Computer Assisted Physician Documentation

It was an exciting news day today with the announcement of a Strategic partnership between Nuance and 3M. Lots of coverage and keen interest from the press and healthcare industry as evidenced by the 290,000 search results in Google by 15:30 ET. While many of the news links were picking up 3M's Press Release and Nuance's Press Release it was the interview on HISTalk that provided a detailed look into the tremendous synergies between the two companies and excitement surrounding the concept of Computer-Assisted Physician Documentation. As John Lindekugel said

In a nutshell, we’re taking 3M’s industry-leading Clinical Documentation Improvement approach, which a lot of hospitals rely on today in their HIM and documentation improvement departments, and applying all the technology that Nuance brings and its industry-leading technology to deliver that content to the point of care, to the physician.

Replacing the manual time consuming and painful follow up process today with an automated tool that provides immediate feedback to the clinician at the point of care.....as one CMO put it "that's huge!".

For clinicians CAPD's immediate feedback adds up to

• More accurate and specific documentation that is more effective in assessing and communicating the patient's condition
• Reducing the burden of disruptive follow up questions and queries for Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI) staff
• Improving the overall quality and detail of the Clinical document without excessive change in behavior or effort
• Achieving appropriate reimbursement with more accurate quality and detailed clinical reporting
• Ease the burden of the ICD10 transition

For any healthcare facility in the US CAPD means there are now automated tools to reduce the administrative burden on clinicians which will have a positive effect on clinician satisfaction and retention. More accurate information flowing through the clinical systems translates to accurate clinical risk and severity, reducing compliance risk and reducing administrative costs

All this will be on show at HIMSS next week in Orlando at 3M's Booth 3547 and Nuance's Booth 2744. If you will be at the show stop by and take a look. It will be a busy few days but there should be plenty of opportunities to talk to the folks involved in developing the solution and we are keen to get feedback from as wide arrange of stakeholders as possible.