Elaine Is the Office Manager for a Small Medical Center

Elaine is the office manager for a small medical center with five doctors, a dozen nurses, and twenty-five miscellaneous staff, including reception and clerical staff. Because of past difficulty in getting the right patients to the doctor with whom that patient has an appointment, she has developed a set of patient intake procedures that all staff will be required to follow. Before she distributes the new procedures, she reminds herself that her various readers may have different perspectives on the new procedures. To clearly understand their perspectives, she plans to do several tasks prior to disseminating the new procedures. While each task is important for understanding the perspectives various readers will bring to the document, she decides that one is so critical that it should be her first consideration. Which of the tasks listed should be Elaine's first consideration?

A) Review what she knows about each reader personally.
B) Ask herself why each reader is on the distribution list for the new procedures.
C) Review the job descriptions for each reader in order to understand what their responsibilities will be based on the new procedures.
D) Ask herself what situations, that is, problems with previous intakes, led to the need for changes in the procedures in the first place.