Access Feedback: ‘Name game’ debate draws more response
May 1, 2002 3 minutes read
Access Feedback: Name game’ debate draws more response
Readers continue to call and e-mail Hospital Access Management regarding the discussion of whether "access services" is a meaningful and appropriate name for the department that, among other things, admits and registers patients. So far, the majority of respondents have said they prefer the traditional "admitting" or "registration" designations.
To a great extent, points of view seem to depend on whether the respondent is affiliated with a relatively small access services (or admitting/registration) department, or a large department that may include areas not strictly related to the admitting function.
For example, Barbara Wegner, CHAM, regional director of access services for Providence Health System in Portland, OR, points out that in the case of her organization, access services encompasses several departments, all of which have to do with how patients get in, out, and through the hospital or health system.
"I have responsibility for guest housing, transportation, communication, scheduling, insurance verification and pre-authorization, information desks, and international services, as well as all admitting and registration," Wegner says. "As you can see, the name access services’ fits perfectly. All these departments fall under the jurisdiction of access services, but they are not admitting.’"
The employees in those areas feel good about being a part of access services, she adds, but most do not identify with admitting or registration. In the case of her health system, Wegner suggests, "admitting is called admitting," but it would be ludicrous to have all the areas that fall under access services be part of admitting.
"I do not hear any negative comments about the name access services,’ she notes. "Sometimes people are not quite sure what it means, and it requires some explanation."
Eliminating the term "access services," Wegner contends, would be a step backward for the field.
Doris Dickey, CPAM, business services manager at Rochelle (IL) Community Hospital, says she gave up on establishing the name "access services" at her facility — a 50-bed hospital with about 30,000 registrations and admissions a year — more than six months ago. "We still call ourselves admitting/registration,’ as does everyone who interacts with us.
"Yes, the emergency room is now the emergency department," Dickey adds, "and medical records is pretty consistently called hospital information management, but admitting is still admitting."
Other readers, meanwhile, added their votes to the admitting/registration column, including Denise Leapaldt, admissions supervisor for Jamestown (ND) Hospital, a 56-bed facility.
"Like other facilities, the bulk of our patient load is Medicare-aged," Leapaldt adds. "The word access’ is foreign to most of them, and they would have no idea why we were interviewing them."
Leapaldt says she personally has never been fond of "the access handle" for her department. "It is cold-sounding, confusing, and doesn’t explain our purpose to the general public," she says. "After all, [registering the patient] is what we do. Why create more confusion than there already is? We’ll leave that to Medicare."
Scott Buckley, CHAM, director of business services at St. Nicholas Hospital in Sheboygan, WI, agrees. "Registration is more recognized and more descriptive than access,’" he says. "Change it back."
[Editor’s note: Please share your feedback on the issues addressed here, or on any topic related to patient access management, by contacting Lila Moore at (520) 299-8730 or [email protected].]
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