1. RVU ready? Preparing emergency medicine resident physicians in documentation for an incentive-based work environment
- Author
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Kelly Carter, Luan Lawson, Brian C. Dawson, and Kori L. Brewer
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,business.industry ,MEDLINE ,Internship and Residency ,General Medicine ,Emergency department ,Documentation ,medicine.disease ,Relative Value Scales ,Work environment ,Incentive ,Resource-based relative value scale ,Intervention (counseling) ,Emergency medicine ,Emergency Medicine ,Medicine ,Humans ,Medical emergency ,Curriculum ,Forms and Records Control ,business ,Emergency Service, Hospital ,Reimbursement, Incentive ,Reimbursement - Abstract
Objectives: The emergency medicine (EM) job market is increasingly focused on incentive-based reimbursement, which is largely based on relative value units (RVUs) and is directly related to documentation of patient care. Previous studies have shown a need to improve resident education in documentation. The authors created a focused educational intervention on billing and documentation practices to meet this identified need. The hypothesis of this study was that this educational intervention would result in an increase in RVUs generated by EM resident physicians and the average amount billed per patient. Methods: The authors used a quasi-experimental study design. An educational intervention included a 1-hour lecture on documentation and billing, biweekly newsletters, and case-specific feedback from the billing department for EM resident physicians. RVUs and charges generated per patient were recorded for all second- and third-year resident physicians for a 3-month period prior to the educational intervention and for a 3-month period following the intervention. Pre- and postintervention data were compared using Student’s t-test and repeated-measures analysis of variance, as appropriate. Results: The evaluation and management (E/M) chart levels billed during each phase of the study were significantly different (p
- Published
- 2009