Case Study #1: Clerical Documentation

Rose, a newly hired office worker, was brought on board to busy medical office, to process patient information.  Feeling overwhelmed at the workload, she felt herself falling further behind in her tasks, but was still determined not to ask for help in order to not appear inept at her job.  She decided she needed to prioritize her tasks, but found herself frustrated at the constant interruptions from other staff members, and patients assigned to her for processing.  While recording information from a particularly curt and agitated patient, she realized she had documented in the wrong area.  She decided to make the corrections after the patient left in order to give herself some time to cover up the error.

After the patient had been directed to have a seat in the waiting area, she quickly grabbed the White Out and began to cover over her mistakes.  After transferring the information into the correct area, she wrote a comment next to errors to indicate she was sorry for the mess up, along with a sad face character.  Later during her shift, the nurse manager came storming through the office obviously very angry, and yelling “Who was the idiot who tried to cover up their mistakes with white out!”  Rose, feeling very frightened and embarrassed at her public chastisement, admitted that it was she who had made the corrections to the documents using the White Out.  The nurse manager then shouted in retaliation, “Don’t you know this is illegal” Don’t you ever do that again or you’re fired!”

What should Rose have done to prevent the chain of events initially?
Instead of using the White Out, what should Rose have done instead with the documents?
What is the proper procedure for maintaining medical records?
Should Rose report the nurse manager’s abusive behavior?
Should Rose be fired for the infraction?  Why or why not?
*This assignment must be a MINIMUM of 500 words (Word Count Will Be Checked). It must follow the APA Format and be double spaced, using Times New Roman 12” Font. It must have a minimum of 1 resource from a credible source, cited in APA Format. Wikipedia is not a credible source! DO NOT USE IT! Sloppy or poorly written papers will not meet the requirements of ”Superior Work” resulting in an “A” paper as per the grading rubric in the syllabus.