Coders rounding with Physicians?

renmeyer@sbcglobal.netrenmeyer@sbcglobal.net
in CDI Management

Good morning

Does anyone have input and or experience with coders doing rounds with physicians in the hospital? Basically going to see physicians in the hospital to discuss ICD10.  Is this something that coders typically do?  We do have a CDI team that meet with physicians on the floors.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Comments

  • bmurphy@hcpro.combmurphy@hcpro.com
    Hello, we did an ACDIS Radio show on this topic which you might find helpful. You can check it out here: https://acdis.org/acdis-radio/cdi-integration-clinical-rounding. Please listen and let me know if you'd like the contact information of our guests!
  • renmeyer@sbcglobal.netrenmeyer@sbcglobal.net
    edited March 2017
    Hi Brian

    Thank for your input.  I listened and thought it was very interesting.  I sounded as if they specifically addressed CDI's if I understood correctly. At our facility CDI also round with the physicians. What I am specifically interested in is whether any Coders are rounding on the floors.  Our coders was assigned to start rounding in the hospital (they work off site) with physicians and wanted to know if anyone has experience with this and how helpful that is.  Thanks!
  • bmurphy@hcpro.combmurphy@hcpro.com
    Thanks--sorry a misunderstanding on my part. I have not heard specifically of coders rounding with physicians myself, but would also be interested to hear if facilities have had luck with this.
  • sandycola5sandycola5
    I work at a Veterans Admin hospital, and we have been doing this for about a year and a half, as part of our length of stay reduction strategy.  It has been very successful.  As lead coder/CDI, I attend the physician "huddle" on the acute medicine unit.  The 15-min huddles take place daily, but I only attend once a week.  I see my role mainly as helping the physicians document severity of illness better in order to justify the longer stays.  About 6 months into the project, I realized that all the excellent documentation in the world wasn't going to help if our inpatient coders weren't picking up on the greater detail, so we started having one of them attend the huddle with me.  I review the cases with the coder in advance, point out clinical indicators that hint at a query opportunity, and use the encoder tools to show her the impact of better documentation on length of stay.  On the unit, we make verbal queries, answer the providers' questions,  and sometimes do a short in-service on various documentation topics.

    We're a very small Level 3 hospital, so our CDI program is still in the fledgling stage.  Since the majority of VA care is not reimbursed by third-party insurance, it really allows me to emphasize quality rather than financial impact.  The result is that the physicians are very receptive -- they seem much more willing to rally around a quality initiative than one focused on money.

    Sandra Colacino, CDIP, CCS-P
    VA Hudson Valley
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