Rely On Technology for Tightening Team Communication
Question: I’m trying to get my coding team on the same page, generally, but I’m also trying to increase communication across the team. Are there any silver bullet remedies for getting folks to talk more? Arkansas Subscriber Answer: Does your office use a platform or software suite for computer work? There are several communication platforms or programs available for office work. If your coders may be discussing protected health information (PHI), make sure your information technology (IT) team and compliance officer configure your chosen application or platform or program to establish and maintain HIPAA compliance. Once your chosen program is ready, establish a channel that’s for the coding team, where they can bounce questions off of one another — while making sure information isn’t siloed between certain coders. This can increase communication and engender more consistency in coding, as everyone can discuss and see which choices are made when someone needs help. If you want to further decrease the siloing of your team members who work on coding and documentation, you can create an additional, larger channel that incorporates clinical documentation integrity or improvement (CDI) specialists. That can bring more of your practice onto the same page. You can implement rules and policies about when it is and isn’t OK to mute the channel, too. Rachel Dorrell, MA, MS, CPC-A, CPPM, Production Editor, AAPC
