A personal experience about communications in healthcare. My mother needed a CABG for plaque build up in her cardiac arteries.
After her surgery, she spent 4 weeks in ICU unable to maintain her O2 saturation and blood pressure without medical interventions on an hourly basis. Finally, I told my dad I couldn't wait till my mom got home to spend time helping her convalesce. So I packed my bags and flew to Pennsylvania. When I arrived she had just been transferred to the step-down unit to be weaned from O2, IV antihypertensive drugs to po and benefit from OT and PT. Suffice it to say my mother became hypoxic off the O2 and her B/P escalated exponentially. After one episode of hypoxia and hypertension, the Code Blue alarm went off for her room. …show more content…
His exact words were, "Every person needs a translator to help with the terms used by the hospital team.
The call to action from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report on Health Professions and Training underscores the importance of communication training for the healthcare team.
Similar to other healthcare procedures, communication skills can be learned and improved upon
. Feedback from the patient or family member shows how much they understand and what the healthcare team needs to reinforce. IHC
E/M coding... The holy grail of the CPT and HCPCS Manuals. Some of the most common coding errors happen with: One of the biggest ones that may seem obvious is forgetting your bilaterals. In an office setting (not surgical) many times, for some reason, maybe the provider didn't circle that they gave an injection or medication on their encounter or superbill, whatever the office is using. So it goes without being …show more content…
X-rays may have actually been performed during the service, but it didn't get documented on that encounter form and therefore now it didn't get billed. Same thing with labs. Those are some ancillary services that get left on the table. Supplies, giving our braces... those types of things are easily left off because of the flow of the office. Many times nobody's tracking those. We're not watching patients as they walk out to see if they have a new device on them [or] to see if they had a Band-Aid because they had labs drawn. Many coders are looking for those special words in the operative note, and if they don't see the wording that matches a
After her surgery, she spent 4 weeks in ICU unable to maintain her O2 saturation and blood pressure without medical interventions on an hourly basis. Finally, I told my dad I couldn't wait till my mom got home to spend time helping her convalesce. So I packed my bags and flew to Pennsylvania. When I arrived she had just been transferred to the step-down unit to be weaned from O2, IV antihypertensive drugs to po and benefit from OT and PT. Suffice it to say my mother became hypoxic off the O2 and her B/P escalated exponentially. After one episode of hypoxia and hypertension, the Code Blue alarm went off for her room. …show more content…
His exact words were, "Every person needs a translator to help with the terms used by the hospital team.
The call to action from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report on Health Professions and Training underscores the importance of communication training for the healthcare team.
Similar to other healthcare procedures, communication skills can be learned and improved upon
. Feedback from the patient or family member shows how much they understand and what the healthcare team needs to reinforce. IHC
E/M coding... The holy grail of the CPT and HCPCS Manuals. Some of the most common coding errors happen with: One of the biggest ones that may seem obvious is forgetting your bilaterals. In an office setting (not surgical) many times, for some reason, maybe the provider didn't circle that they gave an injection or medication on their encounter or superbill, whatever the office is using. So it goes without being …show more content…
X-rays may have actually been performed during the service, but it didn't get documented on that encounter form and therefore now it didn't get billed. Same thing with labs. Those are some ancillary services that get left on the table. Supplies, giving our braces... those types of things are easily left off because of the flow of the office. Many times nobody's tracking those. We're not watching patients as they walk out to see if they have a new device on them [or] to see if they had a Band-Aid because they had labs drawn. Many coders are looking for those special words in the operative note, and if they don't see the wording that matches a