Question

You are the new imaging supervisor. The previous supervisor recently retired after 35 years of service to the hospital. The facility has had the imaging system only for the past 6 months.

The scanners are responsible for prepping the medical records as well as the actual scanning. They do not index*, nor do they conduct quality checks. If the quality control clerks find more than 1-2 pages in a chart that need to be rescanned, the chart is returned to the scanners for rework.

The first thing that you noticed as the significant backlog of charts to be scanned. You learn that the previous supervisor did not want to create productivity standards until the system had been used for the least a year. The scanners do not even turn in a report of their work each day. It is going to take some more time to develop appropriate productivity standards. In the meantime, you plan to have the scanners report their productivity each day.

1. Use good form principles to develop the productivity report required.

2. What would you recommend to get the scanners caught up in their work?

3. How will you establish productivity standards?

Answer 1

1. A balance must be maintained properly between swift coding and accurate coding before focusing on speed. Swift coding cannot be the driving force of the imaging system but it can be utilized as an additional standard for competent and accurate coding.
2. If I am told to recommend,

• I would recommend my staffs to segregate tasks accordingly so that scanners can address their work specifically.
• I would also be careful enough in distributing works among my staffs.
• Proper distribution of work among my staffs would enable me to maintain an unbiased working culture treating everyone equally.

3. It is important to establish a productivity standard accordingly to align it with the departmental standard. All managers and staffs must be accountable for managing and attaining departmental standards properly. Coders should be accountable for their own performance standard. However, managers must be responsible to encourage and coach slow coders if any performance gap is addressed. Consequences of performances of coders must be clearly established. Coders should be hired based on their working experiences in this specific field. Coders must be responsible to serve inpatients, outpatients, physicians, and faculties. The proper establishment and maintenance of standard must comply with healthcare facilities to achieve ultimate goals.