Looking to Improve Coding Documentation? Ardent Health Services Explains How

Despite a smoother than expected ICD-10 transition, accurate coding documentation still plays a critical role in ensuring financial success. By 2020, fee-for-value reimbursement is projected to represent 83 percent of revenue – up from 43 percent today.

Adrienne Younger, RN, CCDS, Manager of CDI education at Ardent Health Services recently connected with Kelly Gooch of Becker’s Hospital Review to discuss how Ardent achieved coding and documentation success by changing their coding culture, leveraging their own data and collaborating as a unified health system. Here’s a recap of the top takeaways from the discussion:

• Coders need to feel connected, vested and understand their new role in VBC – Adrienne underscores that “value-based care takes on a quality aspect that we've never really paid attention to or focused on.” She notes that it is important for healthcare leadership to educate coders and empower them with the necessary resources to understand the differences in fee-for-service and value-based care. Coders are no longer here just to code a record; they need to lookout for patient outcomes.
• Sometimes the best resources are right in front of you – For Ardent, one of the most valuable resources they were able to tap were their own records. Using MedeAnalytics Revenue Integrity, they could analyze their own data and find new insights under ICD-10. “Industry modules and resources are great, but what really makes the impact is when you use your own work to teach yourself,” explains Adrienne.
• Collaborate as a total health system – At the end of the day, everyone has the same goal: to improve patient care. In addition to having coders feel vested and connected to the clinical side, it is important that the entire health system works as a team. At Ardent, CDI worked with the quality team and attended case management meetings to understand how they can partner with each other. It’s these collaborations and relationships amongst everybody that help the entire hospital run as one team.

For more insights on how Ardent was able to improve their coding documentation, check out the full Becker’s Hospital Review article or download their case study. To learn more about how data can improve your CDI efforts under ICD-10, visit our Revenue Integrity solution page here.