One task that almost every healthcare organization is going to have to tackle to comply with the HIPAA omnibus final rule is amending its Notice of Privacy Practices (NPP).
Chasing down information on incomplete records can be overwhelming and a lost cause. What do you do when a medical record is incomplete 30 days after discharge (or 14 in California's case) and thus does not meet regulatory standards? Do you file it away without an answer to an open query or a signature from the practitioner? What if the responsible practitioner retired, expired, or is no longer practicing at your facility? Are you doing everything you can to get most deficiencies completed prior to the patient being discharged?
When two bombs went off eight seconds apart at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, there were many emergency plans in place. "There's an emergency disaster plan in place for both the city and the marathon itself," says Peter Moran, RN, BSN, MSN, CCM, emergency room case manager at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston. In addition, each hospital has its own emergency process in place.
As the healthcare industry moves toward adoption of EHRs, facilities need structured data entry capabilities to realize increased efficiency in completing medical records and maintaining documentation integrity.
