The activity

Production versus productivity: What is the difference?

Production is the process in which resources are converted into products or services.

Productivity is a measurement between the outputs of a process to the input of resources. Productivity is usually expressed as the ratio of output divided by input.

For medical coding, productivity is the number of records processed per day by one person.

What is a standard?

A standard is rule or guideline that provides details on expectations relating to achievement of a specific action or condition. Criteria are listed related to a product or a service that is measured and compared to a benchmark. Many standards are created for application and used within a company for analysis and evaluative purposes. Standards may be used voluntarily or on a mandatory basis as determined by company policy, national or international regulations or as stated in specific laws. Below is an example of a daily productivity standard for medical coding as recommended by the American Health Information Management Association $($AHIMA$).$

Do the math! What is the mean$/$average$?$

The mean is the average of the numbers and is easy to calculate: add up all the numbers, then divide by how many numbers there are. In other words, it is the sum divided by the count.

Keep the criteria below in mind when working with calculations:

$60$ minutes in an hour

$7\mathrm{.}5$ hours or $450$ minutes in one work day

o $(60$minutes x $7\mathrm{.}5$ hours $=450$ min$/$day$)$

$5$ work days in one week

$37\mathrm{.}5$ hours in one work week

In this activity, you will be the Health Information Manager and Coding Supervisor responsible for examining the coders in your hospital to determine if they are meeting the given standard set by the hospital policy. You will use data and reports that have been already extracted from the EHR.

Responsibilities of the Health Information Manager and Coding Supervisors

a$.$ Monitoring, at a minimum on a quarterly basis, the accuracy and productivity of the coding staff.

b$.$ Monitoring the accuracy of the coding staff using an appropriate sample size as determined by the policy and standard of the hospital. More frequent reviews may be required for coders that continue to have high error rates in their coding.

c$.$ Provide education opportunities on coding and documentation updates as needed or required based on data findings.

d$.$ Establish policies, standards and procedures related to all coding activities.

e$.$ Recruit, hire and retain experienced qualified coding personnel.

f$.$ Assess and address productivity levels, educational needs and knowledge deficits to each member of the coding staff at a minimum on a quarterly basis.

g$.$ Develop and maintain a documentation process for each employee on staff.