Fundamentals of Medical Orders

Running head: FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDICAL ORDERS
Fundamentals of Medical Orders
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
FUNDAMENTALS OF MEDICAL ORDERS
Hospital unit clerk (HUC) mainly address inquiries at the main desk of the unit, they
also act as organisational public relations executive while providing efforts to improve the
quality of healthcare. The following reflective essay aims to analyse the roles and the
responsibility of HUC with a special mention to the medical orders transcription and
processing
Within my scope of practice as a HUC, the topic which I found most interesting is
transcribing and processing of medical orders. Apart from finding it interesting, I also found
it extremely curial in healthcare domain. According to Mailman, Betcher and Semchuk
(2017), medication errors are leading cause of mortality and morbidity which again increase
the overall healthcare cost and improper transcription of the medical orders is a major
contributor of medication error. I feel distractions occurring during transcriptions and the
communication problems are main reasons behind medication errors associated with
transcribing and processing of medical orders.
From the content I have understood that it is the role of the HUC to play an active
role transcription, processing and dispensing of medicines. My scope of practice notified me
further that I should be equipped with the required knowledge and skills of the medication
management in order to reduce the chances of medication errors and thereby promoting
safe healthcare practice. Apart from medical order transcription, HUC also has
administrative role. HUC is required to keep a track of medical charts and update it
accordingly. HUC also performs medical assisting like recording temperature, blood pressure
and pulse rate of the patients. The Liaison duties include point of contact of the staff
members of one department when there is a need to transfer important medical
information to another staff member to different medical department. HUC is also required
to perform standard secretarial duties (Kassam, Kwong & Collins, 2013).
From my understanding, it is clear that the role of HUC is diverse however, the role
which I feel is important for uplifting the quality of the healthcare service is proper
transcription of the medical orders in order to reduce the possible chances of medication
errors. Assurance of quality health and safety is the main scope of practice of HUC. of The
process of medication order transcription starts with the transcription of the medical orders,
prescribed by the doctors over official papers chart. After the medication orders are written,
those medication charts are required to be forwarded to the dispensary pharmacist for
further review. The reviewed document will again be reviewed by HUC to iron out errors
and then double checked by the nursing staffs (Tshiamo et al., 2015).
Knowing and working within the scope of practice helps the HUC to provide
invaluable administrative support to the clinics, clinical care units and multidisciplinary
healthcare professionals. HUC scope of practice also constitutes execution of administrative
tasks, answering of the phone call in a timely manner and processing of the physicians order
over phone (Kennedy, 2016). I also feel that proper clerical support coming from the HUC to
the nursing professionals’ further help to regularize the overall process of healthcare and
thereby improving quality in health.
For example, proper transcription of the medical orders by HUC, reduce one part of
job stress from the shoulders of the nursing professionals and at the same time helps to