Health Information Management

HIM leadership and interdepartmental collaboration needed to finalize charts post-discharge

HIM-HIPAA Insider, February 23, 2015

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Organizations often struggle to finalize charts after discharge so they can be coded in a timely manner, but this process can be completed efficiently with direction from HIM professionals and coordination between departments.

 
While it may seem like a straightforward task to work on medical record documentation while a patient is still in the hospital and push the record out to HIM at the time of discharge, obstacles can stand in the way and cause delays in coding and billing.
 
"Many facilities are still experiencing delays in getting their documentation together in a timely manner so that coding can be completed in a timely manner," says Andrea Romero, RHIA, client development executive for Coding Services Group in Naples, Florida.
 
Many hospitals still rely on paper documentation that must be scanned into the EHR. While this process is nothing new, it can often hold up records and increase a hospital's discharge not final billed. "You have to be able to secure that paper documentation right at the point of discharge," Romero says.
 
Continue reading "HIM leadership and interdepartmental collaboration needed to finalize charts post-discharge" on the HCPro website. Subscribers to Medical Records Briefing have free access to this article in the March issue.



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