Health Care Reporting Worksheet

Provide responses to the following questions, based on your readings and class discussions, in 100–200 words each.

Describe the difference between internal and external reports. What functions might an organization’s internal reports serve? What functions might its external reports serve?

Internal and External reports both differ in different ways. An Internal report is a report that is generated for internal use only. Internal reports will contain sensitive information. These reports are to be kept protected and cannot be released or shared with the public. On the other hand, an external report is a report that is generated for the public. This report will not contain patient sensitive information. Instead, it will have only general information. Within an organization an internal report will allow a new action plan to be put into place.

Based on the information in the report, new treatment plans may be needed, follow up with patients may need to be faster, and patient education may need to be improved. An internal report can allow an organization to see what is working and what should be changed. External reports have information that will help the public. For example, an external report could be a report on sexually transmitted diseases in your area compiled by the CDC for the last year. This report contains the diseases, new case numbers, and comparison to the previous year. This report will allow the population to be aware of what is going on in their population and allow them to protect themselves.

How might reports empower an organization?
Organizations benefit from reports in many different ways. There are several reports that are ran for specific time periods. One report that can benefit an organization is a financial report. By paying attention to the profits, costs, and losses an organization can adjust their operation to help make it rum more cost efficiently. This report alone can help empower an organization. Othe reports can help empower an organization based on services provided. Organizations should know which specific services are more utilized than others. This allows an organization to be aware of exactly who they are servicing and the services that are needed most.

What considerations might you make when sharing reported information with the following parties?

Supervisors: When sharing a report with a supervisor you should make certain considerations. Supervisors are extremely busy so I think it would be helpful to point out the important things in the report. Based on the reason for running the report, things that are irrelevant should be omitted so that the supervisor can view only the important information that is needed. Since the report is being shared with a supervisor, it is an internal report and it can contain personal data.

Peers: When sharing information with your co-workers you want to make sure that the information pertains to their job duties. Although the report will be an internal report, if the report does not contain to that coworkers particular job duties then there is no need to share the information. However, if the coworker needs to view the report for their job then it is okay to share the report.

The public: When sharing reports with the public, it is extremely important that the report is an external report. Any personal information such as patient’s addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers, and health information must be omitted from the report. The report also cannot contain any names of patients as well.