The Impact of a Clinical Documentation Improvement Program
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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine if the implementation of a Clinical Documentation Improvement Program will provide an impact to the patient’s acuity scores in a healthcare organization. These acuity scores, in combination with other metrics, are utilized in public reporting of healthcare institutions. By portraying the most accurate clinical picture possible, healthcare organizations have the potential to increase their Case Mix Index which could also bring in more revenue. At this time there is limited documentation available providing results benchmarking of Clinical Documentation Improvement Programs. The majority, if not all, of the literature explains the need to implement a program and how to structure and organize the efforts surrounding it. This study will look at the outcomes experienced at one facility to determine if their implementation provided improvements. Upon completion of this study, it was determined that the implementation of Clinical Documentation Improvement Program provided an impact to the facility in terms of their acuity scores. There was also an increase realized in their overall Case Mix Index. Therefore, as evidenced in this study, Clinical Documentation Improvement Programs are an important initiative to implement at any healthcare institution.