2016-06-30-AMGH Employee Handbook

PEN POLICY
Alexandra Marine & General Hospital (AMGH) has a Documentation and Writing Instruments
Policy to provide standardized guidelines for written documentation. Written documentation is
scanned electronically and it is essential that scanned versions of documentation are readable.
All employees and physicians of AMGH will adhere to the following guidelines when handwriting
documentation in a healthcare record:
Ink Colour
Only use red, black or dark blue ink when documenting in a patient record
The following must not be used to document in a health record:
Any colour other those listed above
Rainbow colours
Pencils
Fountain pens
Highlighting
If you need to highlight, only use yellow highlighter
Yellow highlighted sections do not show the highlight but the documentation that was
highlighted remains clear
Colours other than a yellow highlighter will black out once scanned and the documentation
that was highlighted will be unreadable
Legibility
Light handwriting does not scan in a readable fashion so users are asked to apply some
pressure when documenting in the patient record, particularly when using a red pen
Ink Stamps
Discard any fading ink stamp and replace with new as faded stamps often do scan in a
readable fashion
PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
The Performance Management Plan is designed to be a year-round partnership between
employees and managers in the planning, coaching, reviewing, and rewarding of job performance.
A performance management plan will be conducted with each employee every one to two years
that allows input from employees about their development and goals.
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