|
Return to Main Menu
|
HIS department recognized for
excellence
MUSC’s
Health Information Services (HIS) Department was named among three
finalists in the Advance for Health Information Professionals
magazine’s national Health Information Management Team of the Year
contest. The award recognizes MUSC’s HIS team for excellence among
other hospital programs throughout the country. The news was announced
to coincide with this year’s National Health Information Technology
Week, Nov. 6-12.
The group was recognized among 50 other national health information
management departments that competed for this honor and judged on
multiple criteria including awards and recognition, initiative,
adaptability, team work, exemplary acknowledgments and staff knowledge.
With 81 full-time employees, the HIS department provides medical
documentation and coding, and manages various types of patient data for
the Medical Center, Institute of Psychiatry and Charleston Memorial
Hospital.
Additionally, MUSC was recognized as one of the “Top 200 Coding
Hospitals” in the United States and ranked as a top-50 performer out of
238 major teaching hospitals (100-plus residents and interns) reviewed
by the magazine. This is the third year the HIS coding staff has made
the list. The award identifies hospitals that have achieved the best
combination of complete and compliant coding practices. These are
hospitals that have achieved higher than expected Medicare Casemix
Indexes, considered a good indication of effective documentation and
coding practices without engaging in risky practices as measured by the
Hospital Insight OIG Report Card.
“I’m proud of everyone involved in this team achievement,” said Sue
Pletcher, director for HIS/Patient Access Services (PAS). “The HIS
staff has encountered many challenges over the past few years. Their
whole work process has been in a continuous state of flux with the
transition from paper patient charts to the electronic medical record.
With interim stages along the way, HIS employees have had to become
adept at the use of computers, prepping records, scanning and indexing
information into the imaging system and with coding and abstracting
records on line.”
According to Pletcher, the work environment is quite different from
what it was just three years ago. The staff realize that more change is
just around the corner with the roll out of the McKesson electronic
patient record and on-line documentation system for clinicians. The
projects provide much needed technology updates to the hospital’s broad
clinical information system.
“The clinical documentation improvement specialists, along with the
coders, closely review the medical record documentation to be sure the
clinician has presented a clear picture of what has happened to the
patient while hospitalized,” said Patrick Cawley, M.D., MUSC medical
director. “This in turn assists the coders in translating the written
documentation to numeric codes that are used for billing and reporting
purposes.”
The team is continually seeking ways to encourage staff towards
achieving excellence, employee satisfaction and customer service. In
2006, the team initiated a departmental appreciation board to recognize
individuals for best practices and customer service excellence—all
qualities under the Medical Center’s workplace commitment called MUSC
Excellence.
“This award and what we’ve done aligns perfectly with the pillars of
MUSC Excellence. It just married very well with us, and it shows this
department is a great example of how we’ve incorporated and embraced
those excellence initiatives,” said Regina Dell, manager, File
Maintenance and Release of Information.
The Health
Information
Services Department and Medical Records Team is led by Christine Lewis,
manager, Coding and Chart Completion; Dell, Angel Jones, manager,
Charleston Memorial
Hospital and HIS/PAS and Ambulatory Records; Colleen Gary, Clinical
Documentation Improvement Program; Patty MacFarland, business manager
and
Penzola Hazel, HIS Quality Improvement Coordinator, organized HIS team
information to submit for the award.
Other
HIS staff include:Janice Alston,
Leona Anderson, Suni Blair, Kathy Borrero, Loretta Bowles, Debra
Brigham,
Cleveland Britton, Sandra Burnett, Rina Butler, Donna Capers, Louis
Castagnaro,
William Chisolm, Suellen Coningsby, Gwen Cox, Angela Curry, Barbara
Ditmore,
Bobbie Frasier, Adrian Gadsden, Deborah Gantt, Margaret Gethers, Kelly
Gibson,
John Gieske, Susi Gregg, Shirley Hadnod, Aisha Hall, Shani Hamilton,
Deborah
Harder, Zenobia Hawkins, Dianne Kelly, Maureen Kelsey-Burke, Linda
Kirvin,
Cheryl Lee, Jessica Logan, Annie Lee Logue, Gail Mack, Sandra
Manigault,
Vanessa Manigault, Ethel Maxey, Mary McNeal, Rosemary Milligan, Debi
Myers
Cindy Morris, Madeline Mungin, Hattie Murray, Barbara Nesbitt, Cinnie
North,
Pam Parker Pam Parris, Wanda Parson, Mary Ann Reid, Donna Reilly,
Stephanie
Rivera, Veronica Rivers, Beatrice Robinson, Patty Rose, Norma Sawyers,
Rainey
Scott, Ann Shuler Susan Sellers, Ella Mae Smalls, Leslie Smalls, Tina
Smith,
Dorothy Thomas, Maria del Carmen Turner, Hazel Washington, Claire
White, Beverly
Wright and Joe Young.
HIS
team and
other professional leadership
Allen
Coulter –
coordinator-Education and Quality Review for Patient
Access Services; Coulter was elected President of the S.C. Chapter of
the
National Association of Healthcare Access Managers. He is certified in
Healthcare Access Management (CHAM).
Cindy
Williams – manager-Patient
Access Services; Williams was
elected Membership Chair for the S.C. Chapter of the National
Association of
Healthcare Access Managers.
Christine
Lewis – manager of Health
Information Services, Coding and
Incomplete Records; Lewis was recently elected president of the S.C.
Chapter of
the Health Information Management Association, which is the state
association
for the American Health Information Management Association. She is a
certified
coding specialist and a certified coding specialist-physician.
Friday, Nov. 3, 2006
Catalyst Online is published weekly,
updated
as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public
Relations
for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of
South
Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at
792-4107
or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to
Catalyst
Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to
catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island
Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.
|