The Results Are In….One Office Coder Tells Her Story on the Benefits of ComplyMD

Physicians who currently use ComplyMD, have seen great results in their documentation. They are more aware of the benefits of capturing accurate, real-time documentation: benefits to the patient, benefits to themselves, benefits to the hospital/ASC, and benefits to their office staff. Here, I’d like to focus on some great feedback we received from one practice’s office coder.

And I quote…

-Chart accuracy has improved by 75%.

-Specifically, our physicians are now documenting their (1) lesion removals and (2) incision and drainage of abscesses more accurately, resulting in more accurate coding and reimbursement for our office.

-The free-text availability in ComplyMD has proven helpful in coding procedures and diagnoses. Our physicians are able to better communicate to us exactly what they did, along with the exact condition of the patient.

-Our billing department has become a more efficient, productive place with the utilization of ComplyMD.

-Our work load has decreased by about 40%.

-Increased ComplyMD usage has decreased the frequency of phone calls to the hospitals’ HIM departments by 80%.

-ComplyMD promotes a more efficient, more accurate method of documentation and coding among healthcare professionals.

Real people. Real results. Why not document with ComplyMD?

Efficiency, Comprehensiveness and Cost-effectiveness when comparing Dictation and Electronic Templates for Operative Reports

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1560865

Here’s a great article comparing dictation to electronic templates. The results are pretty amazing. Looking at the time, efficiency, comprehensiveness and cost-effectiveness of the two could turn some heads towards electronic templates.

The study was done in Wishard Memorial Hospital’s (Indianapolis, IN) OB-GYN Department. During the four four-week study blocks, they performed 478 procedures on 440 patients corresponding to 5 selected study procedures. They evaluated the effects of templates on timeliness of completion, comprehensiveness and costs, and effort required vs. standard dictation. 

Most in the healthcare industry would agree that: “Dictated reports are frequently incomplete or delayed.” However, it could take some results like the ones in this article to show that: “Electronic note templates could potentially improve this process.”

“Templates resulted in dramatically faster times to the presence of a verified operative report in the medical record compared to dictation services (mean 28 v. 22,440 minutes). Templates increased overall compliance with national standards for operative note documentation and avoided transcription costs. Documentation with templates took slightly more time than dictation (mean 6.77 v. 5.96 minutes; P=0.036), not including the additional time necessary to subsequently verify dictated reports. We conclude that electronic note templates can improve the timeliness and comprehensiveness and operative documentation while decreasing transcription costs and requiring minimal additional effort on the part of the surgeons.”

Do You Equip Your Physicians with the Proper Tools?

“Hospitals across the country lose multiple millions of dollars every year due to mismanagement of the billing process. No matter the size of the organization, billing inconsistencies affect all healthcare facilities to some degree—even those that are on top of the problem. On average, providers lose 5 percent of gross revenues, and that can translate into millions of dollars for a single organization.”

“Improving Cash Flow with Better Charge Capture & Denial Management” MedAssets & HFMA. October 2005

As we all know, profit margins are tightly squeezed in the healthcare industry. The billing process has a huge impact on those profit margins. What do facilities bill for? Patient encounters. How do they know what to bill for? Through physician documentation. How will these patient encounters be properly documented? There… you’re stumped. It’s not through dictation after the fact, and it’s not on their 3×5 index card they carry around in their pockets.