number of queries

cstukenbergcstukenberg
in CDI Talk Archive
Could people please give me some insight on how many queries you generate per month and for how many patients in your facility per month you review?

Example. I have 50 queries per month for 300 patients that are reviewed?

thanks.

Comments

  • katysuegood@gmail.comkatysuegood@gmail.com
    edited May 2016
    I think your best bet is to calculate your query rate as this is the easiest way to compare across reviewers. I think there are a few ways to calculate this, we calculate it as #queries/#reviews. I have heard some sites say they use #queries/#patients as well but that doesn’t account for re-reviews. Your query rate goal may change depending on where you are in your program (I think it's pretty common for rates to decrease over time as MD's improve their documentation). I think the ideal range is probably somewhere between 15-30%.

    Hope that helps,

    Katy Good, RN, BSN, CCDS, CCS
    Clinical Documentation Program Coordinator
    AHIMA Approved ICD-10CM/PCS Trainer
    Flagstaff Medical Center
    Kathryn.Good@nahealth.com
    Cell: 928.814.9404


  • cstukenbergcstukenberg
    edited May 2016
    But do you keep track of how many queries you do per month?

  • angelisa.romanelloangelisa.romanello
    edited May 2016
    We keep track of our queries monthly as well as the responses received. In May of this year, we left 170 queries for 1062 reviews. We maintain between 20-25% query rate. We have four full-time CDIs.
    A seasoned program such as ours, we are almost 6 years old, should be in this range.
    A new program should have a query rate of 35-45%.

    I hope that helps.



    Lisa Romanello,RN,BSN,FNS,CCDS
    Manager, Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
    CJW Medical Center
    Quality and Compliance
    804-228-6527



  • cstukenbergcstukenberg
    edited May 2016
    Yes. How big is your facility?

  • katysuegood@gmail.comkatysuegood@gmail.com
    edited May 2016
    I can pull a report that shows how many queries are placed a month and break down by reviewer if desired. However, I think this information is relatively insignificant. For example; if I do 50 queries and another CDI does 150, that’s pretty meaningless data if not compared to the total reviews performed. If I know that I performed 500 reviews garnering a query rate of 10% and the other CDI did 600 reviews with a query rate of 25%, this data is much more significant. The query rate allows you to control for facility size, program size/FTE's, and number of reviews. A large/small facility may have completely different query numbers but likely have similar goals for a query rate. While I can definitely access the number of queries placed, this is not something I regularly pay attention to. What I do pay attention to is our query rate.


    Katy Good, RN, BSN, CCDS, CCS
    Clinical Documentation Program Coordinator
    AHIMA Approved ICD-10CM/PCS Trainer
    Flagstaff Medical Center
    Kathryn.Good@nahealth.com
    Cell: 928.814.9404


  • angelisa.romanelloangelisa.romanello
    edited May 2016
    We have two campuses with 758 beds.


    Lisa Romanello,RN,BSN,FNS,CCDS
    Manager, Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
    CJW Medical Center
    Quality and Compliance
    804-228-6527




  • gail.eatongail.eaton
    edited May 2016
    I support this response as we are a small facility with 2 FTEs and a query rate of 25% as well

    Gail Eaton RN PCCN CDS
    Clinical Documentation Specialist

    St Joseph Health
    2700 Dolbeer, Eureka, Ca, 95501
    Office: 707-445-8121 ext 7555
    Cell: 707-267-0279
  • vanessa.falkoffvanessa.falkoff
    edited May 2016
    Hi,

    We have 2 CDI nurses. Our lowest number of queries per month this year so far was 71 and our highest month was 129. We average a 17% query (per case) ratio for commercial DRG payors - goal is 10-15%, and about 23% for Medicare with a goal of 15-10%.
    Hope this is helpful :)

    Vanessa Falkoff RN
    Clinical Documentation Coordinator
    University Medical Center
    Las Vegas, NV
    vanessa.falkoff@umcsn.com
    office 702-383-7322
    cell 702-204-0054




  • cstukenbergcstukenberg
    edited May 2016
    Yes, thanks for everyone's input.

  • vanessa.falkoffvanessa.falkoff
    edited May 2016
    Oops that’s 15-20% for Medicare!

    v

  • afloydafloyd
    We are a 400 bed facility and for the month of May, we reviewed a total of 1304 accounts and queried 176 for an average of 28%. Our department has been in place since 2009 and has seen an increase in reviews (we review all payors now) and a decrease overall in queries as the MD's have become more descriptive in an attempt to thwart queries. Hey, they don't love us.

    April Floyd, RN, CCDS
    Director of CDCI
    Anderson RMC
    Meridian, MS
    601-553-6299
  • vanessa.falkoffvanessa.falkoff
    edited May 2016
    Kill them with kindness and compliment them every time you don't have to query :)

    Vanessa Falkoff RN
    Clinical Documentation Coordinator
    University Medical Center
    Las Vegas, NV
    vanessa.falkoff@umcsn.com
    office 702-383-7322
    cell 702-204-0054



  • paxnerospaxneros
    edited May 2016
    April,

    Are your queries entered as a deficiency for them to complete? Is other any accountability/incentive for them to complete a query?

    Norma T. Brunson,RHIA,CDIP,CCS,CCDS

  • afloydafloyd
    There is no support system in place at this time to deal with queries that are unanswered. We are in the process of hiring a CMO and hopefully this will get us headed in the right direction. Most of our physicians are not employed by the hospital so this leaves us at their whim. We have a really good group of physicians who try to be compliant and only have a couple of bad apples so we are pretty lucky for the most part. They just see it as a challenge to say the least to document as precisely as they can and then get a query.... "Is that acute, chonic or acute on chronic?" when they tried sooooo hard the first time to get it right. : ) I truly feel their frustration but we have a job to do.

    April Floyd, RN, CCDS
  • kshumpertkshumpert
    edited May 2016
    I don't have anything written yet, but I follow-up on all queries. If a query goes 2 weeks without an answer, I am to contact our CMO. This process works well.
    Kathy Shumpert

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User]
    The 2013 Physician Query Benchmarking Report was posted to the CDI Journal section of the ACDIS site last week and may help you see where trends are.
    http://www.hcpro.com/acdis/details.cfm?topic=WS_ACD_JNL&content_id=294678
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