How custom software is hurting your hospital
Through the work that we do, we get to talk to a lot of hospitals about their IT and Decision Support initiatives, and their successes and failures. We’ve seen a pattern where hospitals are facing increasing problems with custom-developed software (internally created or by consultants) whether they are small data management applications or large data warehouses. NOTE: Any custom application code, script, database, report, Excel macro, or analytical view that needs to be developed and maintained by the hospital is considered “software” within the context of this article. SYMPTOMS OF THE PROBLEM The majority of work being assigned to technical …
How to work with physicians to improve data quality and funding
Physicians learn many things during their years of training. Unfortunately for the people who work in hospital Health Records and Decision Support departments, clinical documentation is generally not one of them. HIGH QUALITY PHYSICIAN DOCUMENTATION MATTERS MORE THAN EVER Since the launch of Health System Funding Reform (HSFR) in 2012, up to 70% of a hospital’s annual funding is based on their performance relative to other hospitals in Ontario. Efficiency is measured in terms of cost per weighted case, with the denominator directly coming from the output of Health Information Management (HIM) professionals coding and abstracting from physician documentation of discharged …
The revenue impact of unrecorded emergency department procedures
A central area of expertise at 3terra is helping hospitals improve data quality which can lead to improved funding, as outlined in this article. This year, we expanded our focus and started to analyze the effect of poor data quality on outpatient cases, including Emergency Department (ED) visits. This article provides an overview of those findings. THE METHODOLOGY The case weight (a measure of patient complexity that is used to determine hospital funding) for an ED visit is straightforward compared to inpatient stays. Generally speaking, patients are in the ED for a limited amount of time, so fewer interventions and procedures …
Using data to reduce preventable harm
We’ve recently released our new hospital harm module and have begun working with hospitals to refine the tool and get feedback to guide future functionality. Here is some background and insight into our initial findings. BACKGROUND According to the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI), approximately 1 in every 18 hospital stays in Canada involve at least one occurrence of preventable harm, resulting in an average of four extra patient days per occurrence. The World Health Organization estimates between 20% to 40% of all health spending is wasted due to poor-quality care. This topic has received increased interest of late because of media attention and the fact that patient …
How data quality affects funding for Ontario hospitals
In 2012, the Ontario government introduced Health System Funding Reform (HSFR) which moved hospitals from global budgets to a form of activity-based funding. Up to 70% of hospital funding in Ontario will eventually be from activity-based allocations. In order for this funding model to work, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) needs an accurate clinical representation of all patients treated by hospitals in the province. They get this information through the submission of patient encounter data files (patient abstracts) by each hospital. After a patient is discharged, coders in health records departments create an abstract designed to tell the story …
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