The Patient Care Team

When people think of the "patient care team," they usually envision one subset of healthcare professionals -- doctors, nurses, orderlies, and the folks who are most visibly involved in treating patients.

A second subset (pathologists and laboratory technicians) works to furnish diagnostic data which can help physicians treat the patient.

A third subset is composed of "knowledge workers" (medical transcriptionists, coders, medical record personnel), whose jobs revolve around collecting, processing, and manipulating the data which goes into a patient's medical record.

Unless the work these people do is accurate and performed in a timely manner:

• Physicians will not have the clinical data they need in order to make informed decisions about a patient's treatment plan.

• The quality of patient care can be severely compromised.

• Physicians and the facilities where they work may encounter delays in receiving payment from third-party payers such as government agencies and insurance companies.
  

This section of the “Dictation Therapy for Doctors” introduces you to some of the "silent" members of the patient care team and focuses attention on some of the people skills necessary to survive in the medical workplace.

• The Medical Record Committee

• The Head of the Medical Record Department

• The Head of the Transcription Unit (if one exists in-house)

• The Medical Transcriptionist

• Clerical Staff in the Medical Record Department

• Technical Support Staff

Next: Medical Record Committee

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