6 Clinicians Recognized for Outstanding Documentation Efforts
We are proud to present the Circle of Excellence Award winners for March and April 2024. Our Circle of Excellence Awards are given monthly to an outstanding advanced practice provider (APP), primary care physician and specialist nominated by their CDE educators. Along with the recognition here in the OHN Newsletter, these clinicians will also receive the CDE Circle of Excellence lapel pin pictured above, an Ochsner Ovation for Excellence from CDE Leadership and an acknowledgement on our CDE SharePoint site (https://ochsnerhealth.sharepoint.com/sites/OHNCDE).
Our March winners are:
Ruth Darg, M.D, Primary Care
Dr. Darg, a senior physician at Ochsner Health Center – Covington, was nominated by her CDE Nurse, Lauren Brettner, who noted that she is “dedicated, engaged and a joy to meet with.” Dr. Darg finished 2023 with an HCC Recapture Rate of 88% and an HCC Reconciliation Rate of 95%, meaning that she addressed 95% of all chronic conditions attributed to her value-based patient panel. In 2024, she has continued this success with a BPA action rate of 81%, and she has become a strong advocate for CDE in the Northshore. Dr. Darg consistently provides quality supporting documentation for her diagnoses that reflects how she has monitored, evaluated, assessed, and treated each patient. During meetings of the CDE Focus Program, Dr. Darg poses excellent questions and provides actionable feedback, and it is obvious that she cares about maintaining documentation quality.
Carter Davis, M.D, Hematology/Oncology
Dr. Davis is a senior physician in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Ochsner Medical Center – Jefferson Highway, an associate program director in the Section of Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplant, and an associate program director of the Ochsner Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program. He was nominated by Hem/Onc CDE Nurse Lisa Schmidt because he has been very receptive to ambulatory CDE education since its initiation. Dr. Davis has readily incorporated Epic tools into his daily workflow. His CDE Encounter Action Rate increased from 45.81% at the end of 2023 to 66.45% this year, to date, and he has a BPA Action Rate of 21.71%. These rates exceed the Hem/Onc specialty averages of 51.89% and 14.18%, respectively. He achieves these metrics while maintaining a large and complicated patient panel within one of the most active specialty groups at Ochsner Health.
Liz Buras, NP
Buras is a family nurse practitioner at Ochsner Health Center – Abita Springs. She was nominated by her CDE Nurse, Lauren Tallo, for being highly engaged and consistently expressing an eagerness to learn about HCCs and risk adjustment to provide better quality care to her patients. Buras began working with the CDE team in October 2022 within the CDE Focus Program, and she always asks appropriate questions to make sure she is doing things in the most accurate and compliant way. She helps educate other clinicians if questions arise in her clinic, and she regularly exceeds her metric goals. Buras ended 2023 with an HCC Reconciliation Rate of 94%, six points above the system goal of 86%. The CDE team is extremely grateful to work with her, as she makes chart reviews a breeze by capturing an accurate picture of her patients with each visit encounter, truly displaying documentation excellence.
Our April winners are:
Fayne St. John, M.D
Dr. St. John is a senior physician at Ochsner Health Center – Elmwood, and was nominated by her CDE nurse Becky Guidry, RN. Dr. St. John began the CDE Focus Program as one of the pilot clinics in early 2022. During the first session, we realized there were some technology and workflow challenges hindering her use of the BPA. Her Encounter Action Rate (EAR) at the beginning of the education sessions was 23.37%. She vowed to keep an open mind and we promised to help her with day-to-day documentation challenges of incorporating the BPA. Dr. St. John stayed positive and determined throughout the entire process, always striving for excellence. She even insisted on extra education sessions to make sure her workflow was fully incorporated into her daily use.
Upon compiling a quarterly clinician report in late 2023, Dr. St. John's EAR was over 90%! She finished the year exceeding the system reconciliation goal of 86% with a Reconciliation Rate of 92.33%. Plus, she further exceeded the system EAR goal of 42% with an EAR of 89.6%!
Chandana Keshavanmurthy, M.D
Dr. Keshavanmurthy is a senior physician for the rheumatology department at Ochsner Main Campus and was nominated by her rheumatology CDE Nurse Jessica Glaspell. She was first introduced to the specialty aspect of CDE in a group education session. Even before this group session, Dr. Chandana Keshavanmurthy had a CDE EAR of 59.78% with a BPA usage of 44.73%. At the completion of 2023, her EAR increased to 66.18% with a 54.09% BPA usage, all above the specialty average and goals. More recently, her 2024 numbers are EAR of 95.58% with a BPA usage of 79.65%. It is also a clear indication Dr. Keshavanmurthy understands the importance of addressing these chronic conditions for her and her peers’ patients as she is noted to be a champion within her department, assisting with BPA questions and documentation requirements from OMC rheumatologists. Dr. Keshavanmurthy truly exhibits the Ochsner values of compassion, excellence, and teamwork and we are honored to be partnered with her.
Mamie Keller, PA
Keller is an APP at Ochsner Health Center – River Parishes and was nominated by her CDE Nurse Lisa Ballard for her dedication and engagement with CDE. Because she is primarily focused on Enhanced Annual Wellness Visits (eAWVs), Keller asked if we could review the proper requirements for this type of encounter. We continued her APP education for a few weeks, and she was very engaged and dedicated to doing the right thing for her patients. Keller's initial EAR was 66.43% with a BPA action rate of 50.43%. Her documentation was excellent with the supporting MEAT (Monitor, Evaluate, Assess, Treat) needed for the addressed diagnoses. Just a month after beginning education, we scheduled an eAWV review and her documentation was excellent! Her EAR was above 98% in both V24 and V28 models, and she had a BPA action rate of 81% in V28 and 86% in V24. Mamie is a dedicated clinician, both with her documentation and with her patients. She is definitely a model of success for clinical documentation!