RE: [MARKETING] [EXTERNAL] Giving proper credit

At our facility, queries are marked as answered regardless of who responds or if the required documentation is acquired from the provider responding directly to the query (ours are part of the permanent record) or by adding documentation to a progress note. Our electronic queries are sent electronically to the appropriate provider so this provider would be the only one to answer directly, though anyone can view the query in the electronic record. If the query is resolved via documentation added to the progress notes, the written query is retracted from the MD’s inbox, regardless of who added the documentation. Our facilities stance on this is that the point is to make sure the documentation ends up on the record, they do not care who it comes from. They did not want us to be following up with providers to answer queries when the documentation is already available in the record.
It does mean that data can be skewed. We know who are providers who don’t respond to queries are, but the data is not as clear as it should be (though they still end up being at the bottom regardless). That being said, we have never had the opportunity to bring this data back to the physicians anyway so it’s someone irrelevant in our circumstances. If we did need some sort of performance data to bring to med staff, we do track everything that ends up being handled through our escalation policy, so we do have this if needed.

I agree with Robert theoretically however this is not how the hospital has chosen to handle it.

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


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