Clinical Documentation Specialist Level 1

NYC Health + Hospitals; New York (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx seeks a clinical documentation professional to optimize physician documentation, ensuring accurate severity of illness and appropriate reimbursement. The role emphasizes collaboration with health information management and physicians to maintain high quality records.

Required credentials include NY RN/NP/PA licenses or equivalent medical degree with experience in acute care, DRG assignment, and documentation improvement.

Qualifications

• New York State RN, NP, PA licenses or equivalent medical degree.
• BSN preferred; multiple license paths acceptable.
• Experience in acute care and medical record review.
• Familiarity with DRG, CMI and reimbursement workflows.

Responsibilities

• Improve physician documentation quality, completeness and timeliness through chart review and queries.
• Obtain documentation to accurately capture acuity, severity and mortality risk.
• Perform concurrent and retrospective reviews to support DRG assignment.
• Query providers for clarification; maintain records of reviews and queries.
• Provide feedback and follow-up on chart clarifications before discharge.
• Identify weaknesses affecting financial opportunities and coordinate with Finance.
• Analyze data trends to identify improvement opportunities and present findings.
• Assist in training staff and educating providers on coding guidelines.
• Participate in meetings and QA/PI activities; support remote work as needed.

Skills

Clinical documentation

Analytical thinking

Communication skills

LEAN concepts

Education

Registered Nurse (RN) license NY

Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

Nurse Practitioner (NP) license NY

Physician Assistant (PA) license NY

Foreign Medical Graduate

Medical degree

Job description

Marketing Statement

Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center is one of New York City’s premier acute care hospitals. Located in Downtown Bronx, Lincoln is a teaching hospital renowned for its Centers of Excellence, and a recognized industry leader in the implementation of state-of-the art medical technology and best practices. Our team of highly trained and caring medical professionals is dedicated to providing the highest quality health care that is safe, compassionate, culturally competent and patient-centered. Comprehensive services are offered in three major primary care areas: Medicine, Pediatrics, and Women’s Health in addition to more than eighty (80) specialty services. At Lincoln, the safety and comfort of our patients is our number one priority.

Marketing Statement

Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center is one of New York City’s premier acute care hospitals. Located in Downtown Bronx, Lincoln is a teaching hospital renowned for its Centers of Excellence, and a recognized industry leader in the implementation of state-of-the art medical technology and best practices. Our team of highly trained and caring medical professionals is dedicated to providing the highest quality health care that is safe, compassionate, culturally competent and patient-centered. Comprehensive services are offered in three major primary care areas: Medicine, Pediatrics, and Women’s Health in addition to more than eighty (80) specialty services. At Lincoln, the safety and comfort of our patients is our number one priority. At NYC Health + Hospitals, our mission is to deliver high quality care health services, without exception. Every employee takes a person-centered approach that exemplifies the ICARE values (Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence) through empathic communication and partnerships between all persons.

Duties & Responsibilities

Purpose of Position

Under the direction of the Director of Clinical Documentation, Director of Health Information Management or a designee for revenue management and recovery, facilitates and obtains appropriate physician documentation for clinical conditions or procedures to support the appropriate severity of Illness, expected risk of mortality, and complexity of patient care and to optimize reimbursement, ensuring patient centered quality care, optimal utilization of resources, service delivery and compliance with NYC Health + Hospitals, hospital, and all relevant regulatory policies, procedures, and standards of care for better outcomes and improved patient experience. Demonstrates effective communication, planning, and organizational skills and keeps current knowledge in the clinical documentation field and of all applicable regulations. All personnel perform related work and may perform tasks remotely, as authorized.

Under supervision, performs assigned duties related to reviewing, reporting, processing and quality assurance of clinical documentation.

Examples Of Typical Tasks

• Facilitates improvement in the overall quality, completeness, accuracy, specificity and timeliness of physician clinical record documentation through extensive medical record review, query process, and effective communication with appropriate clinical and coding staff, and by utilizing computer programs and systems.
• Obtains appropriate physician documentation for clinical conditions or procedures through extensive on-going interaction with physicians, other patient caregivers, and medical records coding staff to ensure the clinical documentation properly captures information describing patients’ acuity, severity of illness, and risk of mortality. Reflects the level of service delivered to patients is appropriate, complete, and accurate and supports appropriate reimbursement for the level of service rendered to all patients.
• Completes concurrent and retrospective reviews of patient records for a specified patient population to evaluate documentation to assign the principal diagnosis, pertinent secondary diagnoses, postadmission complications and procedures for accurate Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) assignment and Case Mix Index (CMI), risk of mortality, and severity of illness.
• Queries physicians for incomplete, inconsistent, unclear or conflicting health record documentation to clarify and resolve conflicting information in patient’s medical record prior to patient’s discharge; maintains a record of review and query activities and other appropriate records.
• Provides feedback and completes follow-up review of patient medical record, to ensure points of clarification have been addressed and recorded in the patient’s chart, and to assign a working/updated or final DRG upon patient discharge and before final coding and quality reporting submissions, as necessary.
• Identifies and reports areas of weakness that may impact financial opportunities, and works with Finance or other appropriate staff in resolution of problems.
• Participates in the analysis and trending of statistical data for specified patient populations to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Assists with preparation and presentation of clinical documentation monitoring/trending reports for review with physicians and hospital leadership.
• Assists in the orientation and training of new staff members, and provides continual guidance and mentoring, as required.
• Educates providers on proper clinical documentation and coding guidelines and practices, and compliance and reimbursement issues on an ongoing basis. Advises on the impact of provider documentation on accurate reporting of a patient’s clinical information and reimbursement.
• Attends and/or participates in staff, departmental and interdisciplinary meetings, LEAN efficiency/ process improvement events, training and quality assurance/performance improvement (QA/PI) activities.
• Performs other related work, as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Valid New York State license and current registration to practice as a Registered Professional Nurse(RN) issued by the New York State Education Department (NYSED); and Bachelor of Science inNursing degree from an accredited college or university; and four (4) years of acute care experience;or
• Valid New York State license and current registration to practice as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) issuedby the NYSED; and two (2) years of experience, as described in “1” above; or
• Valid New York State license and current registration to practice as a Physician Assistant (PA)issued by the NYSED; and two (2) years of experience, as described in “1” above; or
• Foreign Medical Graduate; and, two (2) years of medical records review or utilization and case management experience; or
• Successful completion of education that leads to a medical degree; and two (2) years of experience,as described in “4” above.