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At DCH Health System, the clinical documentation improvement team takes a proactive approach to changes in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) documentation requirements.
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When patients of community-based physicians are ready for discharge from Chesapeake (VA) Regional Medical Center, they no longer have to wait for their physicians to come to the hospital and write discharge orders.
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Since Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis began a patient throughput initiative, the patient holding hours in the emergency department and post-anesthesia care unit average less than 30 hours per day despite the fact that 50,000 patients come through the emergency department each year and the hospital has more than 30,000 inpatient visits a year.
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As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rolls out the Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program nationwide, case managers are in a position to help their hospitals stay ahead of the curve by keeping patients out of the hospital if they don't need to be admitted and ensuring that the documentation in the medical record for inpatient or observation admission supports medical necessity.
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When Chesapeake General Hospital began exploring ways to improve patient throughput and further reduce its length of stay, Roxana Ballinger, RN, BBA, CCM, director of care management, conducted research to discover what other hospitals had done to improve patient throughput and determined that nurse practitioners could play an important role in moving patients through the continuum.
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At DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa, AL, clinical documentation improvement efforts go far beyond just making sure the documentation supports the most appropriate MS-DRG for the purpose of Medicare reimbursement.
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If your hospital frequently uses Condition Code 44 to change a patient's admission status, you may need to take a fresh look at your admissions process, according to Deborah Hale, CCS, president, Administrative Consultant Service LLC, a Shawnee, OK, consulting firm.
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Of the nearly $1 billion the Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) identified in improper payments to hospitals and other providers, nearly 40% was the result of medical necessity denial for inpatient admissions, points out Deborah Hale, CCS, president, Administrative Consultant Service LLC, a Shawnee, OK, consulting firm.
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The Endoscopy Center of Colorado Springs (CO) has won a national award for its improved system of reporting and explaining pathology results to patients. One year after implementing the new reporting system, 100% of patients surveyed received their pathology reports, were informed of the results, and knew their recommended follow-up dates.
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Another advance in general laparoscopic surgery that was launched at the recent annual meeting of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons and received an innovation award was the Free Hand robotic camera holder from Prosurgics of Cupertino, CA.
