Nurse-Based vs. BCE Physician-Directed CDI Programs
The superiority of physician led and physician coaching peer-to-peer programs has never been disputed as the preferred method of educating colleagues in documentation and compliance. There is certainly more listening by attending physicians when they are queried by their colleagues than when they are queried by nurses or coders.
The BCE program involves both CPT and MS-DRG coding and how they relate, whereas competitors nurse-based programs involve MS DRGs only. In order to attract the attention of physicians, there must be some incentive to “bring them to the table.” BCE’s program focuses on the power of the progress note so that physicians can better document and be in compliance in their offices. When they learn the basics of how to document a good progress note, it also translates to the hospital progress notes, which in turn helps case management, quality management, compliance, and the HIM staff.
The BCE program not only involves itself in concurrent review as do most nurse-based programs, but also aids in retrospective review to help the coders gain more efficiency from their post-discharge querying of physician.
It has certainly been proven (if not intuitive) that physicians are more efficient in chart review than nurses. In BCE’s documentation program, physician coaches can review five charts per hour, whereas it has been shown that in nurse-based programs 10 charts per day is the norm.
After a one and a half day training program, BCE’s program is implemented in client hospitals. This compares with a months-long process of training full-time nurses to do a similar job less efficiently. BCE’s physician coaches work by the hour as part-time 1099 employees, without fringe benefits, whereas other nurse-based programs involve the hiring of full-time nurses at $70,000 or more per year plus fringe benefits.
Finally, BCE’s customized reports drill down to deficiencies by attending by subject matter. In this way, the documentation deficiencies of individual attending physicians can be addressed directly by their peers. The older more inefficient method of coder querying after discharge becomes virtually eliminated. Call 1-866-670-0767 today or fill out our contact form here to get an analysis of your hospital's documentation today.
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