COMPLETION RATE OF THE MEDICAL RECORDING: PROBLEMS AND MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT

의무기록정리율의 문제점과 개선책

As the first step to improve the medical recording for the hospitalized patients, we tried to identify problems of completion rate of the medical recording and made the completion rate of the medical recording within due date known to the public in the hospital and commended the best Department and resident officially. The results were as follows: 1. The average number of the medical recordings per a recorder by years of residency(average number to quorum) was 293.3(398.8) in 1st year, 82.5(68.1) in 2nd year, 21.2(8.3) in 3rd year, and 20.5(1.9) in 4th year-residents. There was only 2 residents who prepared the medical recordings more than the average of 125.6 recordings per a resident. 2. Among 13 Departments, the medical recording was wholly put in charge of the 1st year-resident in 6 Departments. The duty was shared with the 2nd year-resident in 5 Departments and the 3rd year-resident in 1 and the 4th year-resident in Only 1 Department. 3. The more the cases requiring the medical recording, the lower the completion rate(80% less than 100 recordings, 70% in 100-299, 60% in 300-399 and 33.3% in more than 400). 4. There was no difference in the completion rate of the medical recording before(1991) and after(1993) a public nitice(1992). However, 4 Departments showed improvement of 21-45% in the completion rate, and no case was found where billing for medical assurance was postponed due to delayed completion of the medical recording. 5. The completion rate was relatively low(72-78%) from January to March. The main reasons were shortage of men power due to preparation of board examination, attendance to military duty, and lack of training in the medical recording for the new 1st year-residents. 6. The official commendation of the best Department and resident by letters did not improve the completion rate of the medical recording. In conclusion, The main reason of the low completion rate of the medical recording was the fact that the 1st year-residents were almost exclusively responsible for the medical recording. Hence, it is mandotory that this practice gets staffs' attention to improve the completion rate. Public notice of the completion rate of the medical recording shows prompt improvement of the completion rate. Prize money rather than commendation by a letter for the best Department would also be more effective to improve the quality of medical recording.