Question: Please review the description of the organization that is the subject of your semester project. The description of that organization, CITY GENERAL HOSPITAL, is described in the instructions for Phase I that you have already completed.

1. This phase will involve performing a records inventory. The organization is far too large to undertake a records inventory for the entire hospital. You will need to make a determination of which three (3) departments or functional areas you will begin with for your records inventory, whether that be (a) in-patient resident service/treatment records department (b) out-patient treatment/service records department, (b) patient insurance, (c) facilities, structures and grounds maintenance (d) Human resources for support staff (e) Contract/Legal Department in charge of medical provider contracts (f) Information technology, (g) Pharmacy, (h) Marketing (i) Accounting - accounts receivable (j) Accounting - Accounts Payable, (k) Continuing Education for Medical Support Staff (L) Janitorial (M) Accounting General (N) Purchasing for surgical equipment and supplies (O) Purchasing for non-surgical equipment and supplies, (P) Food Services, (Q) Security, (R) Payroll for both medical, medical support, and nonmedical support staff, (S) Emergency/Trauma Department, or other departmental units of the organization.

(a) State which of the three major areas or functional areas of the City General Hospital that you intend to focus on for your records inventory.

(b) Identify which of department(s)/areas/units that you will need to survey and subsequently interview, depending on which one of the three functional areas you have decided to focus your attention on.

(c) For the functional area that you have selected you want to be able to speak intelligently to the knowledge personnel within that department and ask appropriate and relevant questions. Therefore, you need to do some preparation and brainstorming before making contact with the departments/units that you have identified as essential. To that end, identify (using diagram, table, hierarchy chart, taxonomy, or other form that is most descriptive) the "record types" that you expect are created and maintained in each of the departments/areas/units that you have decided to focus on. Use descriptive names for each record type and tell the type of information that would be retained in each record type. This can be as specific as creating a taxonomy for the record if you should decide to do so (see Appendix A in your text book), or you may conduct research and determine what other structure would be appropriate in order to convey this information. The most effective way to convey this information to me would be in the form of a table that identifies the Record Type, Responsible Department, and the Event that triggers the creation of each record type. [For example, if we were dealing with a health care provider (WHICH WE ARE NOT, I am only using this unrelated example to give you an idea of what I want you to do), an example of a record type that your doctor's office might keep would be an Insurance Record that would include things like information about the Insurer, information about the patient, information about the insured if different from the patient, information about the plan options and conditions of coverage, information about the insured history of using this insurance in the past and the prior payment record.] [Another example: You will find a record type used on page 172 of your text book to describe a workers' compensation insurance company's accident/injury report as part of its record retention schedule.]

(d) Develop a Records Inventory Survey Form that you are going to use in surveying the departmental unit(s) you have identified above. The purpose for your survey is to be able to identify the kinds of records each department "owns" the records, and which other department(s) access the records, what application(s) create the record, where the record is stored physically and logically, date created, last changed, whether it is a vital record, and whether there are other forms of the record. You want to be able to use this information to make decisions related to retention and disposal of the records.

(e) Explain who will receive the survey you have developed and why the person or persons hold this/these job duties or titles have been identified to complete the survey. The survey will be sent about one month prior to the follow up interviews. This will allow for two (2) weeks to complete and return the survey and two weeks to tabulate and review it, and to tweak your interview questions, depending on the results of the survey.

(f) Explain the rationale for the questions or question types that you included in your survey. That is, why is that question important, or what are you trying to achieve or learn from the question.

(g) Develop an initial set of interview questions that you plan to use as a follow up to the initial survey that you drafted in (d) above.

(h) Based upon the records you have identified above, develop a record retention schedule for the record types. For each, record type explain how long you expect to retain record type, and then once marked for destruction explain the method of destruction used. When you plan to use event-based retention for any of your record types identify the triggering event. For this question, you need to discuss the legal requirements and compliance considerations.

While your research paper will undoubtedly include a number of tables, diagrams, lists and other illustrations, the paper is to be written in narrative form. The illustrations may be included in appendix at the end of the paper, or may imbedded in the body. But please don't forget that the paper itself is written in narrative form. Include citations to your research.

The paper should be written in narrative form using the APA format. Please use ample subsections or subheading as appropriate. Your paper should have a 1-in margin on top, bottom, left and right margins. The paper should be double spaced. Use a cover page with a title, and the name of each team member who contributed to your project/paper. Each page should have a page number in the bottom right margin. The paper should also include a table of contents, which includes subject headings, subheadings or subtopics, references or sources, and illustrations as well as page numbers for each.

For each major area or section of your paper explain identify the options you have considered, where applicable. Discuss the alternatives you considered, giving pros and cons of each, and provide information from the research you conducted that assisted you in arriving at your conclusion as to why one alternative was selected over another. You MUST cite the sources for your research any time you make reference to your research, whether that be through direct quotations or in summary. Your work should include no fewer than five (5) sources. While there is no minimum or maximum length for your paper, I anticipate that you cannot complete the assign in under ten (8) pages, excluding illustrations.

The research paper should be submitted using the link contained in the CONTENT section of iLearn. It will not be accepted via email to me.

Each question or instruction above (a through h) has a different point value. Please make it easier for me to locate and grade each question by identifying which question (a through h) that you are responding to at the beginning of that section of your paper.

Requires 10 pages for submission, by choosing 3 topics mentioned at beginning in point #1.