Physicians and other healthcare professionals spend a large amount of time coding patient data. A medical coder is responsible for entering the codes into electronic medical records, billing the insurance company, and submitting claims to receive reimbursement. The amount of time spent coders varies between practices based on their coding volume, workflow, and documentation requirements. However, most coders spend about 30–40% of their time in activities that do not lead to high productivity output. If you are looking for ways to improve your productivity as a medical coder or any other member of your team that spends time on activities that do not produce high value output, read on. This blog post provides insights into how you can increase your working hours by optimizing your work processes so you have more time to focus on activities that drive high value output at lower cost.
Create tangible workflows for your Coding team upfront
The most basic way to optimize the coding workflow is to create clear workflows. In a typical workflow, activities are ordered from the most to the least critical and take the longest time to complete. You can use workflow diagrams to visually represent your workflow and create a “to-do” list for each activity with the order of completion. You can also create workflows for team members that have different roles and accountabilities to reduce the time spent on overhead tasks. If your workflow is unclear, your coding team will spend time on activities that do not benefit the organization. In addition to creating workflows for coding activities, you can use the same approach for other team members such as transcriptionists and data entry personnel that have different roles and responsibilities to create workflows that reduce common overhead.
Automate non-value-adding tasks
Many times, activities that do not produce high-value output are manually performed due to the time and effort required to perform them correctly. Such activities can include documenting and logging patient information, adjusting clinical settings, learning new processes, and performing repetitive tasks. If you have staff members with specific roles that perform non-value-adding tasks, they can be automated to increase your team’s productivity. For example, if your medical coding team has a transcriptionist, you can use transcription software to turn transcription work into structured data. The software can automatically transcribe logs and logs into structured data to reduce the time spent on transcription and increase the time spent on coding activities. Automation can be done manually or with automation software.
Collaborate with other team members to identify bottlenecks
While it is important to create workflows, you also need to collaborate with team members to identify bottlenecks in their workflow and reduce those bottlenecks to free up time for value-adding activities. If a member of your coding team has a high workload and low productivity, you can use their workflows to identify bottlenecks in their workflow and create workarounds to reduce their work time and increase their productivity. For example, a medical coding team has a member who takes the longest time to enter data. After analyzing the workflow, you notice that she has to log into the computer system, enter the data manually, then transfer the data to the program. You can create an automated workflow to reduce the time she spends on overhead activities. The workflow will transfer data from the computer to the medical program and require her to just confirm the data transfer. If you do not find suitable workarounds, you can remove the bottlenecks in that workflow and increase the time for value-adding activities for that member.
Add in more frequent reviews and feedback loops
If you are managing a project or working from a formalized process, you can add more frequent reviews and feedback loops to check the progress of your team members. The most basic form of this is to ask your team members for their feedback on their workflow and the activities that take the most time. You can also have a formal feedback loop to collect this feedback from your team members to see if they are happy with their workflow. If you are managing a project based on project management software, you can create dashboards to visualize the key metrics that indicate the progress of your projects and tasks. You can use these dashboards to identify areas that require adjustments and create workarounds to increase the productivity of your team members. If you are not using structured project management software, you can create workarounds to determine how you can use visual dashboards to collect feedback and facilitate better workflow.
Takeaways
In order for your medical coding team to increase productivity, you need to create workflows that reduce overhead activities and collaborate with team members to identify bottlenecks in their workflow and reduce those bottlenecks to free up time for value-adding activities. If you are looking to increase your working hours, you need to start by creating a workflow that reduces waste in your workflow and automates non-value-adding tasks. You can then collaborate with team members to identify bottlenecks in their workflow and create workarounds to reduce their work time and increase their productivity. With these tips in mind, you will be able to maximize your time as a medical coder while minimizing waste.
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