Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Health Care Processes and Decision Making
Lecture:Making a diagnosis
Choosing therapy
Communicating the plan
The impact of EHRs and technology on clinical decision-making
Slide content:Who Is the Audience? What Is the Message for Each? Patient Family, friends, the public Clinical staffnurses, lab staff, x-ray, therapists, pharmacists, dietician Yourselfnow and later Colleagues Consultants Insurance companies Lawyers (plaintiff and defendant) Compliance officers, regulators Researchers, data miners Performance measures 6
Slide notes:The audience for these messages will include people and entities that play a role in the patients care. The patient, of course, needs to receive this information, but also on occasion family, friends, or even the public need to be informed. Physicians and other clinical staff may be involved, including nurses, laboratory technicians, and therapists who treat the patient. The clinician is part of this process in terms of keeping notes for his or her own future actions and communicating with colleagues and consultants when a diagnosis is uncertain or a referral is needed. One or more insurance companies will also need some information in order to provide payment or, in some cases, to authorize services or review services not normally covered by the insurance plan. Theres also the possibilityalthough we hope its never realizedthat attorneys may need to review the patients record for information to support their client in the event of a conflict. A variety of governmental and professional regulatory agencies have an interest in making sure the health care system is functioning and health care professionals are acting appropriately. In addition to these entities, researchers may use the information in the clinical record for data mining and for performance measures in quality improvement. The patient record created by the clinician therefore will be used by a diverse set of audiences, each with a different focus and different goals. The next question is to determine the appropriate message for each of these audiences. 6