As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementation progresses, the quality and outcomes of care face increasing public scrutiny. Policymakers will determine our complication rates and publicize them on the Internet, influencing public perception of our competencies and quality. Don’t believe me? Read in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about some Georgia hospitals’ “high” pneumonia, heart failure, and myocardial infarction mortality (http://tinyurl.com/GA-mortality). See your own cost efficiency and quality profile on United Healthcare’s website (www.uhc.com) under the “Find a Physician” tab. Where is information to make these determinations obtained? It’s from ICD-9-CM codes assigned by our hospitals based upon documentation. Consequently, we have a vested interest in ensuring that complication codes are submitted accurately.
In what was perhaps an effort to remind providers to consider medical record retention as they move to EHRs, CMS released MLN Matters SE1022, which addresses medical record retention limits and media formats.
With the end of the year approaching, you, along with many of your HIM director and manager colleagues, may soon be tasked with conducting annual staff evaluations. Chances are it isn’t your favorite task of the year. But it needs to be done.
