Physicians are under increased pressure to boost patient care volumes while also charting, consulting, participating in meetings and completing many other tasks. It’s no wonder many are skeptical about taking time to undergo training from a vendor regarding their clinical documentation practices. And yet, inaccurate documentation has a cascading effect – from coding errors and omissions, to payment denials and incorrect population health data. Until physicians become aware of documentation issues they are perpetuating and then consciously make changes, the problems will persist. Paramount Health Solutions (PHS) has an excellent track record of providing targeted, efficient CDI training to physicians at hospitals and health systems all across the country. Dr. Bilal Mushtaq, M.D., co-founder and COO of PHS, says their approach is based on their own personal experiences working in the healthcare industry and their expertise in coding. He’s a strong advocate for peer-to-peer physician training. Dr. Mushtaq gave a shortlist of the reasons why PHS is so effective at peer-to-peer physician training for clinical documentation improvement:

1. Establishing trust, respect and open dialogue.
2. Being very aware of the limited time the physician has for training.
3. Asking only appropriate and relevant questions that focus on a physician’s area of specialty.
4. Fully explaining the rationale and the industry guidelines as to why something should be changed.

“When we do physician-to-physician education, we’re talking about their cases,” Dr. Mushtaq said. “That is a much more relatable process than just presenting generalities. If we only have 30 minutes, we make sure we’re hitting those points relevant to who the physicians are and their specialty.” Dr. Mushtaq said another tactic is for the entire physician team at PHS to review recommendations together before presenting them to the clients. “When we identify opportunities, we first sit through as a team to go through all of the issues to make sure that when we get on a call with our clients, they will understand exactly what we’re asking them for.” With the national error rate about 20% for clinical documentation, the Paramount Health Solutions team is dedicated to helping their clients close the gap and improve their documentation, coding and validation. Paramount Health Solutions offers an initial 90-day pre-bill audit with custom recommendations at no out-of-pocket cost to hospitals. For more information, fill out a short request form here.