How hospitals can protect revenue and quality scores with CAPD
Episode 4
Jessica Hatala, MBA, RN, is the Senior Manager of Computer‑Assisted Physician Documentation (CAPD) Analytics at Nuance Healthcare. She shares how AI can support burdened physicians and staff during the pandemic with strong documentation.
Episode summary
COVID-19 impact and challenges
Due to COVID-19, many hospitals are stopping elective surgeries. Jessica points out that this is impacting hospitals’ most significant revenue stream from the fewest patients, which leaves them relying more heavily on the lower level medical care reimbursements.
So while their beds may be full and their staff stretched thin, their income continues to struggle and remain unbalanced. The pandemic’s added burden on staff has also presented a challenge to quality documentation, as the providers and team are stretched to their limit to provide critical patient care.
4:15 “The Association for Clinical Documentation Improvement Specialists (ACDIS) just published an article stating that 35% of the Clinical Documentation Specialists (CDS) staff surveyed had been performing tasks outside of record review due to COVID-19. So that’s a huge double hit on hospitals. Not only are they operating at really high capacity and having to really facilitate that turnover to ensure that beds are available for patients in this pandemic, but the staff that has been traditionally there to ensure that the documentation is correct and that revenue is protected, they’re being pulled elsewhere.”
CAPD technology
While human resources and capital are being moved around and pulled in different directions to respond to the pandemic, CAPD technology can play an important part in protecting documentation quality. Strong documentation has a positive impact on organizations’ revenue, but most importantly, it protects the quality of reporting and observed quality metrics.
In many cases, Jessica shares that CAPD has been able to ensure that baseline coverage within the physician workflow is accounted for, easing the physician burden and allowing them to focus their attention where it is needed most. CAPD allows your organization to use your human capital where it matters without losing specificity and quality in baseline documentation.
Protect quality scores and care
Jessica shares the story of a Nuance partner facility in South Florida that recently reported how CAPD has helped them manage the pandemic.
9:00 “By having a CAPD tool in place, they were still able to protect the revenue that they were bringing in, protect those quality scores, and still continue to provide that high quality of care in the moment when they needed it.”
Jessica emphasizes that it is important to consider CAPD as part of a holistic CDI program, and not a stand alone tool. By investing in tools like CAPD to support your staff, your organization can face the pandemic’s challenges with resilience.