Clinical documentation policies and procedures should:
a. Dictate the practices and procedures for medical treatment
b. Encompass nationally recognized guidelines
c. Meet all the requirements of physician leaders
d. Be created by and specifically for each organization - Answers d
In order to be both effective and efficient, each organization must be guided by policies and procedures
that are created and specific to the organization. This includes policies and procedures regarding clinical
documentation.
What document outlines the work to be performed by a specific employee or group of employees with
the same responsibilities?
a. Union contract
b. Policy and Procedure Manual
c. Job evaluation
d. Job description - Answers d
Job Description
In all positions it is important to develop requirements for employee success to perform their job. For
the release information technician position, the statement, "apply policies and procedures for disclosure
of health information to process requests with 98% accuracy," would be considered a:
a. Procedure
b. Mission
c. Policy
d. Competency - Answers d
Competencies are "do" statements identifying measurable skills, abilities, behaviors, or other
characteristics required of an individual in order to complete the work required in a successful manner.
This example provides competencies for a release of information specialist
,An audit of the document imaging process reveals that the HIM department staff is scanning 250 pages
per hour and indexing 114 pages per hour. If the department is meeting its productivity standard for
scanning, but is only meeting 60 percent of the indexing standard, how many more pages per hour must
be indexed to meet the indexing standard?
a. 45.6 pages
b. 68.4 pages
c. 76 pages
d. 190 pages - Answers c
Productivity standards should be based on both accuracy and volume. In this situation, .60 = 190;
190 − 114 = 76 more pages will need to be indexed to meet the productivity standard
What kind of planning addresses long-term needs and sets comprehensive plans of action?
a. Tactical
b. Operational
c. Strategic
d. Administrative - Answers c
A strategic plan is the document in which the leadership of a healthcare organization identifies the
organization's overall mission, vision, and goals to help define the long-term direction of the
organization
Helen is the HIM department head, and has been asked to share a SWOT analysis of her department
with her new boss. One aspect of Helen's SWOT analysis indicates that the chart tracking software is
over 10 years old and is not compatible with the digital dictation system. In a SWOT analysis, this would
be a(n):
a. Strength
b. Weakness
c. Opportunity
d. Threat - Answers b
,The process to develop a strategic and operational plan begins with a SWOT (acronym for strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. In a SWOT analysis, key leadership personnel
determine the strengths of the organization (what the company does well), the weaknesses (needs for
improvement), and establishes future opportunities (and evaluates threats to those opportunities). This
scenario is an example of weakness in a SWOT analysis
The HIM department is developing a system to track coding productivity. The director wants the system
to track the productivity of each coder by productive hours worked per day, health record ID, type of
records coded, and to provide weekly productivity reports and analyses. Which of the following tools
would be best to use for this purpose?
a. Word-processing documents
b. Paper log book
c. Spreadsheet
d. Database management system - Answers d
The database management system is the best option to collect, store, manipulate, and retrieve data for
this situation. Paper and word-processing documents cannot sort and store the data in a meaningful
way for this purpose. Spreadsheets should be used for accounting-type functions and not for data
storage
An HIM department is projecting workforce needs for its document scanning process. The intent of the
department is to scan patient records at the time of discharge, providing a 24-hour turnaround time.
The hospital has an average daily discharge of 120 patients, and each patient record has an average of
200 pages. Given the benchmarks listed here, what is the least amount of work hours needed each day
to meet a 24-hour turnaround time?
National Benchmarks for Document Scanning Processes
Function Expectations per Worked Hour
Prepping 340-500 images
Scanning 1,200-2,400 images
Quality Control 1,600-2,000 images
Indexing 600-800 images
a. 100 hours
b. 146 hours
, c. 1,000 hours
d. 3,740 hours - Answers a
The question is asking for the least amount of hours needed to meet the 24-hour turnaround time. The
average discharge in a 24-hour period is 120 patients, and the average number of pages for each patient
chart is 200. So, 120 × 200 = 24,000 pages in a 24-hour period. Each chart must be prepped, scanned,
checked for quality, and indexed. The highest number of pages that can go through all these processes
in an hour would be: 500 images in prepping; 2,400 images in scanning; 2,000 images in quality control;
and 800 images in indexing.
24, = 48 hours needed for prepping
24,,400 = 10 hours for scanning
24,,000 = 12 hours for quality control
24, = 30 hours for indexing
48 + 10 + 12 + 30 = 100 hours, at least, needed each day to meet a 24-hour turnaround time
A coder with a vision impairment may need additional workspace lighting and a larger computer
monitor installed with adjustments to screen contrast and magnification. This would an example of a(n):
a. Unreasonable accommodation
b. Essential job function
c. Reasonable accommodation
d. Discrimination - Answers c
Reasonable accommodations are actions taken by an employer to allow a disabled applicant or
employee access to a work opportunity. The disabled person is typically expected to request the
accommodation. Examples of accommodations might include altering their work schedule, modifying
office equipment or software
To develop performance standards for release of information turnaround time, the manager conducted
a literature search and contacted peer institutions. Which method did she use?
a. Benchmarking
b. Workflow analysis