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Tribune News Network
Doha
PRIMARY Health Care Corporation (PHCC), in partnership with American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), has launched a custom-made Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) training programme for its physicians.
The programme is recommended by PHCC Health Information Management Steering Committee as part of physicians' Continuous Medical Education.
"We are delighted to partner with AHIMA in the Clinical Documentation Improvement training programme for PHCC physicians. We believe that considering CDI as a key element of PHCC strategy will improve all aspects of our operations," said Dr Taha Abdulhameed, lead subject matter expert physician at PHCC.
The programme aims to ensure patients' safety, continuity of care and quality electronic referrals to HMC and Sidra.
"By ensuring and facilitating the accuracy of reporting of diagnoses and procedures, Clinical Documentation Improvement will help PHCC be compliant with quality measures. Furthermore, when put as a priority for PHCC physicians, it will result in greater cooperation between different clinical teams and improve patient outcomes," Dr Taha added.
PHCC is ensuring successful integration of clinical documentation with an electronic medical record by engaging 75 of its clinical staff, mainly physicians, into this training programme held at Lebaib Health Center. The physicians will then transfer the knowledge to their colleagues to improve their clinical documentation for the success of the entire PHCC organisation.
"AHIMA World Congress (AWC) is supporting PHCC to help create a CDI programme and start staff on the path to professional staff certification in CDI. PHCC and AWC are pioneering this initiative in Qatar to create a case for both effective organisational improvement and workforce development for entire Primary Healthcare system in Qatar," said Alexandre Bouch`, global managing director of AHIMA and AWC.
Following the full implementation of Cerner Clinical Information Systems across all 23 PHCC, which went live in July 2016, the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) has been successfully utilised since then by all PHCC clinicians to document patient care visits that reach almost 10,000 a day.
The EMR system, which includes radiology images, is fully shared with HMC. This facilitates communication between physicians managing patient care in a time-efficient manner.
To ensure the continuity of the health information technology success, PHCC is now directing its efforts into quality clinical documentation to improve Patient Care and Safety. The CDI has a direct impact on patient care by providing information to all members of the care team as well as those downstream who may be treating the patient at a further stage.
Clinical Documentation will soon be available to patients through an online patient portal. As Clinical Documentation is intrinsically linked to clinical coding by validating care that was provided, it will help to optimise claims processing within the framework of the upcoming health insurance.
