Effects of training on coding accuracy of obstetrical diagnosis in Naili DBS Hospital

Abstract

Accurate billing is crucial for the financial health of medical institutions. Billing and coding are based on what services are documented by the provider and selection of the appropriate code is most commonly done by the provider or a coding specialist. 3 Medical coding is the transformation of healthcare diagnosis, procedures, medical services, and equipment into universal medical alphanumeric codes. It can be subsequently used for ABSTRACT Background: The accuracy of clinical coding is very important in the proper financing of health care centers. During January to February 2019, only 35 out of 60 obstetrical cases that were well coded (58%) in Naili DBS Hospital and this miscoding would led to a big financial loss. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of training on coding accuracy. Methods: This study was conducted during April 2019 in Naili DBS Hospital using quasi experimental method, with one group pretest and post-test design. All 11 participants were given a pretest consisted of 10 long cases (maximum score=38) and the training was conducted based on the identified needs from the preliminary audit. They were then given a post-test to see the effect of the training. Results: The mean score of pretest was 10.7 and the mean score of post-test was 19.7. The individual scores were normalized and then analyzed using SPSS with paired sample T-test. Based on statistical analysis, p<0.005 meaning the traning is statistically significant on improving the coding accuracy in obstetrical diagnosis. Conclusions:The training has significantly improved the score of well coded obstetrical diagnosis, even though the participants have not reached the maximum score. Furthermore, our study suggests that it is important to analyze the coders" performance months after the training by conducting a coding audit.

Evaluating the effect of an in-service training workshop on ICD-10 coding instructions of pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium for clinical coders

“…The reaction-level results revealed that the nurses were highly satisfied with the educational content, the training length, and the applications of this course in clinical work [ 26 ]. Oashttamadea has also noted the significant role of training in improving the accuracy of delivery coding [ 11 ].…”

“…According to Alonso, the main obstacles to ensuring the quality of coded data are the clinical coders’ limited understanding of the medical terminology, the clinical coders’ experience, or problems within health records, e.g., a lack of specificity of the recorded data or imperfections of the classification system [ 10 ]. Clinical Coders are responsible for the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the allocated codes, factors that ensure the quality of coding [ 11 ].…”

“…One way to update and improve the knowledge and skills of healthcare workers, including clinical coders, is to provide in-service training [ 15 – 17 ]. Professional coder training is a fundamental method for eliminating code inconsistency [ 11 ]. Since clinical coders generate the data and are the key determinants of the quality of ICD codes, in-service training is essential for them [ 18 ].…”