Scientific Research and Essays

  • Abbreviation: Sci. Res. Essays
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1992-2248
  • DOI: 10.5897/SRE
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 2768

Full Length Research Paper

Reducing the charging errors in an hospital emergency department: A PDCA approach

Frank, F. C. Pan1*and Shu-Jyuan Chou2
1Healthcare Business Administration, Tajen University, Pingtung, Taiwan. 2Graduate Institute of Leisure Business Management, Tajen University, Pingtung,Taiwan.
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 30 December 2010
  •  Published: 18 January 2011

Abstract

Modern hospitals are highly computerized in managing the routine and operational documentary procedures. One of the best practices in managing with acomputerized system was the materials used in a hospital. One of the benefits the computer system may provide to the hospital was to save labor force. Some problems occurred in the emergency department because the healthcare staff failed to communicate with the system properly. This have had adverse effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of the hospital’s operation due to incorrect information the computer produced. This project is designed to solve the problem by reducing the charging errors by adopting a PDCA cycle. The project had achieved both tangible and intangible improvements. We have discussed the research findings and compared this with previous studies. Several recommendations were provided for the hospital management and the public policy decision makers.

 

Key words: Hospital, charging error, emergency department, PDCA, revenue leakage.