Real-Life Communication
As a hospital administrator, you deal with written reports every
day. Not only do you have to read and understand them, but you
also have to relate their contents to others.
Recently, the hospital
board passed some new policies that affect the radiology department. The radiology
supervisor is concerned about the changes, since they determine which doctors
can request diagnostic tests.
The supervisor asks you for some clarification
on the issue. You are asked to supply the answers at tomorrow's department
head meeting.
The radiologist has jotted out a few of his questions.
You read them through carefully:
- Do the diagnostic tests now have to be ordered by the patient's physician
or can they still be ordered by other physicians within the hospital?
- Why has this policy been introduced?
- Are there any exceptions to the policy?
You pull out a copy of the new policy. You find the appropriate section:
Changes
for Health-Care Diagnostic Testing
In order to be covered, diagnostic
testing, which includes fields such as radiology, must be ordered by the physician
who treats the patient. The diagnostic tests will not be paid for by health
care if the tests are ordered by someone other than the patient's immediate
doctor.
This policy is an attempt to clarify the existing regulations
specifying that for a diagnostic test to be covered, the service had to be
related to the patient's condition -- illness, injury, symptom, complaint
and then ordered by a physician.
Administration believes that this
clarification would eliminate some unnecessary tests ordered by physicians
who are not the patient's immediate or family doctor.
An exception
is made for X-rays that demonstrate subluxation of the spine that are ordered
by a chiropractor. This is an exception because within the system no payment
can be made to a chiropractor who orders a diagnostic test.
Answer
the questions based on what the policy tells you. Write the answers in everyday
language -- after all, you have to say them out loud at the meeting.