All That You Want To Know About Healthcare Records Management

Each and every hospital needs to keep a comprehensive record of every single patient coming there for treatment. From the time that the patient sets foot in the hospital, to the time that he is discharged, there are records substantiating every step of their treatment. These records are the prescriptions, the X-Rays, other reports such as CT scans, Electro Cardio-grams (ECGs) and bills.

Healthcare records management has been made compulsory by law. However, of recent, these records are becoming digitized. Technology has simplified this process to large limits as these records are now kept in digital forms. Also owing to the large number of patients and volumes of such records, it makes it all the more necessary to digitize this data so that sorting through data, drawing up precedents or making changes in a previous prescription is easier. A number of courts have also stipulated that by the end of 2014, all records of patients that have till now existed on paper need to be converted to complete electronic records. A healthcare records management system will help you follow all the guidelines issued by the law regarding storage of records.

Tha latest advancements in technology have allowed the hospitals to digitize records simultaneously when they are created. But a good healthcare records management system is extremely important for the regular upkeep of the older records and their conversion to digital form.

What does health care records management consist ofWhat is health care records management all about?

There are companies that carry out health care records management. They pick up the paper records from your hospital or health care provider and convert them to digital media. A repository of all the data present in the documents is made through scanning and different formats are used to store this data that varies from a simple X-Ray report to an ultrasound video to the highly sophisticated surgery videos. Document data in this case means prescriptions, x-rays or anything else that has to be scanned to be saved on a computer.

When all this task is done, the healthcare records management service providers delivers the records in both forms to the hospitals.

Advantages of using healthcare records management system

There are several advantages of using a healthcare records management system like.

1. You can easily scan through the hospital records to find information about nay patient or his illness. Since it is an electronic database, any criteria can be used to sort through it and get to the relevant data.
   
   
2. The information in digital form is secured from any unauthorized access and use.
   
   
3. In case the hospital wants to transfer the case to some other specialized hospital, all the records can be easily transferred avoiding any delays.
   
   
4. Keeping it digitized doesn’t cause hold ups in generation of bills and other necessary items. It saves time and cost!
   
   
5. It is easier to access data across sectors. Data across public services organizations, healthcare records services and human services organizations can be mapped to check for any possible mass spread of disease. This helps them to formulate health care plans keeping in mind their specific needs.
   
   
6. Your laboratory tests will come straight to the hospital via email, and will reduce your effort in doing the same.
   
   

What should I look for in a healthcare records management services providers?

If you don’t know where to ask about this, the ideal thing to do is to Google your requirement. Just type in “HealthCare records management” and you will get the list of all the major service providers. You can visit their individual websites and get into touch with them either through phone or e-mail. Most of the information is available online. Ask the selected service provider to disclose their privacy and security policies along with the charges. Also check if the service provider provides database management service or not.

A healthcare records management system is just the system that you need to manage your hospital efficiently. There is just the initial cost of converting previous data that is on paper to electronic data. The new records get stored directly into the database. It helps you integrate data across various platforms that are used to store data. For example, a healthcare provider can have providers in various parts of the country. This data can be easily integrated into a central database with the help of a central platform. It would be much easier to study trends and figures from such a centralized database. There is a lot of technology around that can be leveraged for this purpose.

Last but not the least; it makes data compilation, processing and usage simpler than past practices. Along with this, it also ensures that you are being given the timely treatment and fixes the responsibility of the treating staff

What Should I Know About Electronic Discovery Services?

Electronic discovery services or e-discovery services are the method of choice today to deal with electrically stored information. The most important reason of the popularity of e- discovery services is the online availability. With more and more going online today, it is surely the best way to access information. This in turn is increasing their online footprint. Online footprint can be described as anything from your emails, blogs, videos, YouTube uploads to Facebook posts. All this contributes to electronically stored information.

To sum it up, we can say that a company has your electronically stored data if it has,

1. Your name,
2. Address,
3. Your current designation in your company,
4. Your past performance ratings,
5. Current designation,
6. Job description,
7. Information on hobbies, like and dislikes etc.

The user group of Electronic discovery consists of litigation firms, attorneys and lawyers.

Are there any sub-parts to electronic discovery services?

Electronicdiscovery services include several important parts. Read on to know more about them and have a better understanding:

1. Data processing
   1. The data present in the form of online blogs, audios, videos and texts. All this data needs to be processed at a high speed and thus the electronic discovery services should have relevant technology.
   2. Even the relevant documents are also scrutinized and are sorted out later under data processing.
   3. A sound electronic delivery system should be able to manage all these tasks efficiently.
2. Data collection and data preservation
   1. Access to electronically stored data becomes important when you are about to start a litigation. Such data is thus electronically stores and is called data preservation to give your case a sure shot advantage as you already know the parties you are going to deal with.
   2. Data collection also entails data identification. The staff at the electronic discovery service provider is expert in scrutinizing the relevant data from a vast data pool.
3. Data analysis and filtering
   1. Identification of data is followed by its careful analysis. Preliminary analysis of relevant data might reveal some interesting facts.
   2. After the preliminary analysis of the data is completed, a further and in depth analysis is required to extract maximum information from the available data keeping in mind the purpose of the litigation.

Why should I use electronic discovery services, when my staff can do the same work?

There is a simple reply to this; it saves cost to the company! All the steps involved in the whole process right from the collection, identification, preservation and analysis are more or less done online. This is surely better than sending your staff to personally visit the location and collect information manually who may face resistance in people divulging their personal information to a stranger.

Electronicdiscovery services are only just catching up and like with anything new it takes time to gain confidence of the people around. More and more people are getting to know of the advantages of taking electronic discovery services. It is not hacking in to any system or database. This is not so, as it is almost like making a request and court intervention can be made to collect this data if such request is denied.

How do I find the best vendor for electronic discovery services?

You can go through any of the following suggested ways to find the best electronic discovery provider:

1. Google electronic discovery services. The easiest and the best way to find a good electronic discovery provider is surely the internet and you can get a list of almost all the service providers in a few seconds.
2. The second best way is to ask around. Even your litigation firm can suggest some good service provider. Then check out their services either by visiting them or asking for more opinions around.
3. You need to perform extreme caution in deciding the final service provider and if you can keep following some points in mind, you won’t have too much of difficulty:
   1. Check for the credentials of the electronic discovery service provider and look for some previous clients and references. However, you may find it a bit difficult as people are usually discrete about these services. Even in this case, you can assure them to keep their references confidential and try to get a reference.
   2. Evaluate the service providers based on the amount of time that they spend with you. As a client you have every right to know the source of their information.
   3. Draw up a contract with the electronic discovery services provider clearly stating confidentiality clause and ownership of data clause. Towards the end of the litigation, all data used for the case and also that considered irrelevant should reside with you.
      
      

In the current environment of technology beating any and every evidence, electronic discovery services can just be the things that you need in order to turn the tides in your favor.

Government Budgeting – How It Works

Budget word has been taken from the French word 'Budgette', that signifies 'wallet' or 'Leather bag'.A government budget is to be passed at two stages, first by legislature and then approval should be taken by the president or chief executive and all this is to be done because it is a legal document. This document shows Government’s revenue and expenditure incurred during the financial year, 1st April to 31st March.

The financial performance of the government can be traced in the document and hence it is one of the most vital document. The plan of the government with respect to finances is also presented in the document. People of India, ranging from a common man to the one’s having seat In Parliament wait for the budget to be presented because of the following reasons:

1. It gives crystal clear information about the Government’s performance over the past financial year.
2. It helps you determine financial policies and programs of Government for the next financial year.
3. To assess how the standard of living will be affected by Government budgeting for the next whole financial year.
   
   
   
   
   

Government budgeting is done at all levels, central, state or local. The decisions are taken on behalf of people through civil bodies. The other basis on which government budgeting is done are social, economical, political and regional. The other factors on which the budgeting depends are the monetary policies, fiscal policies, trade policies etc. The main intention behind preparing a budget is to the raise the revenue earned than the expenditure in a fiscal year.

In words of Mary Landrieu, a government budget should reflect the values and priorities of a nation and its people. The facts of the budgeting of UK government are stated below

1. The UK fiscal year ends on March 31 of following calendar years. Thus, UK budget for fiscal or financial year 2012 would cover period from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013.
2. A month before the fiscal year starts the budget is presented in UK i.e. in march. Government decided on the proportions by summers.
3. The prime minister has a complete control over the sessions of the parliament and hence as a result quick action on the budget is taken.
4. Each department submits their individual funding request. This request is termed ‘Main Supply Estimates to HM Treasury. Then the consolidation of data takes places after which it is released under the following name, ‘Central Government Supply Estimates: Main Supply Estimates’.
5. The UK Government hold back the right to put forward ‘Supplementary Estimates’ in spring and winters of the fiscal years so that the agencies can be updated about the total spending of the current year. In addition to ‘Supplementary Estimates’, agencies also need to submit ‘Estimate Memorandum’ to the oversight committee justifying and describing the changes.

Government budgeting and its components

Rene Storum rightly defined budget as a document that contains introduction approved plan of public expenditures and revenues. According to Rene Storum, "A budget is a document containing a preliminary approved plan of public revenues and expenditure”.

The two components of Government budgeting are:

1. Revenue budget: Revenue Budget - The financial statement compiles together all the revenue receipts. It is the revenue collected by the means of receipts and taxes.

• Revenue receipts: This is earned by Government from all possible sources in the course of governance. There is no decrease in the assets and these receipts are free from liabilities. These can be classified as follows:

1. Tax revenues: This income is collected from various taxes and duties. This forms the major part of public revenue. There are 2 different types of taxes: Direct taxes which include estate duty, corporation tax, property tax and income tax and indirect taxes include excise duty, custom duties, sales tax and service tax
2. Non-Tax revenues: The government also collect revenue from several other non tax sources. Some of them are fines and penalties, fees, profit from public enterprises, grants and gifts.

• Revenue expenditure: Revenue expenditure is the sum-total of expenses incurred on normal day-to-day expenses. This includes both non-developmental and developmental expenditures by Central Government.

1. Capital Budget: This portion of budget includes expenditure and receipts on the capital account that is projected for the coming financial year. Capital expenditure and capital revenue are parts of the capital budget.

• Capital Receipts: These receipts results in reduction of assets or create liability. They are generated by raising funds via borrowings, disposition of assets and loan recovery. Capital receipts are Government borrowings through sale of securities and bonds, RBI and various other financial institutions.
• Capital Expenditure: The expenses which are incurred in order to buy assets which has long life are termed as capital expenditure. Expenditure on machine, oil exploration, land, equipment and irrigation projects.