Subsequent Reviews

Our documentation integrity program has been in existence for 5 1/2 years. We are finding that we have more subsequent reviews every day than we have initial reviews and I am wondering if we need to re-think our schedule.
Would someone please share with me their review schedule for subsequent reviews?

Juanita B. Seel, RN
Supervisor Documentation Integrity
Greenville Memorial Hospital
Greenville, SC.

Comments

  • edited May 2016
    We open our cases within 48 hours of admission, and follow-up every 48-72 hours.

    --Juan

  • edited May 2016
    We only perform second reviews when a procedure has been performed,
    initial review was missing CC and/or MCC or the LOS is greater than 5
    days. Currently we only have 1 FTE CDI Specialist so it is difficult to
    perform 2, 3 and 4th reviews. Our Medicare payer mix is 32% and
    Medicare HMO payer mix is 18%.

    Theresa Hall, RHIT, ACPAR
    Director of HIM/HIPAA Privacy Officer
    East Georgia Regional Medical Center
    P. O. Box 1048
    1499 Fair Road
    Statesboro, GA 30458
    T: 912-486-1761
    F: 912-871-2388
    theresa.hall@hma.com



  • edited May 2016
    We open our cases within 24 hours of admission and follow up every 48 hours
    if there is a query. We follow the next day, if that query is responsible
    for changing the PDX (time sensitive), such as sepsis, etc. If it is a
    routine follow up every 72 hours. We also work closely with Case Management
    & Social Service to identify potential discharges to ensure our reviews are
    completed. It works well for us.

    Susan A. Klein, RN, C-CDI
    Saint Peter's University Hospital
    Director, Clinical Documentation Mgt
    office: 732-339-7613
    fax: 732-745-5944 (specify room B175)
    pager: 732-651-4359

  • We open our cases within 1 business day of admission.
    Subsequent reviews are handled in the following manner:
    Open query, no CC/MCC - daily
    Routine f/u - every 2-3 days depending on the case
    Pt awaiting procedure - review day after proc scheduled to confirm and routine f/u afterward.
    Trachs - no f/u reviews once patient has trach and/or PEG
    Cases awaiting guardianship - every 1-2 wks if needed.
    Pt who are in house longer than 2 weeks - CDS can use judgement.

    We are not always successful getting our charts, but this schedule is our goal!

    Deborah Dallen,RN
    Clinical Documentation Coordinator
    Albert Einstein Medical Center
    Phila PA 19141


  • edited May 2016
    We have one (me) CDS for 180 beds. I open the case within 48 hrs after
    admission (not enough information on the chart until then) and then
    decide when to look at it next. If it is an MVA who has everything i.e.
    cc and mcc's then I may set it out for a week - because they will be in
    ICU on the vent for that long. I think this is where our clinical
    critical thinking comes into play. We have to be able to see what is
    the best use of our time. If there is a patient who is going to
    procedure - then I check them the day after the procedure to confirm
    type of procedure and if any clarification needs completed. Pure
    placement patients, I wait 4-5 days to look at them again.

    Michelle Clyne, RN, BS
    Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist



  • We have a very rapid turnover. I review all DRG payors with inpatient status within 24 hours of admission, and daily thereafter. If I waited 48-72 hours, I'd miss many opportunities.

    Medical patients get reviewed daily for CC/MCCs and to make sure they didn't go to surgery. Surgical patients are also reviewed daily until they get an MCC, and then I might skip a few days, just going back to make sure they didn't go back to the OR for something else. I also will do a quick check of outpatients to make sure they don't actually meet IP criteria and would therefore need a CDMP review. I only stop completely when a patient is DRG 3 or 4. :)

    My caseload this morning was 44, with 13 new reviews, and I was completely done in about five hours. But we are a specialty hospital, and I am the only CDS, so I see the same patients and the same dx over and over. If I have time on Monday, I sometimes do retrospective reviews for patients who came in and left over the weekend.

    Linda Renee Brown, RN, CCRN
    Clinical Documentation Specialist
    Arizona Heart Hospital
  • Thank you for all your responses. We are a 700+ bed teaching hospital and the main hospital for a hospital system consisting of 7 medical facilities. We have 5 full time Doc Specialist (ALL RN'S)and 2 part time Doc Specialists and me the supervisor. We review all payors who reimburse on the DRG system--both old and new.The doc Specialists each review (initial and subsequent) approximately 35 charts a day. We were hoping to develop a new schedule for subsequent reviews. All of your review schedules seem similar to ours. If you would like, I will let you know what we decide. The Doc Specialists write approximately 650-725 concurrent queries a month and we have an 83-84% response rate with a target rate of 85%. We also conduct 2700-3000 reviews per month (inital and Subsequent).
    Thank you again for your responses.

    Nita Seel, RN
    Supervisor Documentation Management
    Greenville Memorial Hospital.
  • Nita,
    I would be very interested what you develop. We are a similar facility with similar staffing. If you don't post it here, would you please send me a copy?
    Thanks,

    Michelle Thimmesch, RN, MSN
    Manager, Clinical Documentation Improvement
    Via Christi Regional Medical Center
    Wichita, KS
    316-268-8570



  • edited May 2016
    Nita,

    I would also be interested in what you have developed. I too work in a 700+ bed teaching hospital with multiple medical facilities.


    Kim Carr, RHIT, CCS
    Core Measure and Clinical Documentation Improvement Manager
    Care Management
    Erlanger Medical Center
    975 East Third Street
    Chattanooga, TN 37403
    phone # 423-778-4225
    email-kimberly.carr@erlanger.org
    Life isn't about how to Survive the Storm, but how to Dance in the rain!!!!


  • edited May 2016
    Nita,
    Do the CDIS in put into a computer data base? Or do you have secretarial
    help to do that portion. We do about 15-20 reviews per day. I am
    wondering how you complete 35 per day. Maybe we need to change the way
    we are reviewing.

    Karen Beal, RN, BSN, CCRN
    Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
    Huntington Hospital
    100 W. California Blvd.
    Pasadena, CA 91109
    626-397-2024
    Fax 626-397-2904
    karen.beal@huntingtonhospital.com

  • edited May 2016
    We have a range of folks who review up to 35 records per day (especially
    on our ortho floor). We just met and our goal is to not crank out so
    many reviews (our team is hourly so they are getting it done in 8
    hours). We are going to focus on the quality of the review instead of
    the quantity, hoping to find more query opportunities and to improve
    chart documentation. We are going to try 23-25 reviews per day. I am
    hoping if we see less cases a day, but make more impact on the ones we
    touch, we will have a greater return.


    Sincerely,

    Karen A. Johnson


  • edited May 2016
    We do have a computer based program, Soft Med, and the information is
    entered into the computer as the chart is reviewed. Each Doc Spec has their own
    lap top. We do in-depth reviews....and still accomplish that many reviews.
    However, I am concerned about missing some prime opportunities and this is
    why I was asking about subsequent reviews. In some instances, it is the
    subsequent reviews that offer the most opportunity for clarification. I do not
    want to put the subsequent review schedule so far out that we miss these
    opportunities. I have developed a "Trial review schedule" with the help of
    the Doc Specialist and we hope this will give us more time daily to review
    medical records.



  • edited May 2016
    On Mondays I average 15-24 new cases. There are 4 of us and we do help each other out, in order, to get the new cases done in 24 hours. We review all cases every 48 hours even if we already have a set DRG because we continue to look for severity issues. We do charts that need a cc/mcc every 24. We put our own data in. We average looking @ , @ least, 35 cases or more daily. For example, this past Friday, I had 10 new and 26 f/u's. Today I have 24 new and 14 f/u's.


  • edited May 2016
    This sounds very much like our organization. Do you only review Medicare
    charts? How many beds is your facility?



  • edited May 2016
    We have 250 beds and we do Medicaid, Medicare, Self-pay, United Health Care, Passport Advantage and Anthem Blue Cross ( if they are a cardiac patient). One of our CDS's is a float and occasionally she gets pulled to do Case Management, Discharge Planning or Pre-Certs. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner but I've been swamped !!!


Sign In or Register to comment.