Five coders were sharing a small office, and several were working second and third shifts to avoid the noise and constant activity during the day. Others wore headsets to block the noise. The most difficult obstacle at the time was minimizing coder distractions. Coders were located right in the middle of the traffic flow due to space limitations. There was just no other place to put them. This made distractions practically unavoidable and further hindered coder productivity.
Moving Forward with the Solution: Remote Coding After two years of suffering through the coder shortage, space constraints, and slowly increasing discharged-not-final-billed DNFB we decided to implement an enterprise-wide home coding program.
By allowing our coders to work from home, we would be better able to recruit and retain coders. Additionally, we could establish a central coding service whereby charts from either facility could be coded by the same team of home coders. This would improve coding consistency between the two hospitals and support cross training of coders. Coders who were focused solely on outpatient coding in the past could begin to learn how to code inpatient charts and vice versa.
Most importantly, we would gain valuable space within the department. Coders would have fewer distractions at home resulting in productivity improvements at least 20 percent according to published benchmarks and subsequent decreases in our DNFB. Decision made, we proceeded with the implementation of our home coding program.
Step One: Rethink HIM Processes and Procedures The first step is to evaluate all the record processing functions within your department and ask two questions: How will this function be affected if coders are no longer on site? Can this process be expedited if the record is available sooner or online? With regard to the first question, we discovered that most of our record processing functions e. The primary HIM function impacted by coders working from home was the physician query process.
Healthcare organizations must establish a method to facilitate the communication of coders with physicians when questions arise regarding charts. At Sun Health, the coders use a query template in Word, which is completed and e-mailed to an in-house documentation specialist. She logs in the query and prints and files it in the record. She is also responsible for following up with physicians to get the queries answered quickly.
Once answered, the additional documentation and the query form are scanned, appended to the electronic record, and the chart is sent back to the responsible coder. It was also helpful to always have at least one coder or a coding manager in the department on site to answer general coding questions from the business office, ancillary departments, physicians, or others.
With this program, hospitals scan records using software provided by a remote coding vendor. These records are then encrypted and sent via the Internet to the vendor's host image server where they are stored for coding, viewing, and other purposes. With two locations and HIM responsibilities for both, management gained an advantage in being able to view records online from either facility when remote coding was implemented.
Once scanned for coding, records are available for other HIM functions, freeing up record bottlenecks within both departments. There is no more waiting while charts sit on coders' desks; we immediately saw improvements in all areas of HIM.
For instance, once the record is scanned, the deficiency analysis and chart completion process can proceed immediately. Records can be given to the physician without waiting for the coding process. Currently the record is given to the physician within two to three days of discharge and the deficiency rate is less than 20 percent at both facilities. Another area impacted by having online access to records was the coding audit function. Sun Health uses an external auditing service to perform coding audits.
In the past, we would pay all travel costs for the Texas-based auditors to spend one week a quarter at Sun Health. Now we simply scan the records the auditors request, which they view remotely via the Internet. The auditors are trained remotely and use teleconferencing to perform exit conferences with our coders. Instead of pulling records for other departments and record reviews, we will simply grant these users access to online records. Finally, we expect to streamline additional HIM functions such as release of information as more and more users within our two departments gain access to online records.
Later in , we expect to use the scanned record in combination with electronic signature to allow physicians to complete charts from any location, further improving our chart completion process. Get chart to MD within two to three days after discharge.
Maintain deficiency rate of less than 20 percent at both hospitals. Coding Audits Give auditors access to online record, coders' notes, etc.
All reviews performed remotely. Goal is to eliminate. File room staff will be transitioned to other positions. Allow physicians to view and complete charts online from any location. Goal is to reduce chart deficiency rate by 50 percent to less than 10 percent. In the second phase of implementation, you will need to identify which staff will be working from home and which staff will be assigned scanning and coding management responsibilities on site.
Productivity should increase dramatically once coders are comfortable with coding from an imaged record. Sun Health coders made the transition very quickly, and productivity rates at home were the same as baseline within one day and have increased ever since.
In the past we would give the coders 20 to 25 charts a day to complete. Now, each coder is assigned up to 40 charts a day to code. In the majority of cases, all 40 charts are completed. Even using a very conservative calculation, our productivity rate increased more than 40 percent. This is a major game changer! If you have a computer and can send out email this system could have you building your own home business and earning money in 2 days or less!
On which radio station did you hear our ad? What hours are you available to receive a phone call at this number? For your security we do not sell, trade or rent your contact information to other parties. Fill out the form below to get a free video that will show you step by step how you could start your own home business and start earning extra money using your telephone and the Internet. You will learn what industries are hot and how to benefit from current economic trends. You choose your own hours so you can work your business around your family responsibilities.
Just fill out the brief form below, and one of our 3-Step Plan members, not a salesman, but a regular person just like you will call. Sandy is a CPA and an attorney.
In this report he explains how a stay-at-home mom with a home-based business could increase her take-home pay almost 13 times over what she could make as an employee working for someone else.
A nice person will call. It is so simple, we believe we can help almost anyone make more money working at home. Click the arrow for a greeting from Andy Click here to listen to our radio spot.
Free Samples! Free Video! Unemployment to early retirement From foreclosure to five acres High stress to high income Worship team works from home Immigrant finds American dream Quit his job after only six months Doubled their retirement income Salesman gets life back Never too old to make it big.
New Internet Marketing System!
0コメント