Medicare’s 2019 Final Rule Encourages Increased Documentation Efficiency
If catching up on documentation during weekends is your normal routine, read on, because this blog discusses:
- Medicare’s latest guidance on documentation
- How this approach impacts patient progression
- What it means for your personal life, i.e., spending less time documenting on weekends
With “Point-of-Care” documentation, when the patient’s daily visit ends, the daily note is signed.
And when it’s Sunday afternoon, you’re spending time with your family.
Point-of-care documentation is often viewed negatively:
- “I need to spend my time treating, not typing”
- “The patient should not be looking at the top of my head while I type. They should be looking at my face as I interact with them”
- “Typing does not yield progression” and
- “I refuse to sacrifice compliance by rushing through my notes” BUT
“Point-of-care documentation” is NOT the problem.
The problem is you’re likely using an EMR that was not designed to be used at point of care.
The Solution
Using Systems 4PT, daily notes can be documented between 90 seconds and 2 minutes
- While you are observing Therex
- During a modality, and
- While patients are arriving and leaving
Impact on Patient Outcomes
Systems 4PT followed over 700 therapists as they documented over 660,000 patient visits
- This virtual (electronic) analysis identified how each therapist documented daily notes (at point of care, later that same day, or days later)
- We then analyzed average patient progression for each of those therapists
The Results:
% Patient Progression # of Visits Required
>75% of patients documented at POC: 53% 14.0
0% of patients documented at POC: 53% 15.0
When therapists documented (all or most of) daily notes at point of care, patient progression was not negatively impacted. In fact, treatment duration was one visit shorter vs. therapists who documented daily notes later!
Documenting daily notes at point of care DOES NOT negatively impact patient progression.
Impact on Compliance
Have you studied Medicare’s final rule for 2019?
Medicare’s final rule for 2019 encourages point-of-care documentation of daily notes.
But you have two problems:
- Your EMR was never designed to be used at point of care
- Your EMR has not reacted or updated, based on the changes in Medicare’s 2019 final rule
Documentation rules have changed (to your benefit), but your EMR hasn’t reacted
Using Systems 4PT:
- You’ll spend more time with hands-on treatment and less time typing
- You’ll spend more time interacting with your patient and less time typing
- Patient outcomes are NOT compromised
- Compliance is EXCELLENT
- When the daily visit has ended, the daily note is signed
- And when it’s Sunday afternoon, you’re spending time with your family
Your EMR has GREAT marketing. But their outdated checklist approach wastes time and unfairly sacrifices your personal life.
Systems4PT is happy to review Medicare’s final rule for 2019 and demonstrate this new workflow for your clinic.
All you have to lose is the homework!