee, J. (2018). Implementing the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process at a Public

Pharmacy School. American journal of pharmaceutical education, 82(2), 6301.

Handy, K. (2016). The Admission and Discharge Nurse Role: A Quality Initiative to Optimize

Unit Utilization, Patient Satisfaction, and Nurse Perceptions of Collaboration (Doctoral

dissertation, Capella University).

Ortiga, B., Salazar, A., Jovell, A., Escarrabill, J., Marca, G., & Corbella, X. (2012).

Standardizing admission and discharge processes to improve patient flow: a cross

sectional study. BMC health services research, 12(1), 180.

Spiva, L., & Johnson, D. (2012). Improving nursing satisfaction and quality through the creation

of admission and discharge nurse team. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 27(1), 89-93.