What makes for a successful future focus on Covid-19? A Clinically knowledgeable, Quality measurement, interdisciplinary approach. Future thinking requires us to evaluate our capacity as interdisciplinary teams as we leverage the RAI to provide care (RAI – MDS, CAAs, Care Planning), get paid appropriately (PDPM) and achieve desired outcomes (Quality Measurement).
For this reason, we have updated Documentation Navigator™. For those of you that use this product you may have noticed that we have added a Covid-19 Risk Flag. When it flags you will see it show up in the conditions list as well as each of the NSG, SLP and NTA comorbidity tabs, (see example below). CMS recently updated the PDPM Clinical mapping to include U07.1 – 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease. While this diagnosis now maps to the Pulmonary category for PT, OT and SLP, it does not in and of itself represent any additional reimbursement related to SLP, NSG, or NTA comorbidities.
The primary reason we have added “Covid-19 Risk” is to flag residents who due to their comorbidities have been shown to be at greater risk for poor outcomes if they contract Covid-19. Current research has identified a variety of comorbidities that create this high risk situation. Research from a group of 5700 Covid-19 positive patients in a hospital system in New York indicated that the highest percentage of residents requiring hospitalization had the following comorbidities, Hypertension (56.6%), Obesity (41.7%) and Diabetes (33.8%).
The CDC has also indicated that persons with the following comorbidities are also at higher risk for complications related to Covid-19 Asthma; Chronic lung disease, Diabetes, Serious heart conditions, Chronic kidney disease being treated with dialysis, Severe obesity, People aged 65 years and older, People in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, immuno-compromised, Liver disease.
During the Covid-19 emergency, it is critical for interdisciplinary teams to be acutely aware of these findings and apply care pathways that will address mitigating the risk of these types of residents for contracting Covid-19. Managing these resident’s care with an eye to their increased risk for poor outcomes will be essential to ensure a positive result.
This new flag has been added to Documentation Navigator™ to create an atmosphere of alert from the time of admission related to these high-risk patients. Through a variety of condition and medication triggers that have been added, “Covid-19 Risk” will flag for the related to the above noted comorbidity list. As more research becomes available, we will update Documentation Navigator™ to reflect the most current comorbidities that place our unique resident population at higher risk for negative outcomes related to Covid-19.
As always, it is Broad River Rehab’s desire to do the right thing. From always providing quality rehab services to those we serve, to providing PPE to our staff and other in need, to providing tools that help providers leverage the value of PDPM. This update is one way we are helping to form critical partnerships with our customers so that we will all be able to provide the right care at the right time.
