Thursday, January 30, 2014

Informative Facts (Notes from Tuesday, January 28th)

Informative Facts: 
  • A pathogen is a disease or infection. 
  • Infectious diseases have a variety of ways of occurring. Extra Note: To learn more about infectious diseases (pathogens) and how they may spread, >>check this out.<< It is a site leading to that of South Australia's health topics but they can be good examples.
  • Code blue is a code used in the hospital to call for the emergency team and the trauma/emergency physician. It is a top priority duty and any other assignments you were working with at the time must be properly and safely set aside before going to assist the doctor--remember to do so quickly. As an author on this site, what I mean by properly and safely is the following: Remember HIPAA? If you're working with a patient's information in any form, don't leave their information out in the open and let others see it. If you're in an office setting, within a vicinity that deals with code blue, make sure that anyone in the office with you is to step outside while you're gone. 
  • Code red is a code that deals with a fire situation.
  • There are a few differences between the psychologist and the psychiatrist. A vital difference is that a psychiatrist can prescribe medications to a patient whereas a psychologist cannot.
  • OSHA: AKA Occupational Safety & Health Administration; They are the administration that protect medical assistants. Note: If you desire to learn more about OSHA, here's their >>site.<<
  • STAT is a term that requires you to do something immediately.
Scope of Practice: 
  • Remember to refer to the handout entitled "What Medical Assistants Can and Cannot Do" -- If you do not have it, do not worry, there were not enough copies. By Monday (February 3rd, 2014) there should be a tab that allows you to see pages to the document.
  • S.O.A.P. is going to be appearing in our field quite often. This is the acronym for: Subjective Objective Assessment Plan. Medical Assistants are only responsible for the subjective and objective portions. Refer to the handout titled "Daily Progress Notes: SOAP Note Format" for all the information you should remember.
  • Remember that when you refer to a well visit it is referring to your regular physical type of visit. When referring to an office visit the patient is coming in because they are sick.

Welcome to the blog everyone!

Here you will find class notes and other nifty things that will help us all out. You can use your gmail account to sign in and ask a question as a comment under a post. The site is now up to date and will be running smoothly over the course of this module. Any helpful links will also be posted every now and then. Here are some interesting videos to keep the juices flowing:


Here is someone video logging (AKA vlogging) and discussing in an entertaining manner about health care problems in the United States:


New Patient Rights under HIPAA (informational for all):

This here is the HIPAA parody of "Our Lips Are Sealed" -- Try spotting what violations are being committed:

For the sake of a skit in between things (HIPAA related):