unexpected deaths

I have been trying to come up with a process for doing retro reviews on unexpected deaths. Does anyone have a process to share?

Comments

  • edited May 2016
    We review all deaths. We run a report every other day which lists the patients with a discharge disposition of expired.


    Dawn M. Vitalone, RN
    Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialist
    Community Hospital
    Munster, IN

  • edited May 2016
    You might find helpful the following 2 conference ppt presentations from
    the Forms & Tools library:
    2011 Conference: ’Stayin’ Alive’: Improving observed to expected
    mortality rates
    2010 Conference: Death review and SOI/ROM

    Don

  • I'm interested in hearing answers too. We are a new program adn we have a rather strange way of doing death chart reviews. We had CLARO come and do some death charts reviews in April right after we started this program to see where some of our problems were and found that there were some glaring coding issues.
    SO, what currently happens is this.
    If I the CDS has a patient they are currently reviewing that dies, they send it to me for review. I also get a list of palliative care pateints daily to check on them because it is better to review them prior to death if possible.
    Then, the coders code teh death charts in "draft mode". Then they send all death charts to me AND the coding maneger to review prior to finalizing the record. The reason being that there were significant dx not being picked up be coding. Luckily, I have a great relationship with the coding maneger, or this would not work. We often review teh charts together even which is a great learning experience for both of us.
  • We also receive a listing with expired patients and we take a portion of the patients and review on a weekly basis. The coder, the physician liason and CDS review for diag prior to the meeting. We discuss the case and our physician helps us identify opportunities for queries or provides education and it also helps the physician review other physicians documentation. We try to ensure a great SOI/ROM and along with that there is reimbursement capture. We still have bugs in the process but we have captured more data with these reviews.

    Carla Heyn, RHIT BS
    CDS
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