Optimizing Neuroscience Mortality: A Collaborative Approach to Documentation Improvement.

Background and objectives: Mortality index is the ratio of observed-to-expected mortality. Accurate and thorough documentation of patient comorbidities and conditions is the key determinant of neuroscience expected mortality. In this study, we focused on reviewing neuroscience documentation, as optimizing mortality index provides accurate assessment of the quality of care provided, improves service-line rankings, and affects reimbursement.

Methods: We assembled an interprofessional team of a neurologist and clinical documentation integrity (CDI) specialists to review clinical documentation of all mortalities from the neuroscience service lines at a tertiary academic medical center over 9 months. We identified common documentation opportunities among high acuity neuroscience patients to improve accuracy of expected mortality. Using the mortality risk adjustment method from Vizient Inc., we compared baseline and postreview expected mortality.

Results: We reviewed 70 mortality charts over a 9-month period. Opportunities to improve documentation were present in 60%. Common underreported comorbidities included aspiration pneumonia, shock, encephalopathy, thrombocytopenia, hemorrhagic disorder due to anticoagulation, and nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage. The number of diagnoses identified per patient that affected mortality increased between the first and last quarter from 4.3 to 7.8 (p < 0.0001). Physician-identified additional diagnoses per patient decreased from 1.0 to 0.3 (p = 0.0037), as CDI specialists had increased capture of neuroscience specific diagnoses throughout the intervention. The average expected mortality significantly increased from baseline 0.33 to 0.42 (p < 0.0001).

Discussion: Collaboration between physicians and CDI specialists optimizes expected mortality by identification of common gaps in documentation specific to neuroscience patients. Neurologist engagement is beneficial in CDI and lays the framework for clinical documentation education for neurology physicians.