Choose one of the following scenarios, and produce the requested documents for one scenario only.

Assignment Description

Choose one of the following scenarios, and produce the requested documents for one scenario only. Each scenario asks you to prepare a range of documents. Students are responsible for determining the appropriate genre (email, memo, business letter, etc.) as well as the content of those documents.

For this project, you will…

• practice writing various forms of business correspondence and documents (i.e., email, letters, memos)
• address purpose and audience in business correspondence
• practice selecting the appropriate correspondence genre (i.e., email, letters, memos) for a specific rhetorical situation
• develop a professional writing style, paying particular attention to concision, paragraph construction, and tone

Please follow instructions and read rubric carefully

Scenario 1
As the Nursing Home Administrator (NHA) at Shady Palms Assisted Living Community in Coral Gables, Florida, you oversee staff and compliance issues, among many other duties.

After lunch on May 6th, Ruby Fenton, age 78, fell as she was leaving the bathroom of her apartment. She was assisted by CNA Matt Connor, who was helping prepare her for a nap. Following an examination, Dr. Marta Orr, the doctor on call that day, determined that Ruby’s injuries were not serious, but recommended follow-up care with a wound specialist for an abrasion on Ruby’s right foot owing to concerns about complications due to diabetes.

Facility policy dictated that family members should be contacted by staff immediately after an incident involving a patient. Matt called Ruby’s daughter Linda at her home number, and, when she did not answer, left a voicemail telling Ms. Fenton what happened and what Dr. Orr recommended. When Ms. Fenton received the message she was incensed. She contacted the facility immediately demanding to know why Matt left a voicemail instead of contacting her directly. You began investigating the situation immediately.

You learn that Matt violated Shady Palm’s privacy policies when he left a telephone message that detailed both her medical condition and treatment plan. Your investigation also indicated that Health Information Privacy & Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements regarding confidential communications were not followed, because Matt left the message at Linda’s home telephone number despite Ruby’s instructions to reach her daughter at work during business hours.

To resolve the situation, you revised policies regarding how much information could be supplied in a telephone message. Employee training communicated these new minimum information requirements and provided specific directions as to what information could be left in a message. Additionally, employees were trained to review patient registration information regarding contact directives before making calls. The new procedures were incorporated into standard staff privacy training, both as part of a refresher series and mandatory yearly compliance training.

Deliverables

• A document to Linda Fenton, who complained to Florida’s Complaint Administration Unit, which handles complaints about the quality of care received in Florida’s health care facilities
• A document to FL Department of Elder Affairs responding to notification of the facility’s the HIPAA violation
• A document to nursing home staff explaining new procedures and why they are important

Scenario 2
On the morning of September 7th, eight-month-old Rafe Raboud was brought into the Emergency Room (ER) of Magnolia Medical Center (MMC) after he fell off the bed in his parents home and hit his head. Rafe was not bleeding, but he was crying inconsolably. Rafe’s parents, Charmion and Wyatan, called 911 because they were afraid something serious might be wrong internally. An ambulance took the baby and his parents to MMC. En route, an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) called the MMC ER to advise of Rafe’s status and vitals, and a trauma team was mobilized. At the ER, Rafe was examined. Dr. Augy Massie determined that the baby was fine, with only mind contusions on his nose and forehead. During his stay in the ER, Rafe took a nap, drank some formula, and was discharged.

The first you hear of Rafe’s case comes eight months after the baby’s ER visit when you are contacted by the MMC Legal Department. Legal says that they require a full accounting of the Rafe Raboud case, including all personnel, resources, and medical information involved in treatment. They tell you that the Raboud’s are contesting the $19,947 bill they received for care on September 7th, and that, specifically at issue is the $16,777 charge labeled “trauma activation,” also known as a “trauma fee.”

As MMC’s Emergency Department Administrator, you are familiar with the trauma fee. The charge reflects activation of a team of emergency medical professionals that treat patients with potentially serious injuries when they arrive in the ER. The charge is in addition to emergency room physician charges, and procedures, equipment, and facility fees. When EMTs call ahead to notify the ER of incoming patients, the ER staff assesses the severity of patients’ injuries and mobilizes the appropriate team so that no time is wasted when the patient arrives. Trauma centers use the fee to cover the cost of training and maintaining a full staff of doctors, and keeping them on-call so they can respond at all times. The decision whether or how extensively to mobilize a team for Rafa, and the resultant charge, was based on the triage decisions made by EMTs and ER staff as they considered the case of an infant with possible head trauma.

The patient’s parents have contacted the hospital and the media. To deal with the situation, Legal wants a description of events that would have necessitate the trauma fee. Legal has decided to forgive the charge, but, given they high profile nature of the case, they want notification of the decision to come from you personally. This is not the first time billing issues with trauma fees have come across your desk, and reconstructing events is both time-consuming and challenging given the chaotic nature of trauma medicine. As such, you would like to ask the Board of Directors to consider revision of policies regarding trauma fee assessment, to include more specific standards for application of the fee and also increased transparency to consumers regarding trauma fee billing.

Deliverables

• A document to the Legal Department accounting for events necessitating the trauma fee
• A document to the Rabouds advising that MMC will write off the trauma fee
• A document to board of directors asking for changes to trauma fee assessment standards

Scenario 3
You’re the compliance coordinator for a biomedical company, Hadley Services, which provides field service technicians to local hospitals and medical offices. Hadley’s specialty is radiological equipment, particularly open MRIs. Your primary job is to coordinate the schedules for repair, calibration and preventive maintenance for all of your clients. You are also responsible for writing the reports that keep the company in compliance with local and federal guidelines.
Since many medical facilities are starting to replace their outdated MRI machines with the new open MRIs, Hadley has grown considerably in the last 2 years. Hadley has a long-standing relationship with the folks at Hitachi Medical, who manufacture the AIRIS Elite, the most commonly used machine in your market.

In the early afternoon, you get an email from one of Hadley’s newest clients, St. Francis Clinic, which is a brand new clinic of the Alliance Medical Group. When St. Francis opened two months ago, they signed on with Hadley. The St. Francis account meant a lot to Hadley since they had been wooing the Alliance Medical Group for years.

The email is from St. Francis’s clinic administrator, Pat Williams. The technician, Allen Franks, just left after completing a safety check, and now the machine is no longer recording data. You immediately dispatch another, more experienced technician (Marcus Ramirez) to address the problem, and call Ms. Williams. While you’re on the phone with her, Marcus texts you to tell you that problem is solved. You relay the information to Ms. Williams and hang up.
After chatting with both technicians, the problem was a simple. Allen Franks had failed to connect the data port snuggly, which is a rookie technician mistake. Now that everything has settled down, you know you have some additional work to do.

Deliverables

• A document to Pat Williams, the client
• A document to Hadley’s client rep, Ronni Simms, who is responsible for the St. Francis account letting her know of the developments with her clinic
• A document to Allen Franks