Physician Champions

michelle.uhlig

My facility is considering finding a physician champion to aid our clinical documentation program. I was wondering if other CDI programs have physician champions in place and if you can provide any insight it would be appreciated. We would like to get an idea of how many hours a physician champion works in a week, what a typical salary may be like, how they assist your program, what their typical duties may be, are you finding that it is helping your program,etc.

Thank you!

cmclose@saintfrancis.com

Don't have physician advisor for peds section but the adult CDI has one.
Hoping that someday there will be a physician advisor for Pediatric CDI!
I know part of his job is writing letters to physicians, esp addressing
the ones who aren't answering queries.

Claudine Hutchinson RN
Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
Children's Hospital at Saint Francis
Email: chutchinson@saintfrancis.com
Office: (918) 502-6603
Pager: 98-1001

kshumpert

I share a physician champion with quality and case management. He works for all 3 areas one day a week, Wednesday. On Wednesday, we review any RAC denials and decide if we are going to appeal. Beyond Wednesday, he checks in with me when he sees me on the floor or I can call him if I need his opinion regarding a chart. He will intervene with obstinate physicians when necessary as well. I review my yearly report with him and discuss any patterns with physicians. We recently discussed that on Wednesday, I would like him to review a few charts concurrently with me and verify that I am on the right track with antiobiotics, patho, etc. I was planning on have this added to my CDI skills for my yearly evaluations. He also helps with any physician education I roll out. He may present something or just be available if there is a question that is beyond my knowledge. He has gone to seminars on CDI, RACs and coding.


Kathy
Kathy Shumpert, RN, CCDS

Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
Howard Regional Health System
Office 765-864-8754
Pager 765-454-3465
Fax 765-453-8152

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. ~Enrique Jardiel Poncela

lsipos@monument.health

For our CDI program our physician champion was strictly voluntary. I will tell you from experience that the "Champion" really needs to be someone with an approachable demeanor-so that the CDS's and Medical Staff feel comfortable speaking with him. If you have a provider/physician who thinks "your JUST a nurse", or "doctors know everything", your program will sit stagnant. The champion HAS to be respected by other physicians and cannot be confrontational.
For our program, our champion is a physician from the "hospitalists" program, which is where the bulk of our patients we need to query-are admitted by. So he is generally in-house, easy to reach, and assessable.
We meet with him monthly, but know he can be reached anytime. At the "champions" inception, we were not really knowledgeable about what to expect, as our program was really in the process of growth and expansion. Now that he has been in place for a year, we know more of what to expect and need from him.
In our monthly meetings, we bring to him general issues about physician compliance for querying-illegibility-requests to
ask certain physicians whose penmanship is poor to verbally dictate progress notes ect.
We recently have written our queries to become a permanent part of the medical record-and wrote 18 standard queries-once completed, he evaluated and had input.
His biggest role is really as mediator between the physicians who think the CDS program does not need to exist and who refuse to answer queries or who are "outliers" in the reason for our program. His job is to assist in educating and being a liaison at the medical staff meetings where some medical groups want to "chew up and spit out" the CDS's for "thinking they know more than they do". (No matter how much education, explanation or benefit we show there are providers who will always think there is no reason for a CDS program).
If you go to the AHIMA site under "GUIDANCE FOR CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMS". There is a section for "ROLE OF THE PHYSICIAN CDI ADVISOR". I is clear and concise for expectations, job responsibilities, as well as usual number of hours spent. It is very helpful and insightful-as well as the article itself. Just as a side note, the AHIMA "MANAGING AN EFFECTIVE QUERY PROCESS" on the site is useful as well!
Good luck-

Juli Bovard RN
Clinical Documentation Specialist
Clinical Effectiveness/Clinical Quality
Rapid City Regional Hospital
719-4390 (work)
786-2677 (cell)
"No Limit to Better......"