Patient Benefits from IHS/HIM Functions

Module 10 Lab - Patient Benefits from IHS/HIM Functions

An Integrated healthcare system brings together multiple physician offices and sometimes hospitals. Other healthcare services can be included in the system such as rehabilitative services (physical therapy, occupational therapy), home care services, outpatient surgery centers, pharmacies, ambulance service, durable medical equipment providers, and others. One challenge associated with this sort of merger is to implement policies and provide a single, common advisory board.

As financial pressures increase in healthcare organizations (hospitals, clinics, physician offices, etc.), more innovative and creative management is needed. The HIM department involved in integration efforts can be consulted or responsible for:

· Meeting the information needs of internal and external customers

· Revising policies and procedures, creating new policies and procedures.

· Creating health record guidelines.

· Merging coding, billing and collection functions.

Table 1 below contains information about a group of small regional healthcare facilities which were recently acquired by the Live Well Integrated Healthcare System (IHS). All facilities are within 45 miles of the St. Louis Live Well Hospital location (described in Table 2).

Table 1: The facilities which have been acquired are described below:

Name	Acquisition's Facility Location	Medical Record Format	Medical Record ID format	Practice Specialty
DurHealth	Durenson, Illinois	4 numeric digits	4578	Pediatric
MorHealth	Morristown, Missouri	6 numeric digits	015896	Internal Medicine and Urgent Care
Dr. Behrens Office	Durenson, Illinois	3 alpha (1st three of last name, 4 numeric (month and year DOB)	Gar0161	Family Practice
For Health	Foreston, Missouri	6 numeric	410255	Pediatric
ProHealth	St. Louis, Missouri	6 numeric	885547	Family Practice
AJ Health Services	St. Louis, Missouri	9 alpha (6 from last name and 3 from first name)	Johns Amy	Emergency transport, EMT, Paramedic, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy.

Table 2: The St. Louis Live Well Hospital is described as follows:

Name	Facility Location	Medical Record Format	MR# Example	Specialty
Live Well Hospital	Eagleton, Missouri	6 digits, numeric	334578	General Acute Care including: General/Ortho Surgery; OB/GYN services; Emergency Room; Urgent Care; Home Health Care; and Hospice

Use the information provided above to complete the worksheet on the following pages.

Worksheet (Save this document when it is complete, rename it, and submit for evaluation.)

A. The Live Well healthcare system would like to rename the practices and entities that are merging; they would like to give them names that reflect their connection to the Live Well system. In the spaces provided in the table below, propose new names for each of the five physician clinics plus the AJ Health Services entity.

Current Name	Proposed Name – Connecting to Live Well IHS
DurHealth	1)
MorHealth	2)
Dr. Behrens Office	3)
For Health	4)
ProHealth	5)
AJ Rehab Services	6)
7) As one of several HIM Management Tasks during integration of a healthcare system, a standardized medical record format is needed for all facilities in the new Live Well system. Select one of the Medical Record ID formats to be used (from the list of those currently used by the clinics located above in Table 1). The other clinics will be expected to ultimately convert their medical records to the new Medical Record ID format. Indicate the format chosen below and, using complete sentences, explain your reasoning for the format you selected.

B. Consider the following patient scenarios from an Integrated Health System perspective. In the space provided next to each, make a patient referral recommendation from the available Integrated Live Well Facilities (Note: since the facility renaming has not occurred yet, you should use the existing facility names listed in Tables 1 and 2). The patient is Judy, an adult female, 42 years old and she lives in Durenson, Missouri. She lives with her extended family including grandmother, husband, her two sons and a dog. If a facility is not available, make a recommendation for "outside" meaning the patient will be served outside of Live Well IHS.

Patient Scenario	Patient Referral Recommendation
Judy needs Day care surgery for hammertoe correction	8)
Annual Physical for Judy’s new job	9)
Judy gets treated for a sore throat while vacationing in Iron Mountain, Michigan	10)
Judy gets transported from fender bender, 2 miles from Morristown, for treatment	11)
Judy gets Urgent Care for x-rays, treatment of knee laceration	12)
Judy gets physical therapy for knee strengthening	13)
Judy gets home care	14)
15) Consider your HIM, database, and information knowledge as well as patient care and safety benefits. Then list some related benefits for Judy to enroll in the Live Well IHS – help her understand the advantages to her as a patient of Live Well IHS. Use complete sentences, punctuation, spelling, etc.