Thursday, August 13, 2009

Completed vs Locked Document - Protecting The Integrity of Your PCR Data

The history of patient care reporting in Lee County made a huge leap with the selection of the ImageTrend solution. With earlier version of patient care reporting whether paper or electronic, once the patient care report was submitted for billing purposes then the patient care report was complete. Certainly an addendum could be done to add any extra information to the report, but not to the degree that information can be added to the ImageTrend solution. With ImageTrend, crews have the ability to view the documents and the information as appears to anyone who might retrieve the data in the future. Making a change on the Service Bridge today directly reflects the information that appears in the official record.

 

This ability has created a new set of issues for Lee County as well. Patient care reports must be submitted to the billing vendor in order to recover revenue. This occurs through an automated process that runs nightly (@1 a.m. EST) that looks at the validity of the call and the status of the call and determines whether or not it is acceptable to move on to the billing vendor. There are a series of algorithms that this process looks at to determine whether the PCR moves forward for billing, or moves into a status that requires a review of data. If when this automated process runs, the PCR has a score of 100% validity then it will be Locked and Completed.

 

What do these automated processes mean for you and Lee County? As the author of information, there is an incentive for the calls to be locked and completed.

A)      It means that you did your work and this work was billable.

B)      It means that the document that you prepared to support your work cannot be altered without a recording of what changes were made occurs.

C)      Any changes that are made to the document require a supervisor to unlock the PCR so that changes can be made. Even when unlocked, these changes are recorded.

 

Definitions:

Locked means the document is locked and no changes can be made to the document without authority.

Completed means that changes can be made to the document and these changes will be recorded in an audit trail.

 

The screenshots depict the various screens that you will see as relates to this document.

 

What does this topic require of you? Nothing specifically; however, if you are truly concerned about the quality and integrity of your document before the end of each shift visit Safelee, verify that your document has 100% valid, complete and accurate, then Mark Run as Completed. This will ensure any changes that are made are recorded for your protection. Once a document is marked as completed, the only changes or updates to the document must occur on the Service Bridge. If you fail to upload input into the document before it is marked as completed, then realize it the next shift, this will require you to request a supervisor to unlock the document and input the data into the Service Bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, August 3, 2009

Transfer of Care & Validity Compliance

 

Frustrated that you ran a call, transferred care and now the software won’t accept 0 miles. This is a result of not selecting an accurate destination type. When transferring patient care, this can be done in one of two places – onscene or not onscene. If patient care is transferred at scene then mileage is not required. If patient care is transferred at other than the scene, then mileage is required.

 

  • Other EMS Responder (Ground) – Mileage Not Required
  • Other EMS Responder (Air) – Mileage Not Required
  • Other EMS Responder (At Scene Ground) – Mileage > 0 Required
  • Other EMS Responder (At Scene Air) – Mileage > 0 Required

Do No Have Proper Credentials?

Are you getting the error that reads, “Field Bridge is unable to post, current user does not have proper credentials.  Please log-off and log back in, if it continues contact administrator.” This is likely because you changed your password on the Service Bridge (web interface) and that password has not synched down to the Field Bridge (Toughbook/client interface). When this happens, simply Sync the software so that it pulls down your new credentials (password) and you should be find.

 

Currently, passwords are set to be reset every 60 days. We are working to determining if this window of time is sufficient based on HIPAA and security considerations.