Discover how a large healthcare provider was able to decrease lost anesthesia drug charges by 40% and improve patient safety through improved Anesthesia management

1. Case Study
Community Health Network Decreases
Lost Drug Charges by 40% with
Anesthesia Management Solution
At a Glance Indiana’s Community Health Manager™, improvements began.
Organization Network ranks among the nation’s During patient assessment, a
top 20 integrated healthcare preoperative nurse completes a
Community Health Network
Indianapolis, Ind. networks. Faced with declining comprehensive checklist with the
revenue, Community Health patient, entering physical history
– 5 hospitals Network sought to boost finances in the surgery system, which is
– 12 surgery centers while building an electronic integrated with the anesthesia
– 1,442 beds medical record. management solution.
– 43 OR suites
After implementation of McKesson McKesson Anesthesia Care populates
– 106,336 surgical visits/year Anesthesia Care™, McKesson’s the corresponding ICD-9 codes
Indiana Surgery Center comprehensive anesthesia and specifies comorbid conditions
Noblesville, Ind. management system, Indiana requiring a higher level of care. The
– 3,100 surgeries/year Surgery Center increased comorbid system also registers ASA modifiers,
documentation, reduced claim such as BMI and age extremes. The
Solution Spotlight rejections and decreased lost provider can accept or reject these
anesthesia charges by 40%. codes before sending data to the
– Horizon Surgical Manager™
billing system.
– McKesson Anesthesia Care™ Challenge
Indiana Surgery Center’s manual “ICD-9 codes assigned at bedside
Critical Issues allow us to assign a diagnosis-related
drug capture process needed
– Lost revenue due to manual improvement. As drugs were group (DRG). As the patient’s acuity
anesthesia drug capture process dispensed, the anesthesiologist rises, the DRG assignment changes. By
– Time-consuming anesthesia noted the dosage on both the accurately capturing ICD-9 codes, we
coding process missed comorbid patient’s record and a separate gain the maximum reimbursement,”
conditions drug charge sheet for pharmacy. says Dr. Gregory Bray, medical
The drug was never charged for if director, chief of anesthesia, Indiana
– Returned patient claims required
additional documentation for the second step was omitted. Surgery Center.
billing
Before implementing McKesson Since the anesthesia management
– Lack of drug contraindications
Anesthesia Care, 4% of the solution is integrated with both
alerts and awareness
Center’s first claim submittals nursing preoperative and PACU
were returned due to incomplete documentation, anesthesiologists
Results arrive well-prepared. “I review the
documentation, requiring hours
– Improved patient safety through next patient’s record before leaving
of record validation. While this
ADE prevention and automated the current bedside, decreasing
vital sign capture figure was lower than the national
average – at 19%, anesthesia time between cases,” explains Dr.
– Streamlined pre-anesthesia charges have the highest rejection Bray. “I no longer repeat the nurse’s
evaluation process questions, because I’ve already
rate – Indiana Surgery Center
– Decreased lost anesthesia drug wanted to eliminate rejected reviewed the patient’s history.”
charges by 40% claims.
– Increased revenue from greater Anesthesiologists now scan all
detection of ASA modifiers and Answers medications prior to delivery,
comorbid conditions recording the drug type and dosage
After implementing McKesson’s amount. McKesson Anesthesia Care
– Increased reimbursement through surgical system, Horizon Surgical
accurate ICD-9 code capture

2. Case Study
”Since I left residency, I haven’t helps caregivers avoid adverse drug each account, those losses significantly
events with a qualified cross-reference affected our bottom line. Now, we
seen a device that can help process for dispensed medications, know we’re receiving maximum
a provider impact patient including formulary reference for revenue,” says Dr. Bray.
allergies and medications.
safety as much as McKesson By establishing an automated record
”We’re very pleased with the for anesthesia, the Center has virtually
Anesthesia Care.” real-time, stop-check analysis of eliminated claim rejections, leading to
meds,” says Dr. Bray. “Before, faster revenue recognition. Previously,
we’d only realize medications were 4% of all patient claims were returned
Dr. Gregory Bray contraindicated after the patient due to discrepancies. That figure has
had problems. McKesson Anesthesia dropped dramatically: in the first year,
Medical Director, Chief of Care processes the intricate details only two claims were returned.
Anesthesia, Community Health of multiple drugs interacting
together — giving us a patient safety “Our billing agents need less time
Network, Indiana Surgery feature we didn’t previously have.” to process claims, because they
This documentation of medication don’t have to touch them multiple
Center reconciliation helps Indiana Surgery times,” notes Dr. Bray. “The surgeon
Center meet regulatory body types the procedure description into
requirements. Drug delivery details Horizon Surgical Manager, and that
are sent directly to their clinical first-hand account is received by the
documentation and billing services billing service. McKesson Anesthesia
department. Care captures actual surgery start and
stop times – everything we need to
With the automatic capture of vital withstand an audit.”
signs from physiological monitors,
McKesson Anesthesia Care frees With automated coding,
anesthesiologists from recording data anesthesiologists can review their
by hand — allowing more time for procedure notes and quickly assign
patient care. “Since I left residency, I CPT codes. By integrating comorbid
haven’t seen a device that can help coding into the assessment phase,
a provider impact patient safety as McKesson Anesthesia Care increased
much as McKesson Anesthesia Care,” the Center’s comorbid documentation
notes Dr. Bray. by 2% over three years.
Results “I don’t mess with paperwork any
Electronic anesthesia documentation more,” says Dr. Bray. “I can focus
and streamlined medication on the patient. All I do now is sign
management have greatly improved my standing orders.” With Indiana
drug charge capture. Three years Surgery Center experiencing such
after implementation, Indiana Surgery success, Community Health Network
Center realized a 40% decrease in lost looks forward to rolling out the
anesthesia drug charges. “Because complete integrated anesthesia
we’re reimbursed a percentage for system across the enterprise.
McKesson Provider Technologies
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