Leta works as a Health Records Clerk in an urban, acute care setting. She loves what she does because she enjoys people and likes working with documents and records. In a day, her and her team pick up charts in units and brings them to their offices to process. There is a tight timeline to ensure all the documents that need to be stored are scanned, entered and saved. They check to make sure dates like discharge and admitting are accurate, that the log is complete and then file them based on their digits. They also retrieve and prepare charts for the doctors to ensure the doctors have all the information they need when they see the patients.
They have a lot of work standards to follow, they ensure that there are no missing documents and they use a lot of applications and processes to store and retrieve documents. All this while adhering to the highest level of confidentiality.She was an Admin Assistant in her previous place of employment and has taken a medical terminology class to become a Health Records Clerk. Her next steps are continuing her education to become a Health Information Management Practitioner.
This past year, working through the pandemic has been very challenging. Leta felt that she needed to protect her mom and husband, whom both have health issues. At first, she felt scared when she had to go to the wards to pick up charts, especially wards with outbreaks. What helped Leta was following protocols, focusing on what she needed to do and how she could protect herself and not getting caught up in media. After the first six months, it wasn’t as scary for Leta. She realized that everything in life is taking a risk. She feels safer wearing her mask and will likely still wear her mask in public, for now. Masks protocols are still in effect in her workplace and she finds having a mask provides comfort.
The hardest part for Leta is that she misses her family back in the Philippines. Not visiting her family and travelling has been lonely.
Her workplace has relaxed now and are feeling more at ease. They talked about the pandemic a lot as a group. At the beginning, some were scared. Management offered reassurance, offered protocols and provided PPE as it was available.
Leta and Health Records workers, we can’t thank you enough for everything you did to care for us during a global pandemic. When we think of health care, we realize it takes a whole team, many behind the scenes, to make the system run smoothly. Your diligence to detail and record keeping makes a difference. Thank you!