A caller says her husband has crushing chest pain and is sweating heavily. What should the medical assistant do?
- Offer the first open appointment today
- Take a message for a callback within the hour
- Put her on hold and look for the provider
- Tell her to hang up and call 911 right away
Show the answer
D. Tell her to hang up and call 911 right away
Chest pain with sweating is a possible heart attack and needs emergency medical services, not an office visit. The office follows its emergency telephone protocol and never places such a caller on hold.
Reference: Telephone triage: emergency calls
Scheduling two patients in the same appointment slot with the same provider is called:
- Double booking
- Open hours
- Cluster scheduling
- Wave scheduling
Show the answer
A. Double booking
Double booking puts two patients in one time slot. Wave scheduling books several patients at the start of each hour to be seen in arrival order, and cluster scheduling groups similar visits together.
Reference: Appointment scheduling methods
How is an error corrected in a paper medical record?
- Black it out completely so it cannot be misread later
- Remove the page and rewrite the whole entry on a new page
- Draw one line through it, write the correction, then date and initial it
- Cover it with correction fluid and write the correct entry on top
Show the answer
C. Draw one line through it, write the correction, then date and initial it
The original entry must stay readable, so a single line is drawn through it and the correction is added with the date and the writer's initials. Erasing or covering an entry looks like tampering.
Reference: Medical records: correcting documentation