Tom, a 29-year-old, unemployed construction worker living on the East Coast, decides to drive on his own to the West Coast in hopes of finding a job. He avoids rest stops to decrease his total trip time. Halfway through his trip, he gets in a serious auto accident caused by another driver. The accident occurs in a state with mandated auto insurance.
Length of stay (LOS) management requires ongoing attention from the director/manager of case management to stay on budget. Directors who divert their attention, even for a few weeks, might find themselves spending too much. To avoid this situation, consider implementing the six best practices for LOS maintenance.
Q: Our state child support enforcement agency requested the medical records of one of our pediatric patients. Are we allowed to respond to this request without a subpoena?
RC.01.01.01 is one standard that just won’t go away. The first half of 2017 (January–June) standards compliance data was published in the September issue of The Joint Commission’s Perspectives, and RC.01.01.01 made the list again. This means that the standard has been on the top 10 list for at least the last five years, along with other frequent flyers such as Environment of Care, Life Safety, and Infection Prevention.
My experience in ICD-10-CM documentation and coding integrity is that many physicians know in their heads what is wrong with their patients; however, they have not been taught to “think with ink” in describing their patients' illness in the EHR using ICD-10-CM’s language to ensure proper coding.
