A Field Work for an IT Support for “Patient Reception Desk” of an Outpatient Department

Abstract

　Recently as the introduction of electronic medical recording system, the electronic processing of the complicated work in a hospital is progressing quickly. The introduction of electronic medical recording system will increase the efficiency of almost all hospital work, such as paper chart management, conveyance and various handwritten orders. On the other hand, it is pointed out that the increase in the efficiency will not be expected in the work field where a lot of deviation from the work process in the current electronic medical recording system exist or where the current electronic medical recording system does not assume to handle, i.e. the patient reception of an outpatient department, and that even the work load will increase in such occasions. The purpose of the present study is to derive the design of the effective supporting system which definitely enhances the efficiency of the labor by analyzing workers’ action and thinking process precisely in the work field where the current electronic medical recording system does not cover. As the first step of the purpose, we focused on the “patient reception work” at an outpatient department. We observed and analyzed the actions of the operating workers. As the result, we elucidated a lot of work processes including the implied rules and know-how which the patient receptionists used daily, and some important findings which have been overlooked when designing the support system for receptionist’s task.