How to Prevent Medical Coding Errors
The people who work as managers, consultants, auditors and coders often make mistakes in their work which is not because they are not hardworking, dedicated, conscientious and detail-oriented, but is due to some medical coding errors which are made by every human being on the face of the earth.
Although, errors are made by every person, however, there are some errors which are only made in coding processes. If you are facing some medical coding errors, you can minimise them or even remove them by concentrating on few things.
Instructions
-
1
Carelessness
The most common error which is made by the professionals which involve in coding the data is that they often don’t pay attention to the full document because of the pressure of completing the work on time. Furthermore, they get make mistakes because they get distracted from their work due to any reason. If you are facing this problem, it is very easy to overcome as you just have to keep your focus on the thing which you are doing. -
2
Incomplete documentation
Sometimes, you might not have a complete document from which you are coding an assignment. It eventually causes mistakes. Therefore, you have to make sure that you have the complete document from where you are going to take the information or data for coding. -
3
Encoder pathways
In order to determine the code and DRG assignments, the coders use different clinical encoders. They can follow an incorrect pathway which will lead to incorrect coding assignment without knowing that an error has been made. Therefore, the coder must memorise the pathways in order to abstain from such mistakes. If it is hard to memorise all the pathways, you can simply keep the list of all the useful pathways with you during your work. -
4
Wrong principal diagnosis selection
It is quite common that a coder can use wrong principal diagnosis for making a coding assignment, which will contain errors in the end. It may occur due to misinterpretation or misunderstanding about some terms. This medical error can be removed if you pay attention to the detail and learn and memorise the principal diagnosis by practising as much as possible. -
5
Missing secondary diagnoses
Coders often make mistakes in their assignments because they miss the secondary diagnosis which is compulsory for the reporting. Therefore, it is very important to go through the whole document to avoid any kind of mistakes.
