Thus, the hospital received reimbursements three times greater than it would have if just the acute respiratory distress had been coded. If coding manually, the coder might forget to look for the ventilator treatment. As another example, if a patient was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, the system would inform the medical records staff that in a majority of patients with heart failure, an existing co-morbid condition is also present which would raise the reimbursement level. This prompts the user to look through the patient's record again to see if the condition exists. A staff member spent his or her valuable time flipping from one book to the other, searching indexes, only to select a matched code with mixed results.
Users can also translate matching codes in reverse.
Errors stemming from mismatched codes have been virtually eliminated, and the time to match codes has been significantly reduced. The medical records department also appreciates the on-screen explanations of why a certain code was suggested. Instead of fumbling through several thick resource books for supporting documentation, the system's CliniGuide feature provides easy to read explanations supporting the suggested codes. Another big plus, according to the hospital, are timely upgrades. For instance, the medical records department recently acquired the Severity Refined DRG calculator.