$112,551 Clinical Documentation Specialist – Level I

Elmhurst Hospital Center (EHC) is the major tertiary care provider in the borough of Queens. The hospital is comprised of 545 beds and is a Level I Trauma Center, an Emergency Heart Care Station and a 911 Receiving Hospital. It is the premiere health care organization for key areas such as Surgery, Cardiology, Women’s Health, Pediatrics, Rehabilitation Medicine, Renal and Mental Health Services.

At NYC Health + Hospitals, our mission is to deliver high quality care health services, without exception. Every employee takes a person-centered approach that exemplifies the ICARE values (Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence) through empathic communication and partnerships between all persons.

8:00 A.M – 4:00 P.M

Under the direction of the Director of Clinical Documentation, Director of Health Information Management or a designee for revenue management and recovery, facilitates and obtains appropriate physician documentation for clinical conditions or procedures to support the appropriate severity of Illness, expected risk of mortality, and complexity of patient care and to optimize reimbursement, ensuring patientcentered quality care, optimal utilization of resources, service delivery and compliance with NYC Health + Hospitals, hospital, and all relevant regulatory policies, procedures, and standards of care for better outcomes and improved patient experience. Demonstrates effective communication, planning, and organizational skills and keeps current knowledge in the clinical documentation field and of all applicable regulations. There are two (2) Assignment Levels within this class of positions; all personnel perform related work and may perform tasks remotely, as authorized

Assignment Level I

Under supervision, performs assigned duties related to reviewing, reporting, processing and quality assurance of clinical documentation. The following are typical tasks for Assignment Level I:

1. Facilitates improvement in the overall quality, completeness, accuracy, specificity and timeliness of physician clinical record documentation through extensive medical record review, query process, and effective communication with appropriate clinical and coding staff, and by utilizing computer programs and systems.

2. Obtains appropriate physician documentation for clinical conditions or procedures through extensive on-going interaction with physicians, other patient caregivers, and medical records coding staff to ensure the clinical documentation properly captures information describing patients’ acuity, severity of illness, and risk of mortality. Reflects the level of service delivered to patients is appropriate, complete, and accurate and supports appropriate reimbursement for the level of service rendered to all patients.

3. Completes concurrent and retrospective reviews of patient records for a specified patient population to evaluate documentation to assign the principal diagnosis, pertinent secondary diagnoses, postadmission complications and procedures for accurate Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) assignment and Case Mix Index (CMI), risk of mortality, and severity of illness.

4. Queries physicians for incomplete, inconsistent, unclear or conflicting health record documentation to clarify and resolve conflicting information in patient’s medical record prior to patient’s discharge; maintains a record of review and query activities and other appropriate records.

5. Provides feedback and completes follow-up review of patient medical record, to ensure points of clarification have been addressed and recorded in the patient’s chart, and to assign a working/updated or final DRG upon patient discharge and before final coding and quality reporting submissions, as necessary.

6. Identifies and reports areas of weakness that may impact financial opportunities, and works with Finance or other appropriate staff in resolution of problems.

7. Participates in the analysis and trending of statistical data for specified patient populations to identify opportunities for improvement.

8. Assists with preparation and presentation of clinical documentation monitoring/trending reports for review with physicians and hospital leadership.

9. Assists in the orientation and training of new staff members, and provides continual guidance and mentoring, as required.

10. Educates providers on proper clinical documentation and coding guidelines and practices, and compliance and reimbursement issues on an ongoing basis. Advises on the impact of provider documentation on accurate reporting of a patient’s clinical information and reimbursement.

11. Attends and/or participates in staff, departmental and interdisciplinary meetings, LEAN efficiency/ process improvement events, training and quality assurance/performance improvement (QA/PI) activities.

12. Performs other related work, as assigned.

For Appointment to Assignment Level I:

1. Valid New York State license and current registration to practice as a Registered Professional Nurse (RN) issued by the New York State Education Department (NYSED); and Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from an accredited college or university; and four (4) years of acute care experience; or

2. Valid New York State license and current registration to practice as a Nurse Practitioner (NP) issued by the NYSED; and two (2) years of experience, as described in “1” above; or

3. Valid New York State license and current registration to practice as a Physician Assistant (PA) issued by the NYSED; and two (2) years of experience, as described in “1” above; or

4. Foreign Medical Graduate; and, two (2) years of medical records review or utilization and case management experience; or 5. Successful completion of education that leads to a medical degree; and two (2) years of experience, as described in “4” above.

If you wish to apply for this position, please apply online at employment.nychhc.org.

NYC Health and Hospitals offers a competitive benefits package that includes:

• Comprehensive Health Benefits for employees hired to work 20+ hrs. per week
• Retirement Savings and Pension Plans
• Loan Forgiveness Programs for eligible employees
• Paid Holidays and Vacation in accordance with employees’ Collectively bargained contracts
• College tuition discounts and professional development opportunities
• Multiple employee discounts programs