AHIMA World Congress Releases Case Study Showing Value of CDI to Hospitals

Through AWC Organizational Membership Program, Al Ain Hospital Projects Additional Annual Revenue of $4 to $7.5 Million USD

AHIMA World Congress (AWC) released a case study outlining its work over the past eight months with Al Ain Hospital in the UAE to improve the quality of the hospital's clinical documentation.

The case study illustrates how Al Ain's implementation of AHIMA Best Practices for clinical documentation improvement through AWC Organizational Membership (OM) has resulted in a projected additional annual revenue of between $4 to $7.5 million USD (approximately ~14.7 to 27.5 million AED) for the hospital.

"AHIMA Best Practices for Quality Clinical Documentation Has Positive Impact on Reimbursement Revenue and LOS at Al Ain Hospital in UAE," provides the methodology AWC used to assess the hospital's level of clinical documentation; perform a customized Gap Analysis; conduct training of Al Ain leaders, stakeholders, and internal trainers; develop a sustainability plan; and to recognize Al Ain with a "Trained by AHIMA" Seal of Excellence to differentiate the hospital in its marketplace.

Al Ain, a state-of-the-art, 402-bed acute care and emergency hospital is a major health care provider in the region, serving nearly 400,000 patients annually. When the hospital joined the AWC OM program in May 2018, Humaid Mansouri, CEO, said, "I'd learned that accurate and complete clinical documentation is imperative to high-quality patient care, improved physician engagement and increased reimbursement revenue. Because I believe in this so strongly, Al Ain Hospital became the region's first AWC OM."

AWC kicked off the three-year program at Al Ain Hospital in June 2018. The program includes the following three phases:

• Design, Review and Analysis (June 2018 to July 2018);
• Training of Core Implementation Team, Training of Trainers (ToT) and Sustainability Support (July 2018 to October 2018); and
• ToT Support and Maintenance (October 2018 to May 2019), then membership repeats years 2 and 3.

Last October, upon completion of AWC's customized Gap Analysis and training of Al Ain staff, Mansouri stated, "With the first step of our membership now complete, we are well on our way to making major improvements in quality patient care and the revenue cycle. The results so far have been both eye opening and groundbreaking!"

— Source: AHIMA World Congress