CCI prioritize patient care.
Data is one of the most valuable assets for CCI Anesthesia. Our billing and compliance experts regularly examine documentation samples at our clients’ facilities to ensure thoroughness and accuracy in charting, whether done on paper or electronically. Our practice management teams monitor our clients’ operational efficiency in real-time with our tablet-based electronic medical record (EMR) system, while our clinical informatics team continually monitors quality metrics. This practice benefits our clients by decreasing costs, increasing efficiency, raising quality and improving clinical outcomes.
Anesthesia Data: Key to Billing, Quality and Research
Information management is essential in anesthesia care, as comprehensive documentation provides many benefits. The most obvious use for consistent documentation is in billing and regulatory compliance, but it also helps practices set goals, benchmark performance and improve quality.
These features provide strong benefits for clinical research and risk management. In addition, a thorough review of anesthesia data can identify inefficiencies in staffing models. CCI Anesthesia works hard to educate anesthesia providers on the proper techniques for creating and maintaining documentation, helping to ensure their data has the best possible quality.
Priority KPIs for Anesthesia
CCI measures key performance indicators (KPIs) with Merlin, a proprietary web-based perioperative metrics system available to our clients from our suite of perioperative resources. It provides our clients with KPIs that help them take control of their perioperative services by leveraging their data with analytics that maximize performance. The KPIs that Merlin reports include:
OR Utilization
ORs should have a constant level of use each day to prevent long periods of non-use. Most hospitals try to achieve an OR utilization of 75 to 80 percent, so schedulers can add emergency cases when needed.
First Case On-Time Starts
This metric measures the percentage of first cases that start on time each day, typically meaning the patient is in the OR within 15 minutes of the scheduled start time. First case on-time starts show how smoothly the OR is running.
Turnover Times
Low turnover times help minimize variability among surgeons, which is essential for consistent quality of care. High turnover times often mean that the nursing, environmental services (housekeeping) and anesthesia teams aren’t working well together.
Surgical Volume
This metric measures the number of surgeries each day and their times. It can show trends in the practice’s growth.
Best Practices for Anesthesia Data Management
Tips for anesthesia information management include creating checklists, providing complete clinical information and avoiding collection problems.
Complete Clinical Information
Clinical data includes agents and drugs utilized, equipment used and order sets. This information must be accurate and thorough for it to be worth analyzing, which can improve patient safety, facility accreditation and regulatory compliance. Clinical information should be analyzed at least once each quarter to ensure any oversights are corrected in a timely manner.
Avoid Collection Problems
The billing process should be inspected once the clinical data has been reviewed for completeness. It’s essential to ensure that an anesthesia practice sends all of this information to its billing system, whether internal or outsourced to a service. Missing information required by payors is a common cause of delays in reimbursements from insurance providers and payments from patients.
How CCI Can Help Manage Your Data
Documentation is a critical requirement in anesthesia, requiring regular reviews for accuracy and completeness. In addition, that data must be analyzed to identify opportunities for improvement in the operating room, including inefficient use of the OR or poor patient care. Anesthesia Information Management Systems (AIMs) overcome many problems with manual data collection by making anesthesia data more accessible, allowing other departments to make more informed decisions.
CCI Anesthesia has helped many clients implement the right AIMS for their needs. We also offer advice on avoiding common implementation mistakes and customizing EHRs for each client.
Contact us today to learn more about how your anesthesia department manages its data to improve your care continuum. Our approach to anesthesia information management can eliminate inefficiencies and decrease costs for your surgery center.