6 OHN Clinicians Recognized for Excellence
We are proud to present the Circle of Excellence Award winners for May and June 2024. Our Circle of Excellence Awards are given monthly to one advanced practice provider (APP), one primary care physician, and one specialist. Nominated by their Clinical Documentation Excellence educator, these clinicians have embraced the clinical documentation excellence journey and help champion the importance of the program to colleagues. Along with recognition in this newsletter, winners also receive a Clinical Documentation Excellence Circle of Excellence lapel pin, an Ochsner Ovation for Excellence from Clinical Documentation Excellence leadership, and acknowledgment on our Clinical Documentation Excellence SharePoint site.
Our May 2024 recipients are:
Pernell Simon, MD, Primary Care
Dr. Simon is a Medical Director at Ochsner Lafayette General and was nominated by his Clinical Documentation Excellence Nurse, Jessica Glaspell. Dr. Simon began the Ambulatory Clinical Documentation Excellence Focus Program back in June 2023. From her first encounter with Dr. Simon, it was evident that he encompasses all Ochsner’s core values and more. He shows his patients compassion and care by always putting them first and ensuring each patient plays an active role in their medical decision-making and thoroughly understands their medical condition and treatment. He continuously demonstrates excellence in his impeccable documentation. He is also very open-minded and engaged during Zoom sessions, asking questions, and ensuring he understands the processes, Epic tools, guidelines dictating appropriate documentation and CMS guidelines. Dr. Simon finished 2023 with an HCC Reconciliation Rate of 94.53%, more than eight percentage points above his goal, and a Clinical Documentation Excellence Encounter Action Rate of 62.27%, more than 20 percentage points above his goal. Recently, during the Phase 3 session of the Ambulatory Focus Program, he mentioned that he is not where he wants to be with his KPIs at this time, and that is due to seeing more acute patients. He also mentioned that, during those visits, he reviewed the BPAs to see if there were any conditions that he could incorporate in the acute visit. If not, he ensured the patient had an upcoming wellness visit so he could address those chronic conditions. He continuously monitors his progress by viewing his HCC Reconciliation Rate and is always conscious of where he stands. Dr. Simon is a great example of the many wonderful clinicians we have in the Ochsner Lafayette region and a true partner in our Clinical Documentation Excellence journey.
Lingling Du, MD, Hematology/Oncology
Dr. Du is a senior physician for the Hematology/Oncology department at Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center, and was nominated by her Clinical Documentation Excellence Nurse, Lisa Schmidt. Dr. Du conducts a high-volume clinic specializing in GI and neuroendocrine malignancies and has shown recent success with increases in KPIs and overall performance. As evidenced by her recent KPIs, Dr. Du has consistently been receptive to Clinical Documentation Excellence education and has incorporated the available tools into her workflow. Her BPA Action Rate increased from 14.19% (year-end 2023) to 43.67% (year to date), resulting in a Clinical Documentation Excellence Encounter Action Rate growth from 30.53% (year-end 2023) to 70.25% (year to date). We appreciate Dr. Du’s openness and dedication toward Clinical Documentation Excellence’s initiatives and thank her tremendously for her willingness to work with us and to implement shared best practices from across the organization. She is a true upcoming champion for Clinical Documentation Excellence and the Hematology Oncology service line.
Sarah Rosenbloom, NP
Sarah is an advanced practice provider in Nephrology at Ochsner Health in New Orleans and was nominated by her Clinical Documentation Excellence Specialty Nurse, Brianna Savoie. Sarah is noted as constantly striving to do better and having an eagerness to learn. She is always engaged in the educational sessions and is extremely pleasant in all interactions. Sarah understands that any process she helps to improve will also be helpful for the other APPs in Nephrology. She recently identified some duplication within the extended dataset from the Clinical Documentation Excellence Epic Tools Dashboard and reached out to her Clinical Documentation Excellence Nurse during clinic with a couple of questions regarding the Best Practice Advisory. The duplications seen on the dataset were subsequently corrected, which improved the efficacy of this form for teaching purposes, not only for her and for specialty teaching, but for all clinicians. Her 2023 year-end Best Practice Advisory Action Rate was 14.49% and her Encounter Action Rate was 55.84%. At the end of Q1 2024, her Best Practice Advisory Action Rate was 71.58% and her Encounter Action Rate was 90%. Even with her improvement in personal metrics from 2023 to 2024, she is still striving to improve and strives to achieve 100% as her Encounter Action Rate. She understands the importance of taking care of her patients as a first priority, but she also understands the purpose of having the Best Practice Advisory tool available to clinicians, and the importance of appropriate documentation to meet CMS requirements. Sarah is a great example of the caring providers that our patients seek out for their compassion and professionalism.
Our June recipients are:
Matthew Mann, MD, Primary Care
Dr. Mann is a senior physician at Ochsner Center for Primary Care and Wellness – Main Campus, and he was nominated by his former Clinical Documentation Excellence nurse, Lauren Tallo. Dr. Mann has been a strong Clinical Documentation Excellence performer for the past few years and has always been a pleasure to work with in the Clinical Documentation Excellence Focused Review and Education program. While he had some initial hesitations with the Focus Program, by late 2023, Dr. Mann was fully engaged in the process and routinely submitted questions to the Clinical Documentation Excellence Nurse as well as highlighted discrepancies within the system that the Clinical Documentation Excellence Team could improve upon regarding clinician experience. Furthermore, Dr. Mann consistently provides MEAT (Monitor, Evaluate, Assess, Treat) within his documentation and is very interactive with the Clinical Documentation Excellence Tableau Dashboards. Dr. Mann finished 2023 with over a 95% HCC Reconciliation Rate, nine points above his goal and three points above the system average, and an Encounter Action Rate of nearly 70%, more than 25 points above goal! His success has continued in 2024 with an HCC Reconciliation Rate of 75% through May, which is a full point above the system average and well ahead of pace to hit his 90% 2024 goal. We are proud to have Dr. Mann as a strong partner with Clinical Documentation Excellence in the Primary Care space and congratulate him for all his hard work and dedication to excellence.
Mary Nguyen, MD, Neurology
Dr. Nguyen is a neurologist at Ochsner Health Center – West Bank and was nominated by her CDE Specialty Nurse, Lauren Tallo. We began working with Dr. Nguyen in the second half of 2023 and completed a few sessions throughout the remainder of the year. The breakthrough for Dr. Nguyen occurred during the year-end Clinical Documentation Excellence Neurology Opportunities Group Session, which was designed to provide a platform to voice concerns or ask for clarifications about the expectations of the program. Dr. Nguyen seized that opportunity, becoming much more engaged in the program and asking pertinent and important questions to set her up for success in 2024. Not only did Dr. Nguyen dedicate herself to improvement, but the results followed as she went from a key opportunity clinician to a Top 5 Performer within her service line! Dr. Nguyen is noted as always being upbeat, exhibiting a positive attitude regarding education, and being eager to learn the information provided. This has resulted in Dr. Nguyen improving her Encounter Action Rate from under 23% at year-end 2023 to above 87% through May of 2024, more than 35 points above goal, and a Best Practice Advisory Action Rate above 70%, all while also being within the Top 5 in her service line on the number of alerts presented. We appreciate Dr. Nguyen for her hard work and dedication to support Clinical Documentation Excellence.
Ashley Labat, NP
Ashley is a nurse practitioner for the Gastroenterology Department at Ochsner Medical Center – New Orleans (Main Campus) and was nominated by her Clinical Documentation Excellence Specialty Nurse, Rebecca Guidry. Our education with Ashley began during the Clinical Documentation Excellence GI introductory education of the Specialty Provider Evaluation, Education, and Development (SPEED) Program in mid third quarter of 2023. While Ashley was very engaged and receptive to the initial Clinical Documentation Excellence education, the impact it had on her Encounter Action Rate for 2023 did not materialize, as she ended 2023 with an Encounter Action Rate below 5%. Ashley dedicated her efforts to improving this measure in 2024, and when our nurse met again with Ashley in May 2024 for the first round of SPEED education, her Encounter Action Rate was 92.86%! This was evidence that she was implementing all the Clinical Documentation Excellence education and utilizing the Best Practice Advisory in her daily workflow. Ashley continues to keep an open mind and drives excellence that aligns with Ochsner's values to consistently improve her documentation excellence and patient outcomes. We are excited to have Ashley as a strong advocate for Clinical Documentation Excellence for APPs and the Gastroenterology department.