The health record is coded and the codes at pre Ar A sent to billing h came into average While it was a strong process and the provid ers did answer the questions, it caused a spike the amount of time it took to get the health record the department once every 20 to 25 days. In some coded and billed, as providers usually cases, providers would leave the coding que turnaround time for a coding query was 28 days. The hospital needed to accelerate the query pro cess and reduce the physicians' frustrations with o Real-World Case 6.2 Amedium-sized hospital had been using an electronic health record (EHR) for 12 months It was having great success in getting the provid- ers to document within a timely fashion; however, many of the notes did not provide enough in- formation to code the record or key components to adequately code diagnoses and procedures were missing. The hospital had a process for physician query, as follows: ries unanswered for up to 60 days. The Electronically flag the record for physician query Create a paper query form for the provider Send the electronic query to the HIM having to come to the HIM department operations department to put in a physician New functionality within the EHR was used completion folder to send an electronic query that automatically HIM operations adds a deficiency to the assigned the deficiency and sent a note to the patient health record to flag the provider provider's inbox alerting them that there was a that a coding query needs to be completed coding query. The new process had fewer steps The provider comes to the HIM department and involved fewer people; however, the physi- to complete the query cians were concerned that the additional time re- quired to learn the new process and system was The deficiency is removed, and the query is scanned into the health record impacting time spent with their patients. With careful training and education, the new process HIM operations notifies the coder via e-mail that the query was answered was implemented and reduced the steps, which made the physician query process easier for coding HIM operations, and the providers. The following Electronically flag the record for physician Create the electronic physician query assign the correct physician (this would automatically assign the deficiency and send the process steps: electronically submitted to the physician and retained and the health record then automatically flagged to complete coding The health record is coded and sent to billing . query through predesigned templates and the coding query to the inbox) The physician electronically completes the coding query through the EHR The electronic deficiency is automatically removed, and the coding query is With the change in the process, the HIM opera- tions department has little involvement unless it is supporting the physician in completing the query. The turnaround time for completion of cod- ing queries was reduced from 28 days to 15 days within the first 60 days of completion. The process was a success and the hospital has significantly reduced the time it takes to code and bill all patient encounters. nafarences lournal of AHIMA 1. 2. Examine the use of the electronic-based query and identify positive impacts that it made on the healthcare organization. Critique their strategy for addressing documentation issues. Recommend something else that the healthcare organization could do to improve the query process. 3