Wiki Emergency Dept - Inpatient Services

[teresa_bondoc@yahoo.com]

I'm currently working in a new hospital. How do we bill for the patients in ER, who just got admitted as inpatient, but cannot be transferred to the ward/regular room yet due to unavailability of room? I was informed that we cannot bill a regular room (i.e. Med Surg rate) if the hospital capacity is at its maximum. Some suggested terminologies such as ER-holding or ER-overflow...but we don't have details on how to set the codes for billing.

Thank you for your feedback.
Marites

 

[mitchellde]

Inpatient is a status not a bed. As soon as the order is written for inpatient admission, the patient is considered to be inpatient. If a bed on the appropriate unit is not available, then the bed currently occupied by the patient is that inpatient bed. During the bed shortage in our area for inpatient beds, it was not unusual to have med surge patients on the cardiology floor or the geriatric unit or even pediatric unit. It does not matter where the patient physically is located, it is the status of the patient as ordered by the provider.